Mayawati questions Cong’s ‘new love’ for Kanshi Ram

The fight for the Dalit vote in Uttar Pradesh took a fresh turn on Saturday as BSP chief Mayawati questioned the Congress for what she described as the grand old party’s new-found love for late Dalit icon Kanshi Ram.

“As is well known, the Congress Party, during its many years in power at the Centre, never accorded due respect and honour to the messiah of Dalits and the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, the most revered Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, nor did it bestow upon him the title of ‘Bharat Ratna’. So how can this party now honour the Kanshiram with this title?” Uttar Pradesh’s first Dalit Chief Minister Mayawati asked a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in Lucknow that had Jawaharlal Nehru been alive he would have made Kanshi Ram the CM of Uttar Pradesh.

Mayawati said it was this very Congress Party, while in power at the Centre, that did not even declare a single day of national mourning upon the passing of Kanshi Ram, nor did the SP government in Uttar Pradesh at that time declare any state mourning.

“Similarly, numerous organisations and parties formed by the Dalit community, which have fallen into the hands of other parties, are always engaged in exploiting his name for their gain.

Now, all these parties are constantly employing all sorts of tactics to weaken the BSP party founded by the respected Kanshi Ram. Therefore, his followers and supporters must always remain vigilant against them,” the BSP chief warned.

She asked her supporters in the community to especially stay alert to the Congress Party.

“Due to Congress Party’s anti-Dalit mindset and mentality, the BSP had to be created in the first place,” she said of why the party was founded in the early 1980s.

The BSP has announced a series of programmes on the occasion of Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary and asked party members to ensure the success of all programmes of the party he founded.