Lucknow: BSP president Mayawati on Tuesday said Congress demanding Bharat Ratna for Kanshi Ram from another govt, when it could have done so itself while being in power at the Centre, was “ridiculous”.She lashed out at the Congress and SP and called them anti-Dalit parties who have always tried to destroy the BSP. “They celebrated Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary under a well-thought-out strategy, which was to get the votes of ‘bahujans’. This is all because assembly elections in UP are drawing near,” she added. The former UP CM added that: “BSP’s foundation was laid by Kanshi Ram in 1984. No force could shake it as long as she remained its national president and his sole political heir.” She further hit out at the two parties, saying that it seems they have no great men of their own left that they are “cashing” in on the names of “our icons”. “They always ignored Kanshi Ramji when he was alive,” she said. Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding Bharat Ratna for Kanshi Ram on his 93rd birth anniversary on March 15. On March 13, Rahul also addressed a ‘Samvidhan Sammelan’ in Lucknow to mark the birth anniversary of the BSP founder. Before that, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, on Feb 25, announced celebrating PDA Diwas in every district of UP on Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary. Mayawati has been critical of the two parties since then, calling it their “opportunistic fashion” to pay tributes to Kanshi Ram when the assembly elections are only a year away in UP. On Tuesday, she reiterated that the works done by BSP govt in Kanshi Ram’s honour were mostly undone by SP govt. “This is these parties’ dual conduct towards Kanshi Ramji. My advice to Congress, SP and their sycophants from the Dalit communities is that it will be better for them to be silent. It was to maintain distance from such people that Kanshi Ramji wrote a book in English called Chamcha Yug,” said the BSP chief.
