In a post in Hindi on X, Mayawati urged party workers to remain vigilant against what she claimed were attempts by other political parties, especially the Congress, to use Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram’s name and weaken the BSP.
“The Congress never gave due honour to Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar — the messiah of Dalits and the principal architect of the Constitution — nor did they ever confer upon him the title of Bharat Ratna… How can the same party now honour Kanshi Ram,” she said in her post.
Her remarks came a day after a proposal was passed at a ‘Samvidhan Sammelan’ organised by the Congress in Lucknow, stating that the party would confer the Bharat Ratna on Kanshi Ram if voted to power.
Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary will be observed on Sunday.
“This Congress party, while in power at the Centre, failed to declare even a single day of national mourning upon the passing of Kanshi Ram.
“Similarly, the then-ruling Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh also did not announce state mourning,” Mayawati said.She claimed that several organisations and political parties claiming to represent the Dalit community — often acting as pawns in the hands of bigger political parties — are constantly engaged in using Kanshi Ram’s name for political gains while trying to weaken the BSP.
“Currently, all these parties are employing various tactics to undermine and weaken the BSP. Therefore, his (Kanshi Ram) followers and supporters must remain alert, especially against the Congress, whose anti-Dalit ideology and mindset made it necessary to form the BSP,” she said.
The BSP supremo also appealed to party workers to ensure the success of programmes organised across the country, particularly Uttar Pradesh, on March 15 to mark Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had on Friday said that if Jawaharlal Nehru had been alive, Kanshi Ram would have been made a chief minister from the Congress.
Nehru, India’s first prime minister, died in 1964, while Kanshi Ram emerged on the political scene with the formation of backwards-championing BAMCEF in 1978, and later bolstered his position with the formation of the BSP in 1984.
Speaking at the Samvidhan Sammelan, the Congress leader asserted that Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram never compromised on their principles.
“The path on which we were moving, we should have moved at a faster pace. There have been shortcomings on the part of the Congress party,” the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
He said that had the Congress done its job, Kanshi Ram “would not have been successful”.
He added, “If Jawaharlal Nehru were alive, then Kanshi Ram would have been a chief minister from the Congress.”
Later, Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi said that after Gandhi’s speech, a proposal was passed that the Congress would honour Kanshi Ram with the Bharat Ratna if voted to power.
In a statement on Saturday, Mayawati said, “It has become a new opportunistic fashion among rival parties, particularly the Congress and the SP, to invoke Kanshi Ram ii solely for narrow political ends and electoral self-interest.”
The BSP chief said that from the time of the country’s independence to the present day, the ‘Bahujan Samaj’ has repeatedly tested parties such as the Congress, BJP and SP, but has met with “bitter disappointment, because these parties have been changing their colours just like a chameleon”.
Issuing a word of caution to BSP supporters, she said, “Listen to everyone, but under no circumstances allow your unity and the power of your votes to fall into the hands of these traders of votes. This alone constitutes a true tribute to the lifelong struggles of Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram ii.”
