Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati said on Sunday that Samajwadi Party‘s “casteist and political hatred” towards BSP is growing because Muslims and Brahmins are getting closer to the BSP.After paying tribute to BSP founder Kanshi Ram on his 93rd birth anniversary in Lucknow, Mayawati said that SP’s “newfound love for PDA (picchde, Dalit, alpsankhyak) is a farce”.“SP exploited Dalits, OBCs and Muslims. Why do they (SP people) remember ‘bahujans’ and their icons only during elections? They neglect ‘bahujans’ as soon as they form govt,” Mayawati said.The BSP chief demanded that the BJP-led NDA govt at the Centre should confer Bharat Ratna on Kanshi Ram “because he lives in the hearts of people for establishing an egalitarian society in accordance with the Constitution”.“The BJP govt should not act like Congress which, when in power at the Centre, did not award Bharat Ratna to Dr Ambedkar,” she said.Congress MP and the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday demanding Bharat Ratna for Kanshi Ram.He said that during the Congress’s Samvidhan Sammelan in Lucknow on Friday, many conveyed this wish to him.Mayawati had, on Saturday, attacked the Congress terming such events as “opportunistic”.During the BSP event on Sunday, Mayawati said that SP could be detrimental to Kanshi Ram’s mission and recounted how Kanshi Ram worked tirelessly to unite ‘bahujans’, who were fragmented into many smaller caste groups, into a political force.“Kanshi Ram ji not only formed the BSP govt in the state as significant and large as UP but also made me the chief minister,” she said.She also criticised the SP for changing the names of universities, medical institutions and districts named by her govt after Kanshi Ram to uphold his legacy.“Congress, SP and BJP exist only in name for ‘bahujans’. This is no allegation but history. There is a huge difference between what they preach and what they practice. That is why ‘bahujans’ are now drifting away from them,” Mayawati claimed.She reiterated her resolve to strengthen BSP’s movement for social change and economic freedom and achieve electoral success.She urged people to connect with BSP’s movement to become honest and true Ambedkarite, and to get the “master key to power” so that the constitutional rights given to ‘bahujans’ could be implemented on the ground.“BSP is the only party which is treading the path shown by Babasaheb. The party is committed to ensuring development and welfare of the ‘bahujan samaj’,” she said.
