By IANS,
Lucknow : Thumbing a nose at political opponents and others, a defiant Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said she would “not buckle under pressure” and continue to set up parks and memorials to commemorate Dalit icons.
“We have been constructing parks and memorials in the names of important Dalit and OBC (Other Backward Classes) personalities to give due respect to them,” Mayawati told a gathering on Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar’s birth anniversary.
“It’s just the lackadaisical approach of the Congress party and other political opponents towards Dalit and OBC personalities that prompted BSP to take up construction of parks, memorials and statues in their remembrance. Come what way we will not buckle under pressure and continue to take up such projects,” she added.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief has been in the national spotlight for spending thousands of crores to set up memorials and statues dedicated to Dalit leaders including herself.
Accusing the Congress-led central government of ignoring Dalits, Mayawati said: “The Congress party’s anti-Dalit mindset can be gauged from the fact that even after ruling at the centre for nearly 50 years, the party not even once advocated conferring the Bharat Ratna upon B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian constitution.
“Likewise, the Congress never did anything substantial while it ruled the state (Uttar Pradesh) for nearly 38 years. This all reflects that the Congress actually has never bothered to take up issues related to Dalits or OBCs,” she said at a function at the Ambedkar Memorial.
Reiterating her party’s opposition to the women’s reservation bill, Mayawati said it was anti-Dalit and would not help women from poorer sections of society.
“We are against the women’s reservation bill in its present form as it will not help poor women irrespective of their community,” she said, calling upon BSP workers to participate in Tuesday’s nationwide protests against the bill. The bill reserves a third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
“The agitation is important for us. I will personally inspect the demonstrations in some districts of Uttar Pradesh,” said Mayawati, who soon left on a chopper for inspecting the demonstrations.