By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: The Bahujan Samaj Party, (BSP), which is in power in north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, has sounded warning bells to the federal Congress-led United Progressive Front, (UPA), coalition government that it was contemplating to withdraw support from it. The final decision to cut the umbilical cord with the UPA Government would be taken after the ongoing budget session of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly ends on March 10.
The above announcement was made by BSP supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ms Mayawati while addressing a mammoth ‘Sarva Jan Samaj Bhaichara Banao Maharally’ of her party workers here at Lal Parade ground on Sunday. The rally was a precursor to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections which are due at the end of this year.
Ms Mayawati alleged that the Congress is following in the footsteps of the rightist Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), and trying to make her fall in line by threatening to reopen the Taj Corridor case against her. She charged that the Opposition parties seeing the rising graph of BSP popularity which resulted in being catapulted to power in Uttar Pradesh are conspiring to put spoke in its wheel.
Ms Mayawati said ‘fake’ cases are being cooked up against her to stop her in the tracks from spreading the area of influence of BSP to other states so that her party is not able the doors of Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament).
Expressing anguish over “personal attack”, she alleged the BJP and Congress misused government machinery and “caused pain to me, my 82-year-old parents and relatives”. She said she would pay in the same coin and make sure that the perpetrators get the feel of the pain they caused to her and her family when BSP comes to power at the Center.
Ms Mayawati alleged the UPA Government is harassing her and not yielding to her demand of sanctioning Rs. 80,000 crore (US $ 20 billion) package to the Uttar Pradesh Government for the welfare of the people of the state.
In the light of the arm-twisting political pressure tactics being employed by the Congress party the BSP would consider withdrawing support to the federal Congress-led UPA coalition government, she declared.
She dared the UPA government to have her arrested, saying “they are using the media to spread all sorts of disinformation to tarnish my image. If they succeed in their dirty design and I am arrested, BSP’s political fortunes would soar and not plunge.”
Apprehending threat to her life from elements inimical to BSP due to its “growing popularity”, Mayawati said the Centre had not accepted her demand for Special Protection Group (SPG) cover.
“If I am killed, do not forgive the Congress-led dispensation in Delhi and take revenge. The loss must be avenged with principal and interest,” she said.
Meanwhile, Ms Mayawati demanded reservation for Dalit Muslims and Christians in government services without affecting the interests of those enjoying the same in prevalent practice.
She said she had also written a letter to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to ensure reservation for Dalits in Muslim and Christian communities.
”In prevalent practice, Scheduled Castes(SCs)and Scheduled Tribes (STs) avail 22.5 reservation facilities in government services and provision for separate reservation should be made for Dalit Muslims and Christians in a way that interests of those presently getting the reservation benefits do not get hurt”, she maintained.
Ms Mayawati alleged that Congress, BJP and their allies exploited the Dalits, backwards and other oppressed classes of the society for political gains and did nothing to ameliorate their conditions in the last sixty years of independence.
The BSP supremo said she had directed the private entrepreneurs in Uttar Pradesh enjoying some sort of government assistance to provide 10 per cent reservation each to SCs, STs, OBC-minorities and the poor in Uttar Pradesh. The private parties had also been directed to continue the existing reservation policies in accordance with the government rules if they take over the government institutions, she added. ([email protected])