April 14, 2008
Mayawati Uses Ambedkar to Attack Congress
Lucknow
The 117th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Monday
came handy for Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister Mayawati to renew her attack on the Congress and arch
political rival Samajwadi Party.
Dedicating the Rs.500 crore gigantic Ambedkar Samajic Parivartan
Sthal (Ambedkar Memorial for Social Change) to the people at an
impressive ceremony here, Mayawati flayed the Congress party, in
particular, and the opposition in general for their "bias against
the architect of the Indian Constitution".
Her 45-minute-long speech, which she is understood to have prepared
herself, sounded more like a pre-election message making it clear
that none other than Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and herself were genuinely
concerned for the dalits and backward classes in the country.
She also chose to run down father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi,
India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other Congress
icons.
"The Congress party has been spending hundreds of crores of rupees
to build memorials like Rajghat (the samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi) and
other institutions in the name of its leaders on sprawling lands
acquired in the most prime area of New Delhi; but when I sought to
do the same for Ambedkar, leaders of the Congress and Samajwadi
Party got together to condemn and criticize me", she told the
gathering amid cheers.
Seeking to credit Ambedkar alone for the country's reservation
policy, she said: "even reservation for backwards is attributable to
him only." And to buttress her point she cited the provisions under
Article 340 of the Indian Constitution.
"Even the provisions relating to welfare and well being of religious
minorities were enshrined in the Constitution entirely because of
Ambedkar", she claimed.
Without commenting on the Allahabad High Court order staying
construction work on the grand memorial to Ambedkar, she gave the
judicial intervention a political twist.
"The Congress has always posed hurdles in the path of constructing
this memorial and Samajwadi Party went to the extent of declaring
the site as a green belt to prevent us from going ahead with our
plans. However, since BSP returned to power after ousting SP, they
engineered a PIL to frustrate our plans," Mayawati claimed.
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