The BSP supremo has come under sharp attack inside and outside Parliament after she got the 'multi-crore' currency garland comprising notes of Rs1000.
Chief minister Mayawati once again wore a garland of currency notes at the BSP office in the UP capital on Wednesday with an obvious aim of getting back at opposition parties that have been criticising her brazen display of money politics.
Her party, in fact, went a step further to announce that from now on, it would greet Mayawati only with garlands made of money instead of those made with flowers.
Opposition leaders have virtually been baying for her blood ever since she wore a garland strung with 1,000-rupee notes running into crores at the BSP rally in Lucknow on Monday. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav charged the Congress of being soft on Mayawati on this issue.
The income tax department has begun an inquiry into the matter. Garlanding with currency notes is also alleged to be a violation of Reserve Bank of India guidelines. BSP general secretary and senior minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui announced at a meeting in the party headquarters: “At every public event and rally, BSP workers will now welcome behen Kumari Mayawati with garlands made of currency notes and not of flowers.”
Party sources said Siddiqui only read out a statement penned by Mayawati herself. Siddiqui said the garland had been made with collections made by the party’s 18 divisional-level units in UP. The garland carried notes of Rs1,000, 500 and 100 denominations.
Party MP Vijay Bahadur Singh justified the decision, saying:
“Garlands made with bank notes are only a symbol of the extreme love and affection the poor and downtrodden, especially Dalits have for Behenji.” “After all, devotees gift loads of cash, gold and diamonds to gods, then why all this hue and cry about money garlands being given to behen Mayawati,” he reasoned with reporters.
Opposition leaders are not buying the spiel. “What is stopping the Congress from taking action against Mayawati? They should immediately register a case against her,” Mulayam told reporters in New Delhi.
“This is a shameless display of greed for wealth,” UP Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said.
BSP’s state president Swami Prasad Maurya said opposition leaders were carping at Mayawati because of the envy caused by the massive success of the party rally on Monday. “It’s the anti-Dalit mentality of these parties… no one raises a finger when leaders are weighed in coins and silver bricks,” he said.
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