Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati to renew her attack on the Congress and arch political rival Samajwadi Party .
LUCKNOW: The 117th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar on 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 criticise 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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