Maya shares stage with Gowda, says Cong, BJP trying to end reservation
BENGALURU: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Wednesday called on people of Karnataka to reject the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the May 12 assembly polls, as both were opposed to interests of the oppressed classes.
Addressing a rally in Mysuru, Mayawati, whose party has tied up with the Janata Dal (Secular), appealed to Dalits, Adivasis and Other Backward Classes (OBCS) in the state not to get swayed by the Congress and the BJP as they were trying to end reservation.
“The Mandal Commission submitted its report during the Congress’s rein, but they did not implement it. Even the BJP opposed the report and had held protests against it. But it was the through our agitations that the VP Singh government was pressured into implementing it,” Mayawati said.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said while both the Congress and the BJP were increasingly privatising services in the country by not bringing in reservations in the private sector, they were ensuring that the upper castes benefitted.
The chief of the BSP, which has filed 22 nominations for the upcoming polls, said the Congress was particularly culpable because it governed the nation for the majority of the past 70 years. “BR Ambedkar’s supporters had demanded that he should be given Bharat Ratna, but unfortu- nately the Congress, which today tries to woo Dalits, did not do this,” she said.
Regarding the BJP, Mayawati said Prime Minister Narendra Modi made tall promises in the lead up to the the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. “Modi said ‘naa kuch khayenge, naa khilayenge’…but unfortunately Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya have taken the wind out of this,” she said, adding that “the BJP wants to win the elections using its casteist, communal and poisonous politics in the state, like it did in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.”
According to the BSP chief, even OBCS were facing atrocities, and that religious minorities, too, had not benefited from the policies of the Central governments. “Poverty, unemployment and inflation have been increasing thanks to the bad economic policies of the central governments led by these parties,” she said.
“The reason this situation persists is that the Congress and BJP... have come to power thanks to the financial help of capitalists. When they come to power, they try to give back to this class,” Mayawati said.
Citing the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohit Vemula, the assault on Dalits in Una and other similar incidents, Mayawati said this showed the orientation of the current government.
“You must not get swayed by the false promises of the Congress and BJP and work to ensure that this alliance comes to power,” she said.