Maya says caste rallies to continue, wants RSS banned
LUCKNOW: Three days after the high court put caste rallies on hold in Uttar Pradesh, BSP chief Mayawati said on Sunday the party would continue to organise sarva samaj bhaichara (all-community harmony) rallies to mobilise weaker sections and instead demanded a ban on “communal” outfits such as the RSS.
Organisations such as the VHP, RSS and Bajrang Dal worked along communal lines and were even deciding the prime ministerial and chief ministerial candidates of the BJP. “It is against the Constitution, the court should ban them as well,” the Bahujan Samaj Party chief told mediapersons.
Hitting back, the BJP dared her to write to the Centre for a ban on Sangh Parivar outfits or withdraw support to the ruling combine.
On July 11, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad HC banned caste-based rallies, saying the events were divisive and violated Constitution.
The country’s social structure was caste-based where weaker sections were exploited, Mayawati said. The BSP was organising the rallies not for political gains but to end caste discrimination, Mayawati said.
The Centre should challenge the Supreme Court order that stopped a jailed person, even if not convicted, from contesting elections, she said. Political parties might misuse the order to settle scores with the rivals, she said.
The BSP chief also accused the BJP and Congress of playing politics over Ram temple and urged the Supreme Court to take action against them to “protect secularism”. Warning party leader Vijay Bahadur Singh with dismissal for defending Gujarat CM Narendra Modi for his puppy analogy in context of the 2002 riots, Mayawati said the MP had deviated from the party line and his candidature for the LS election stood cancelled.
LUCKNOW: The Bharatiya Janata Party has dared the Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati to write to the Congress-led UPA II government at the centre to ban various Sangh Parivar bodies like the Rashtriya Swayamdsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal.
The BJP was responding to Mayawati’s diatribe against these saffron outfits earlier in the day. Mayawati had claimed that just as caste based rallies were being banned, these organizations too must be banned as they fanned religious passions. Mayawati’s comments came a day after Vijay Singh, one of her party MPs from Mahoba, had praised BJP’s current poster boy Narendra Modi, whom the VHP, RSS and Bajrang Dal want to be declared the BJP’s PM candidate ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
“BSP is supporting the Congress-led UPA II government at the centre. I think it would be proper for Mayawatiji, who twice became the chief minister of UP due to BJP’s support, to get the Congress government to ban the these saffron bodies. If the Congress doesn’t oblige, then Mayawatiji should not hesitate in withdrawing support to the Congress government,” said state BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai.
Bajpai said Mayawati’s demand for a ban on saffron bodies showed how desperate non-BJP parties had become ever since it has become “clear that an atmosphere was being created in BJP’s favor.”
Bajpai said, “I expected basic courtesy from the BSP chief, who didn’t hesitate to twice take BJP support to become UP chief minister but now was demanding ban on these bodies which were ideologically close to the BJP. This showed how low the political parties can stoop to in their bid to appease the Muslims.” MAYA FEARS EXPOSURE OF MISDEEDS: SP LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Sunday alleged that Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati had divided the society in the name of ‘bhaichara’, and promoted inequality.
The SP was reacting to Mayawati’s assertion that her party would hold a Sarvajan Samaj rally soon and “continue organising caste-based rallies till there is a caste system in the society”.
The BSP chief said this just days after the high court stayed caste-based rallies in the state.
Reacting to Mayawati’s demand to impose President’s rule in UP, SP state spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhary said it was the result of the fear psychosis that had gripped her.
“Mayawati is worried as her party has lost (its support) base in UP. She is afraid of exposure of misdeeds. That is why she is finding everything wrong with the present government and demanding President’s rule,” he claimed.
He called her demand for President’s rule in the state “unconstitutional and an insult to Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution.
He said that owing to corruption, people of the state had voted the BSP out of power last year.