Uphold my dignity, Maya urges ‘nephew’ Akhilesh
In a dramatic statement on Sunday, BSP chief Mayawati invoked the ‘buabhatija relationship’ and urged chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to uphold her honour.
“The chief minister often refers to me as bua (aunt) and, in other words, calls me sister of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. If the chief minister has to safeguard the honour of his bua, then he must get expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh, who made derogatory remarks against me, arrested,” Mayawati said at a press conference here.
Reminding Yadav of the strict action taken she took against BJP MP Varun Gandhi when he made offensive comment against the minority community during 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign, Mayawati said the CM should show the same grit in the Dayashankar Singh case, too.
Yadav has often referred to Mayawati as ‘Bau’. Even on Saturday at an event, he had said: “What Dayashankar Singh said about Mayawati was objectionable but at the same time humiliation heaped on Singh’s family was also wrong. The law will take its course in the FIRs lodged by BSP leaders as well as Singh’s family”.
He called upon BJP and BSP leaders to introspect on the use of foul language. Referring to the earlier alliance between BSP and BJP, Akhilesh had said that ‘Raksha Bandhan’ was round the corner and they should patch up.
Mayawati landed in Lucknow on Saturday evening and held a closed-door meeting with senior party leaders.
Alleging an underhand deal between BJP and SP, Mayawati said the state administration had set a 36-hour deadline for Singh’s arrest. The deadline has expired but Singh is still at large. The BSP had earlier planned to launch a statewide stir on Monday to protest police failure to nab Singh. But, in a change of plan, the party has now decided to organize rallies across the state, on different dates, to expose the pact between SP and BJP, she said.
The first rally will be organized in Agra on August 21 and the second one at Azamgarh on August 28, she said.
The rally has been named ‘sarvajan hitay- sarvajan sukhay’ rally to give message to the people that BSP was not only concerned about the dignity of dalits but of all communities.
Continuing her attack on the BJP, Mayawati said, “to divert attention of the people from the atrocities committed on dalits, BJP provoked Singh to make derogatory remark against me.
The BJP plan was to get me engrossed in UP so that I do not visit Gujarat to meet the dalits beaten up by cow vigilante group. When the BJP plan backfired they brought forward women family members of Singh. With the assistance of SP, the BJP leaders are planning to stop BSP from coming to power in the 2017 assembly election.”
Terming the FIR against her as contempt of parliament, Mayawati said, “Police lodged a case against me over my statement in Rajya Sabha. Article 105 of the Constitution clearly says that members are free to express their views in the House and no FIR can be registered against a member on the basis of the statement given by him/her in the House,” she said.
Labelling Singh’s comment against her as attack on the dignity of dalits and the ‘nation’s daughter’, Mayawati said, “The BJP leaders should have registered FIR against Singh. Justice has been denied to me and there is countrywide anger among the people.
BSP supporters should give a befitting reply to the rivals by forming a majority government in 2017 assembly election.”