Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Sunday attacked the Modi government, claiming it could start a war with Pakistan on the issue of terrorism just to divert people’s attention from their failures ahead of the Uttar Pradesh polls early next year.
Cautioning the electorate on Samajwadi Party supreme Mulayam Singh Yadav’s turf in eastern UP, she sharpened her attack on both the Bharatiya Janata Party and ruling Samajwadi Party, saying they could go to the extent of engineering riots to reap electoral benefits ahead of the crucial polls.
“To divert people’s attention from the failures of the BJP and the Centre, the government can go to war (with Pakistan) on the issue of Kashmir and terrorism,” she said at a rally in Azamgarh.
Azamgarh is represented by Mulayam in the Lok Sabha. He had won from both Azamgarh and Mainpuri in 2014 but gave up the latter.
“Both the governments have cheated the people and failed to deliver on the poll promises,” she said, apprehending that these parties could ‘foment communal passions’ for sake of votes.
“People have understood the designs of opposition parties, especially of the BJP. It could trigger Hindu-Muslim riot in Uttar Pradesh before the state Assembly elections and people should beware of this,” Mayawati said.
She accused the BJP of being anti-Dalit and the SP of encouraging ‘goondas and mafias’.
The BSP supremo said if her party comes to power, the rule of law will once again be established in the state.
In an apparent attempt to downplay the exodus of senior leaders from BSP, she said her political opponents, mainly the BJP, were lapping up ‘our rejected stuff’ (leaders expelled from the BSP).
Mayawati said a ‘desperate’ BJP had no option but to accept BSP’s ‘rejected maal (stuff)’ as it was facing a shortage of candidates.
“The BJP is in a desperate position in Uttar Pradesh and is ready to accept people ‘rejected’ by our party,” she said, referring to the recent desertion by two senior BSP leaders Swami Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak, who joined the BJP.
“The BJP has no candidate in UP, that is why they are including people who have either left BSP or have been expelled,” she said.
I want to ask our opponents, you say the BSP is a sinking ship that is why people are leaving our party. If that is so, why would people be so interested in buying our tickets?
“Like in Bihar, the BJP does not have any candidates for the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections in the state. They (BJP) are depending on the 'rejected maal' of the BSP and other parties,” she said.
Of the 10 assembly seats in the area, the Samajwadi Party holds a majority. Mayawati is now hoping to make a dent in eastern UP in the coming state polls, and chose Azamgarh for her first rally in the region which has a significant Muslim population apart from her Dalit vote base.
Mayawati said the dreams of acchhe din ‘peddled’ by Modi have turned into bad days.
“Have you got houses, electricity, employment during the two-year stint of BJP government at the Centre,” she asked the crowd which responded with loud cries of ‘no’.
Slamming the BJP and the Rashtirya Swayamsevak Sangh, she said, “The central government has failed on all counts. The BJP is strengthening communal forces like RSS and its associated organisations.”
The BSP supremo said BJP had waived over Rs 1.14 lakh crore worth of loans of the rich, while the poor were driven to commit suicide.
She said Modi had promised to bring back black money in 100 days, but it turned out to be a lie. The BJP was following in the footsteps of Congress on the corruption issue, she added
“The roots of corruption in BJP are deeper than in the Congress. Whether its Lalitgate or Vyapam scam or Vijay Mallaya case, the BJP is following in the footsteps of the Congress,” she said.
She rejected allegations of taking money in ticket distribution for the assembly polls.
“I want to ask our opponents, you say the BSP is a sinking ship that is why people are leaving our party. If that is so, why would people be so interested in buying our tickets? The truth is that other parties want to malign us,” she said.
She also raked up the incidents of discrimination and violence against Dalits since the Modi government came to power at the Centre.
“In BJP-ruled states, Dalits are being persecuted, whether it is Rohith Vemula or Una incident in Gujarat or what Daya Shankar Singh said about me. They are just like Congress.
“If you go around sharing meals with Dalits, it doesn’t mean anything,” she said, evidently taking a jibe at BJP president Amit Shah.
The former chief minister accused Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of presiding over a ‘lawless’ state.
“The SP government is only interested in helping goondas and mafia,” she alleged.
She also raised the issue of separate Poorvanchal state saying, “My government had in the past sent proposal for creation of a separate state, but it was not addressed.”
Mayawati said even ‘nexus between the BJP and the SP’ will fail to prevent the BSP from coming to power in UP this time.
She also took aim at Congress and Sheila Dikshit, saying the party has projected an ‘elderly lady from Brahmin community who has destroyed Delhi’ as its chief ministerial candidate to garner upper caste votes.
“For a long time, they ruled at the Centre and in UP. They were ousted from power due to their wrong policies,” she said.
The BSP supremo said Congress was now talking about 10 per cent reservation for economically backward among the upper castes. Moreover, many jobs were in the private sector where there is no reservation, she said.
“If their intention was good, they could have already done it in their 54 years' rule. I requested them several times, but they didn't take any cognisance,” she said.
She said that once the BSP comes to power, the dream of ‘sarvjan hitaaya, sarvjan sukahaaya’ (happiness and prosperity for all) would become a reality.
The BSP chief also sought to take the wind out of Congress party’s rath yatra and padayatra, saying people would not be befooled by these gimmicks.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to take out a yatra from Deoria, also in eastern UP, in the first week of September to highlight the plight of farmers and other issues.
She also criticised the recent tiranga yatra of the BJP to pay tributes to martyrs.
Mayawati, who had kicked off her UP poll campaign from Agra last week, said BSP alone could deliver the goods in the state which had been reduced to ‘apradh (crime) pradesh’ where women are insecure in all its 75 districts.
She said under the BJP government, minority communities were living in fear and were being threatened by ‘gau rakshaks’.
Accusing Samajwadi Party of being incapable of controlling crime, she also said cases of rape were soaring in the state.
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