Mayawati, the BSP president, claimed on Tuesday that the BJP’s pre-poll act of “fraud” and “visualisation” in laying the foundation for the Ambedkar Cultural Centre here served its electoral interests. “The president would have been inaugurating the centre and not laying the foundation stone” if there hadn’t been “fraud,” “deception,” and “drama” before the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, she claimed.
In response to Mayawati’s claim, Uttar Pradesh Labour Minister Swami Prasad Maurya told reporters that the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo should be pleased that the Ambedkar Cultural Centre was built thanks to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s efforts. “When the Assembly polls are barely six months away, you are laying the foundation stone of the Ambedkar Cultural Centre, putting Suheldev idols,” Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) head OP Rajbhar said, questioning the timing of the event. These are only BJP tactics to gain votes.” “Until today, the panchteerth — the five places associated with Babasaheb Ambedkar — was discussed,” Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said in response to the BSP chief’s charges. “Lucknow will be Babasaheb’s sixth “teerth,” and it should have been welcomed. Mayawati should take off her political glasses.” The BSP supremo attempted to discredit the Adityanath government by claiming that it is no different from previous regimes led by Akhilesh Yadav and the Congress in denying Dalit and backward-class people’s rights.
President Ram Nath Kovind lay the foundation stone for the memorial, which will be named after Dalit icon Bhimrao Ambedkar and will be built on a sprawling land covering nearly 5,500 square metres in the state capital, in a series of tweets. There will also be a 25-foot-tall statue of Ambedkar there. The project is expected to cost more than Rs 45 crore.
“Laying the foundation of a cultural facility in Babasaheb’s name now, as the Assembly elections approach — what is it if not a drama, after disregarding crores of Babasaheb’s followers for virtually the whole period they have been in power?” Mayawati inquired. “The BSP is not opposed to the establishment of any centre in the name of the immensely venerable Babasaheb,” she wrote in another tweet, “but doing all of this now for the purpose of electoral interest is a blatant deception.” The president would have been inaugurating the centre instead of laying the foundation stone if the Uttar Pradesh government had completed this job earlier, according to the former chief minister.
She did not spare the previous governments of the Samajwadi Party (SP) or the Congress. “No one is any less than the other in resorting to such deception and drama,” Mayawati stated, referring to the BJP, the SP, and the Congress.
“In crushing the rights of Dalits and backwards and heaping injustice and atrocities on them, they all are the same — this is known to all and very unfortunate. “As a result, lakhs of government posts reserved for Dalits and backward class people are lying vacant,” she said.
Mayawati also lamented that “the world-class grand buildings and parks built by the BSP government in the name of their saints, gurus and great men in Uttar Pradesh have been grossly neglected since the previous SP regime took over and the situation continues under the BJP government”. This trend is commendable, she said sarcastically.
Swami Prasad Maurya said, “Mayawati is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party, which was formed as a part of Dr B R Ambedkar’s mission. She should feel happy that by the efforts of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the foundation of the Ambedkar Cultural Centre was laid today.” “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given respect to Babasaheb by developing five memorials in the form of pilgrimage spots at places associated with him. These five spots are in Ambedkar’s birthplace in Mhow, Deeksha Bhoomi in Nagpur, Parinirvaan Sthal in Delhi, Chaitanya Bhoomi in Mumbai and the Ambedkar Memorial Home in London,” he added.
