Lucknow: Taking a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh, Mayawati-led BSP said on Wednesday that both the outfits should apologise to ‘Bahujan People’ for criticising the statues of Dalit icons, memorials and parks built during the party’s regime in Uttar Pradesh.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, while paying her tributes to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his birth anniversary, pointed to BJP and RSS for criticising statues of Dalit icons.
“I would like to pay my tributes to the first home minister of Independent India, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, on his birth anniversary. But the BJP and RSS should apologise to the people of the Bahujan community for criticism of statues of Dalit icons, parks and memorials which were built during the regime of BSP in Uttar Pradesh,” Mayawati said.
The BJP and RSS termed the Dalit monuments as unnecessary expenditure, BSP chief said. She also took a jibe at the BJP for giving an “English name” to Vallabhbhai’s statue.
“Although Patel is an example of Indian culture, the name of his grand statue is not close to Hindi and Indian culture. Instead his statue is named as ‘Statue of Unity’, which is an English name. The people of the country very well understand how much politics is being done by keeping an English name of the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel,” she added.
The BSP Chief and former CM of the state also stated that Vallbahbhai Patel was as national as Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, but BJP and its central government have brought him down to just regional narrative, which is quite clear from BJP’s moves.