Lucknow. Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati accused the Narendra Modi government of doing “natakbazi” over India’s recent military operation against terrorists in PoK, while asking Muslims to support the BSP to stop the BJP from coming to power in next year’s elections in Uttar Pradesh.
She asked Muslims not to vote for either the ruling Samajwadi Party or the Congress, saying support to any of the two would only help the BJP. “There is infighting in Samajwadi Party and Congress lacks a base. If Muslims vote for these parties, they will be wasting their votes”, she said.
She was addressing a rally to mark the 10th death anniversary of BSP founder late Kanshi Ram in Lucknow. Two women were killed and at least 20 people injured in a stampede that took place after the rally got over at a memorial.
The BSP chief said surgical strikes have been carried out across the LoC in the past as well, but the “BJP’s natakbazi is designed to divert people’s attention from its failure on all fronts.” The BSP chief is trying to regroup the party, particularly after leaders such as Swami Prasad Maurya and R K Chaudhary recently accused her of selling party tickets and left her.
“There is a feeling among people that the strikes might have been delayed for taking political and electoral mileage,” she said, adding that had military action been conducted after the Pathankot attack in January, the lives of 19 soldiers in Uri could have been saved.
She said instead of honouring its political leaders after the strikes, the BJP should have felicitated the army for it. She criticised PM Modi’s plan to celebrate Dusshera in Lucknow, saying the move was for political gains.
She attacked the Centre and said the minorities are facing discrimination in the current regime. “The minority status of Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia is being snatched away. Communal forces are becoming stronger and Muslims are being targeted in the name of love ‘jihad’, ‘ghar waapsi’ and ‘gau raksha’”, she said.
She blamed the Samajwadi Party for “rampant crime, anarchy and riots, promising to restore the rule of law if her party came to power.
The BJP sharply angrily to the BSP chief’s comments, with party spokesman Siddharth Nath Singh saying,” Questioning the strikes doesn’t behove her.”
