Siddhartha Kumar
Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:12:21 -0700
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article245588.ece?homepage=true
Published: March 15, 2010 Updated: March 15, 2010 18:13 IST Lucknow, March 15, 2010 Elephants in Dalit memorials not same as BSP symbol: Mayawati Special Correspondent Attributing the moves to freeze the Bahujan Samaj Party's election symbol to a conspiracy backed by the opposition parties, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati has rejected the suggestion that the elephant statues erected in parks and memorials to Dalit icons were related to her party's election symbol. In the statues the elephants have been shown in “swagat mudra” ( welcome posture ) with their snouts up, whereas the elephant in the BSP's symbol has been shown with its snout down, Ms. Mayawati said. Making a frontal assault on the Congress, the BSP president said if the elephant statues could be brought to the notice of the Election Commission on the ground that the jumbo is party's symbol, notice should also be taken of the Congress' symbol of the ‘hand’ and the Samajwadi Party's symbol, ‘cycle.’ Addressing a massive rally on the occasion of 25 years BSP's existence and the birth anniversary of its founder, Kanshi Ram, at the Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan here on Monday, Ms. Mayawati said the Election Commission should take a hard look at the Congress and SP's symbols. Cycles were being distributed to the beneficiaries of the Savitribai Phule Scheme for girls launched by the BSP Government and the hand was used by leaders of all political parties to welcome people, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said. “In that case the hand and cycle symbols should be de-registered,” Ms. Mayawati remarked. Significantly, the BSP has to submit its reply on a petition filed against the elephant statues with the poll panel on March 18. Ms. Mayawati further justified the erection of her own statues when she said, “Is there any law in the country which bans building statues of living leaders and whether funds can be spent only on erecting statues of dead leaders and not the living ones?". She said statues of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi have been erected throughout the country by the Congress and several schemes, colleges, universities, airports, railway stations and roads using government funds have been named after them. Ms. Mayawati added that in 63 years since Independence crores have been spent on building memorials and museums of Gandhi-Nehru family. But, when statues and memorials to Mr. Kanshi Ram and other icons are built, the BSP Government has been charged by the opposition with misusing government money, Ms. Mayawati said. In her 90 minute long address Ms. Mayawati trained her guns on the Congress and dubbed it as anti-Dalit, which supported the caste system. She blamed the Congress regimes for the corruption in Uttar Pradesh and inter-related problems, and accused the UPA Government for stalling the state's development by not releasing the Central funds. She said the BSP had achieved much more in the 25 years of its existence than the 125 year old Congress could gain in the first 21 years of its formation. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister accused the Congress and the opposition parties of trying to finish the BSP in the last 25 years by making baseless allegations against Mr. Kanshi Ram and engineering a split in the party. She also mentioned the moves to corner her in the Taj Corridor and disproportionate assets case. Ms. Mayawati expressed the satisfaction that despite the opposition tirade, she had managed to strengthen the BSP movement. The BSP president cautioned the party workers against the designs of the Congress, which, she said is trying to regain power in U.P. The BSP rally was one of the biggest seen in recent years in Lucknow with the party workers present from all parts of the country. Voicing her opposition to the Women's Reservation Bill in its present, Ms. Mayawati announced that dharna and demonstration would be held at the distruct headquarters on April 14. She also threatened to launch a countrywide agitation if the prices were not brought down by the Centre. ------------------------------------ ---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! 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