Ambedkar schools,hospitals to replace Maya monuments: SP

“We respect Ambedkar but she (Mayawati) has maligned his image. She has made money in the name of Ambedkar. Had Ambedkar been around,he would have said that Mayawati should go to jail,” said Yadav,amid rapturous applause from the massive crowd who had gathered to hear SP chief speak.

He said,“One of my first steps after coming to power would be declaring a number of backward castes like Bind,Nishad,Kahar and Kol as Scheduled Castes so that they enjoy the facilities reserved for SCs and have a better shot at their own betterment”.

While Yadav kept his attack limited to Mayawati and focused on the promises made in his manifesto,it was left to his “right hand” Mohammad Azam Khan,the SP national general secretary,to appeal to the Muslim audience. They did not seem to be many in good numbers though.

“When Congress announced that there would be reservation for Muslims,we felt good. But when the matter came up in Parliament,we were told that the 4.5 per cent reservation was for the backwards among the minorities – and not only Muslims,” said Khan.

“Ek party (BJP) ne humaari chhati par waar kiya,humne uska haath pakad liya,lekin Congress ne peeth mein chhura ghonpa aur hum nahin bach paaye (One party — BJP — attacked us from the front and we managed to stop them,but the Congress stabbed us in the back and we could not save ourselves),” said Khan.

Khan kept up the attack on Congress targeting Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid ridiculing him for asking why there was no demand for ITIs when Khan was demanding universities for the Muslims.

Khan said,“Recently Khurshid visited my home town Rampur. He questioned the ambitious Jauhar University project laid down by the SP while it was in power in the state and asked why did Azam Khan work passionately about this project instead of building an Industrial Training Institute,which according to him,was more in sync with the needs of the community.”

“I caution Muslims against the designs of the Congress party and its diabolical mindset vis-a-vis the community We wanted to open a university so that our children too could become doctors and lawyers. But Khurshid and his party want us to be no better than turners and fitters. The people should make their choice keeping this in mind,the SP general secretary said.

Khan also lambasted the Mayawati government in the state for failing to check atrocities against Muslims in the state and recalled the infamous Lakhimpur Kheri rape case in which “one of our daughters was sexually assaulted,murdered and her body hung from a tree outside a police station”.

SP MP from Allahabad Kunwar Reoti Raman Singh also appealed Khan to spare some time for constituencies in the Trans-Yamuna area. Assembly constituencies like Phaphamau,Meja and Karchhana,which fall in the trans-Yamuna area,do have a sizeable Muslim population. Also,Singh’s son Ujjwal Raman Singh is contesting from Karchchana.