First Rally Since Rajya Sabha Resignation

She blamed BJP governments at the Centre and UP for sparking “communal violence” in the name of “faith and cow protection”. She said that in the name of “dharm” (religion) and “sanskaar” (culture), an environment of fear and terror has been created.

Before the 2014 General Election, the BSP chief said, Narendra Modi had promised that black money of Indians stashed abroad will be brought back and Rs 15 lakh deposited in bank accounts, the poor will receive free government housing, electricity and healthcare, and farmers’ income will be doubled. But after coming to power, she alleged, the government is only working on realising the RSS agenda. “And now they want to make the entire country Opposition-free,” she said, adding that the government wants to either finish off or make the opposition parties weaker.

She accused the BJP of using state machinery and agencies such as the CBI, Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate against opposition parties. “In the name of weeding out black money and corruption they are focusing mostly on opposition parties,” Mayawati said. She alleged that BJP was covering up accusations of corruption against its ministers. She also said that the Adityanath government in UP already seems to be failing, and is resorting to “natakbaazi” (drama) to hide that. She recalled the recent death of dozens of children in Gorakhpur hospital due to lack of facilities as a marker of the state government’s ineptness.

Mayawati said she had to resign from Rajya Sabha because she was not allowed to speak for the people in the “country’s largest panchayat, and the temple of democracy”. According to the former CM, she took inspiration from B R Ambedkar’s resignation in 1951 to protest the negative attitude of Congress leaders on 3 of his policies meant to help the downtrodden.

BJP, Mayawati said, is also making Constitutional institutions and the media toothless for selfish motives. While democracy has been weakened, she said the NDA government has surpassed even Congress’s imposition of Emergency in 1975 in its “dictatorial and high-handed” rule.