A day after Rahul Gandhi addressed a Samvidhan Samman Sammelan in Prayagraj, BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday not only accused the Congress of disrespecting B R Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram but also ruled out any future alliance with that party or the Samajwadi Party. Since the Lok Sabha elections, both the Congress and the SP have been keen to bring the BSP into the INDIA bloc. And SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s demand on Saturday that BJP MLA Rajesh Chaudhary be booked for his “derogatory” remarks about Mayawati also triggered talk about possible future alliances. However, the BSP chief asked if an alliance “with these anti-reservation parties” would be in the interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. “The followers of Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar will never forgive the Congress, which organised the Samvidhan Samman Sammelan in Prayagraj yesterday, for not honouring Baba Saheb, the chief architect of the Constitution, with the title of the Bharat Ratna either during his lifetime or after his death,” Mayawati wrote on X on Sunday. Asking people to be cautious of the Congress's “double standards”, BSP chief wrote, “When Kanshi Ram ji, who gave impetus to Baba Saheb’s movement, died, this Congress, despite having a government at the Centre, did not declare a single day of national mourning in his honour. Neither did the SP government declare a state mourning. Be cautious of such double standards of thinking, behaviour and character.” “Why did the Congress government not conduct a national caste census before the BJP came to power at the Centre…?” Mayawati wrote, adding that the BSP had always considered that a national caste census was very important for the weaker sections. Asking Dalits to be careful about the Congress, the SP and the BJP, Mayawati questioned these parties’ “silence” on the “conspiracy to make constitutionally given SC/ST reservation “ineffective” and “abolish” it through sub-classification and the introduction of a “creamy layer”. “Is this their love for Dalits? Be careful,” she wrote. “Would it be in the interest of SC, ST and OBC classes to form an alliance with these anti-reservation parties like SP and Congress etc. in any election? This will not happen at all. So now they have to stand on their own. This is the advice.” While addressing the Prayagraj convention on the Constitution, Gandhi said that a caste census was in the interests of 90 per cent of the population. He said the issue was part of a vision for him, adding that he would continue to stand for a caste census even if it would mean a political loss for him.
