UP farm loan waiver ugly joke: Mayawati

Mayawati said that in the name of “dharm” (religion) and “sanskaar” (culture), an environment of fear and terror has been created

Mayawati, Mayawati farm loan waiver, Uttar Pradesh farm loans, Yogi Adityanath, BJP, India news, Indian Express

BSP Chief Mayawati (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Addressing her first political rally after resigning from the Rajya Sabha in July, BSP chief Mayawati on Monday rubbished the BJP’s electoral promises as “hawa hawai” (all in air) and said that relief of Re 1, Rs 2 or 40 paise in the name of farm loan waiver by the Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is an “ugly joke”. While she did not mention her UP rivals — Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh of Samajwadi Party — in her over hour-long speech, Mayawati was also largely silent about the Congress.

Addressing the rally in Meerut, which was attended by a large crowd, Mayawati alleged that wherever the BJP is in power, the government there is promoting “casteist, narrow-minded, communal and capitalist” agenda of the RSS. She blamed BJP governments at both the Centre and in 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 the 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 the BJP is covering up all accusations of corruption against its own ministers.

She said 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 at a Gorakhpur hospital due to lack of facilities as a marker of the state government’s ineptness.

Mayawati said that 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 UP chief minister, she took inspiration from B R Ambedkar’s resignation in 1951 to protest the negative attitude of Congress leaders on three of his policies meant to help the downtrodden.

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