BJP harassing dalits, alleges Mayawati

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW, AUG. 25. The Bahujan Samaj Party leader, Ms. Mayawati, today said the election of Mr. Bangaru Laxman as BJP president was part of a ``well-orchestrated conspiracy'' to demoralise the Dalits. All these years the BJP had failed to make a dent into the Dalit bastion and after electing Mr. Bangaru Laxman the saffron forces in Uttar Pradesh had launched a sustained campaign to oppress the people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, she charged.

Talking to newspersons here, she said there was a flare-up in atrocities on Dalits since the election of Mr. Bangaru Laxman. ``People belonging to Scheduled Castes had been murdered and their women raped. Even IAS officers belonging to Scheduled Castes had been subjected to harassment by the State Government,'' she alleged.

The BSP leader refused to credit the BJP for the recent amendment to the Constitution allowing reservation to backward castes in promotions. In 1996 when the Supreme Court struck down reservation in promotions the BJP failed to do anything to support the cause of deprived sections. Her party had even then launched an agitation to nullify the effects of the Supreme Court verdict. Also the BJP Government at the Centre took eight long months to get the Constitution Amendment Bill passed. ``No one knows how long more it would take to implement the provisions of the amendment,'' she added.

She simultaneously criticised the Samajwadi Party leader, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose party had absented itself during the voting on the Constitution Amendment Bill in Parliament.

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