Lucknow: BSP president Mayawati on Saturday said her party does not believe in misleading the public through protests, road blockades, vandalism, violence or what she described as “false propaganda” for political gains, as she sought to differentiate the BSP from rival parties and certain Dalit organisations.Her statements came in the backdrop of the protests that took place in Meerut over the murder of a Dalit woman on Thursday. The statement also followed Azad Samaj Party chief and Nagina MP Chandrashekhar Azad’s visit to the victim’s family on Friday.Even on Friday, Mayawati cautioned Dalits against leaders and organisations that, she alleged, shed “crocodile tears” to further their political interests, though she did not name Azad.In a post on X on Saturday, Mayawati said the BSP neither indulges in “politics of deceit” nor changes its stand for “narrow self-interests”.Recalling her stance in the past, she said in the anti-Dalit Saharanpur incident, the BSP and its leadership fought a fierce battle from the streets to Parliament against casteist, feudal and govt terror.Even in Parliament, when no proper resolution was found, the BSP leadership, following the example of Baba Saheb’s resignation as the country’s first law minister for ignoring the rights of Dalits and other backward classes, resigned from the Rajya Sabha, on the ground that if “our voice was not heard even in Parliament, what was the point of staying there?”It is one of those powerful examples that the BSP leadership has provided in the course of its struggle, she said.The former UP CM noted that because the BSP’s influence is rapidly growing in UP ahead of assembly elections, the unease among the rivals is also increasing, and they are engaging in misleading Dalit and other sections of the “Bahujan Samaj”.“The rival parties are using Dalit organisations and people with a slave mentality as proxies, which makes it all the more necessary for people from the Bahujan Samaj to remain vigilant,” she said.The former chief minister said the BSP’s primary concern was the welfare of poor people, labourers, unemployed youth and other marginalised groups. She warned that those taking to the streets over their issues often become targets of govt action, which could result in legal cases, imprisonment and long-term damage to their futures and that of their families.
