Madhu Mishra's expulsion an eyewash: Mayawati

Charging BJP with having a non- serious attitude towards Dalits, BSP supremo Mayawati today claimed the action taken against state Mahila Morcha chief Madhu Mishra was an "eyewash" ahead of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
"We strongly condemn the casteist statement by BJP state Mahila Morcha chief in Aligarh...Her expulsion is an eyewash and formality before the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh," Mayawati said in a statement here.
Alleging that BJP had always been casteist and anti- Dalit, Mayawati said members of the community were being humiliated even by those occupying senior positions in the party after it came to power at the Centre.

She said Dalits are being deprived of their right of quota in promotions.
Mayawati said had BJP been so sincere on the issue, it would first have taken action against Union minister V K Singh.
"The most serious statement comparing Dalits to animals by V K Singh is before the people...By doing so he not only degraded the office that he occupies but also flouted the oath of Constitution taken by him...Neither the Prime Minister nor BJP leadership has taken action against him till now," she said.

Had BJP leadership's intentions been clear, it would have expelled Singh and thereafter no leader like Mishra would have dared to humiliate Dalits, the former UP chief minister said.

Mayawati was referring to Singh's reaction over the murder of two Dalit children in Faridabad last year.
Blaming family feud for the burning alive of the two children, Singh had said "If someone throws stones at a dog, the government is not responsible".
Stressing that SP is mired in family feud and supporters
of the Chief Minister and his uncle will harm each other in the electoral battle, Mayawati cautioned Muslim voters not to waste their votes by backing the ruling party.
"Secular people should also not waste their votes on SP or else they will help BJP," she said, adding that had the SP government worked for the entire society, the Chief Minister would not have been forced to take out his 'vikas rath yatra' with his rowdy supporters.

"Also, the SP chief would not have called leaders of other parties in Lucknow on the occasion of party's silver jubilee to enact the drama of projecting himself a secular leader... and mislead the people," she said.
Attacking BJP, which started the Parivartan yatra from Saharanpur today, Mayawati said people have now started believing that democratic values are being undermined and the country is turning into a kind of unbridled autocracy under the BJP government which could have very dangerous results.
"Had the Modi government fulfilled even one third of its poll promises, the party would not have needed Parivartan yatra or projected RSS workers as its workers to show huge turnouts," she said, adding that not only the state, but the country has also to be saved from such designs in the 2019 polls.

To a question, Mayawati ruled out BSP's alliance with any other party in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls and also condemned the one day ban on NDTV, terming it as an attack on democracy.
"Prime Minister's Modi' government is trying to gag the media for hiding its shortcomings and shielding the corrupt... people of the country will not tolerate this," she said.