Mayawati slams Guj govt for 'tweaking' Ambedkar's slogan in textbooks

BSP supremo Mayawati on Saturday slammed the BJP government in Gujarat for reportedly "tweaking" a slogan by Dr BR Ambedkar in a Class 5 Gujarati textbook and demanded that it be restored to its original form immediately.

"'Shikshit Bano, Sangharsh Karo, Sangathhit Bano' are the immortal words of Dr Ambedkar which inspire crores of Dalits and backwards to march ahead. But the Gujarat government's books are imparting wrong education which exposes the BJP's anti-Ambedkar and anti-Dalit face as that of the Congress," she tweeted.

In another tweet, Mayawati said it was but natural that there would be opposition to "such conspiracies and atrocities on Dalits committed by the BJP government in Gujarat".

"The BSP strongly condemns teaching of distorted historic slogans of Dr Ambedkar and demands that the tweaked slogan be removed immediately from the text books," she said.

Mayawati's remark came against the backdrop of media reports that a chapter (in Gujarati) in a textbook of Gujarat State Board of School read as "one slogan of Babasaheb is worth remembering: Educate, organise and self-reliance is the true assistance".

Ambedkaraites have protested that the slogan in the textbook was not by Dr Ambedkar, who had said, 'Educate, Agitate, Organise'.