Public funds misused for Modi govt's celebrations: Mayawati

BSP supremo Mayawati today flayed the Centre for "misusing public funds" to celebrate the completion of two years of the Narendra Modi government and said, it should have been used for the welfare of the poor and deprived sections of the society.
"BJP should remember its bad experience of the 'India Shining' campaign in the past. Instead of wasting government funds on these celebrations, it should have spent it on the wider interest and welfare of the people," she said in a party release on the completion of two years of the Modi government.
"The celebrations are not only government-sponsored, but one-sided as people are neither excited nor enthusiastic about them as they were in the past because of the government's working style," she said.

"In the present context, when some 125 crore people of the country, barring a handful of capitalists and those associated with the RSS and company, are facing problems, it is unbecoming (of the government) to waste public funds on celebrations and make a mockery of poverty and deprivation of the common people," she noted.
The BSP chief said the Modi government has failed to fulfill any of its major poll promises, especially the ones related to ushering in 'achhe din', bringing back black money and distributing it among the poor and employment for the jobless. She said the people were feeling cheated today.

The former UP Chief Minister said that the results of the recent Assembly polls in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry hint at the growing frustration of the people with the BJP, adding that the victory in Assam was not of the saffron party but a result of polarisation and division of secular votes.

Accusing the Modi government of discriminating against minorities, she termed its attitude towards Dalits and backward classes as "casteist and biased".
"If the first year of this government will be remembered for bringing a number of bills to acquire farmers' land, the second year will be remembered for anti-minorities, anti-Dalits and discriminatory works," the BSP chief said.

She also flayed the foreign policy of the government, especially the one vis-a-vis Pakistan.