Vadodara: BSP Supremo Mayawati today said that if the so called Manuvadi faction of Hindu religion did not mend its ways and stop ill-treating the lower castes, all the Schedule Caste and Schedule tribe people including her would also convert to other religion like Baba Saheb Ambedkar did.

She also claimed that her party would contest all the 182 seats in this year’s Assembly election in Gujarat and on winning it construct the memorial of Baba Saheb at his Sankalp Bhoomi Kamatibag here if the BJP government which has announced to do so quite late fails to act.

Addressing the Mahasankalp rally of her party at the Kala Bhuvan ground here Mayawati focused most of her over half an hour long speech on Ambedkar only.

She elaborated on how he had to face humiliation here during his stay at a guest house for belonging to a lower caste. ‘The incident of his being thrown out of the local guest house of Parsi community took him to the banyan tree in Kamatibag where he resolved to end untouchabality and get the honour of lower castes back,’ she said adding that he was compelled to work for the then Baroda state for monetary reasons.

‘In the past the so called upper castes with Manuvadi mentality behaved with so call Shudra and Ati Shudras in a manner worse than how the beasts are dealt with. Despite the SC, ST and OBC being 60 to 70 % of the population of the country they faced beast like behaviour and were treated like slaves. They were deprived of even basic rights and that was why large number of people from these communities converted to religions like Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism in the past too. Such was their plight that even after their large scale conversion owing to which such people make around 70 to 75% proportion of those religions in India, they were still treated in a step motherly manner,’ she said.

For taking birth in a Shudra family even Baba Saheb had to face a lot of insult and the incident of Gujarat was unforgettable, He did not find a place to live in Vadodara owing to his caste. He had to come to work here under obligation as he had taken money from the then Baroda state for his higher study abroad. When his luggage was thrown out of the guest house here where he was living hiding his caste, he became so pained that he also never came back here,’ Mayawati said.

She said that Ambedkar had requested the Britishers to ensure the rights of lower caste people before they left the country and in 1928 when the identification of SC and ST castes was being done, some of the lower caste people did not register for it as they were misled by upper caste people at that time. Later Ambedkar made a provision for them also under article 340 of the constitution. He completed his resolve but however knew that despite the provision of constitutional and legal rights for the lower caste people,, they won’t be benefited from it unless the key to it which was political power comes to them. They should have a separate political party which comes to power at center and in the states.

She lashed out at ruling BJP for ignoring the Sankalp bhoomi of Ambedkar for so long.

BSP supremo also paid tribute to Ambedkar at his sankalp bhoomi which was earlier visited by CM vijay Rupani today.

DeshGujarat