'SP must remember...': Mayawati slams Akhilesh with guest house case over Ramcharitmanas row

In the ongoing Ramcharitmanas row in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has slammed the Samajwadi Party and reminded her of the infamous guest house incident.

In a series of tweets on Friday, Mayawati said, “SP must remember what he did on June 2, 1995 at a guest house in Lucknow to a Dalit community leader. SP leaders and workers attacked the daughter of the Dalit community who was to become the Chief Minister. She criticized SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on his Shudra issue, calling it an insult to backward and Dalit communities.

Mayawati said that the Constitution of India is the holy book for the poor, weaker and disadvantaged sections of society in the country, not the Ramcharitmanas. She said that Dr. Ambedkar called these sections as SC, ST and OBC not Shudras. Apart from violating the constitution, the SP chief insults them by calling them Shudras. Only BSP protects the dignity of SC, ST, OBC and Muslims.

SP national general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya said that Mayawati should now forget the guest house episode. "She has joined hands with Akhilesh Yadav in the 2019 general elections. There is no point in retaliating an old incident now," he said, adding that Mayawati was losing her base in UP. That's why he makes such statements.

Notably, a heated debate has been going on in UP for the past 12 days after SP leader Maurya made derogatory remarks against Ramcharitmanas. Maurya termed Ramcharitmanas orthodox literature which contains derogatory verses against Dalits and backwards.

Irritated by his remark, Hindu troops demanded action against Maurya and an FIR was lodged against him. However, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, undeterred by the controversy, appointed Maurya as the party's national general secretary. Yadav went a step further and said that the BJP is treating him like a Shudra. For the BJP, the Dalits and the backward in the country were the Shudras. Soon after Akhilesh's remark, billboards with the slogan "Garva Se Kaho Hum Shudra Hain" (Proud to be a Shudra) were erected in Lucknow. Akhilesh dared UP CM Yogi Adityanath to explain in the state assembly whether BJP considers OBC, Dalit as Shudra or not.