Centre must not repeat Congress's mistake, must confer Bharat Ratna on Kanshi Ram: Mayawati
Lucknow (PTI): BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday urged the Centre to confer the Bharat Ratna on party founder Kanshi Ram and not make the same mistake the Congress did with B R Ambedkar when it came to the award.
In a statement on Sunday on the birth anniversary of Kanshi Ram, Mayawati attacked the Samajwadi Party, Congress, and the BJP, saying they only talk about the Bahujan, but rarely work for their uplift.
"The Muslim community has significantly dissociated itself from these parties, and with the Brahmin community associating with the BSP, it seems that SP's political and caste-animosity have intensified," Mayawati said.
She hailed Kanshi Ram for his work for an egalitarian society and urged the BJP-led Centre to bestow the highest civilian award on him.
"Like the Congress party, which did not honour the architect of India's Constitution, Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, with Bharat Ratna, the current BJP-NDA government at the Centre should not make any further delay in honouring 'Bahujan' leader Kanshi Ram ji with the Bharat Ratna.
ALSO READ: Headless body of woman found in UP forest
"His contribution in creating an egalitarian society in the country, as enshrined in the Constitution, is historic, and for this reason, he too resides in the hearts of the people," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.
"He not only created a political force, but also formed a government in a large and important state like Uttar Pradesh, and made me its chief minister," she said about the Dalit icon.
Mayawati's statement came days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that had Jawaharlal Nehru been alive, then Kanshi Ram would have been made a chief minister from the Congress.
Nehru, India's first prime minister, died in 1964, while Kanshi Ram broke out onto the political scene with his founding of backwards-championing BAMCEF in 1978, and later bolstered his position with the formation of the Bahujan Samaj Party in 1984.
In his tribute to the Dalit icon, Rahul Gandhi on Friday said Mahatma Gandhi, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, and Kanshi Ram never compromised on their principles.
Gandhi was speaking at the Samvidhan Sammelan held in Lucknow ahead of Kanshi Ram's birth anniversary.
He said, "If Jawaharlal Nehru were alive, then Kanshi Ram would have been a chief minister from the Congress."
After Gandhi's speech, a proposal was passed resolving that when the Congress is voted to power, it would confer Kanshi Ram with a Bharat Ratna.
On Sunday, too, Gandhi appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer the Bharat Ratna on the BSP founder posthumously.
In a letter to Modi, Gandhi said Kanshi Ram transformed the nature of Indian politics and, through his movements, raised political awareness among Bahujans and the poor.
"As we commemorate the birth anniversary of Kanshi Ramji today and reflect on his legacy and contributions, I write with a request that he be awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously," the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said in the letter.
Born in Punjab's Rupnagar on March 15, 1934, Kanshi Ram worked for the upliftment and political mobilisation of people belonging to backward classes.
He founded the All India Backwards and Minorities Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF) in 1978, the Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti in 1981, before forming the BSP in 1984.
Kanshi Ram was elected to the Lok Sabha from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh in 1991 and from Hoshiarpur in Punjab in 1996. He also served as a Rajya Sabha member from 1998 to 2004.
Kanshi Ram died on October 9, 2006, in Delhi at 72.
Meanwhile, Mayawati accused the Samajwadi Party and other opposition parties of making empty talk about the welfare of Bahujans, and asserted that BSP is the only party working for their interests.
"In reality, even among parties that exploit Dalits, other backward castes and the Muslim at every level, especially the SP, and its love for PDA ('Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak) is pure eyewash. They remember these communities and their great men only during the elections. Once they form the government, they disregard them," Mayawati said.
Mayawati, accompanied by senior party leaders, paid floral tributes to Kanshi Ram's portrait and statue at the BSP's central camp office in Lucknow.
The BSP chief appealed to the Bahujan community to maintain a safe distance from parties that seek to dilute the power of the Bahujan vote by luring them to make MPs and MLAs.
Mayawati also criticised the opposition parties for renaming the Manyavar Shri Kanshiram Urdu, Arabic, and Persian University in Lucknow, established in 2009 by her government, to Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University.
According to the party statement, BSP workers from 12 administrative divisions of Uttar Pradesh gathered at the Manyavar Shri Kanshiram Ji Memorial in the state capital to pay tributes to Kanshi Ram.
Workers from six divisions in western Uttar Pradesh garlanded the statue of Kanshi Ram at Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal in Gautam Buddha Nagar.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Trump pauses Project Freedom, claims great progress for final agreement with Iran
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump has suspended “Project Freedom,” to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, claiming progress in negotiations with Iran toward an agreement to end the war.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said, “Great progress has been made toward a complete and final agreement with representatives of Iran.”
“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump said.
Project Freedom was launched on Monday to escort ships, stranded due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, out to safety. Trump had announced the operation on Sunday and the US Central Command began implementing it the next day.
However, the Project led to friction in the vicinity of the narrow seaway, a key route for transporting one-fifth of the global oil supplies, with the UAE claiming that its ships were attacked by Iran. The US also claimed to have destroyed several Iranian small boats.
Trump’s statement on Truth Social came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Operation Epic Fury, launched on February 28, had concluded as its objectives have been achieved.
"Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation. We're not cheering for an additional situation to occur. We would prefer the path of peace. What @POTUS would prefer is a deal... that is, so far, not the route that Iran has chosen," Rubio told a press conference at the White House on Tuesday.
On Project Freedom, Rubio said the goal was to rescue almost 23,000 civilians from 87 different countries who were trapped inside the Persian Gulf and left for dead by the Iranian regime.
"This is not an offensive operation. This is a defensive operation, and what that means is very simple: there’s no shooting unless we're shot at first. We’re not attacking them, but if they're attacking us or they’re attacking a ship, you need to respond to that," Rubio said.
