UP chief minister Mayawati on Sunday beat the chilling temperatures with her fiery speech when she directly accused the Congress of betraying Muslims.
She demanded that the OBC quota should be increased to accommodate quota for Muslims and said that if a constitutional amendment to this effect was needed, her party would readily support it.
The chief minister, who was addressing a mammoth rally for Muslims, thakurs and vaishyas in Lucknow on Sunday, chose the occasion to pound the Congress, BJP and Samajwadi Party, all three of whom have been mounting a blistering attack on her in recent weeks.
However, she also displayed signs of nervousness when she warned her party cadres that if “by mistake” the Congress came to power in UP, it will bring back poverty for all.
“The Congress is asking you to give it five years but the party has been in power for almost 40 years and what has it done for UP?” she asked and said that the Congress had lost its ‘mental balance’ and was levelling baseless charges against her.
Ms Mayawati said the Congress alone was responsible for the poor condition of Muslims across the nation as it has betrayed the community since the very beginning.
“The report of Sachar Committee proves that the Congress has done nothing for Muslims, if it had, the condition of the community would not have been so bad,” she said.
The chief minister pointed out that the Congress had merely used Muslims as a vote bank and maximum communal riots had taken place in UP during the Congress regimes and the Babri mosque was also demolished with Congress support. The Congress, she alleged, was soft towards communal organisations. “Muslims live under the shadow of fear in Congress regime,” she added.
The chief minister said that the Samajwadi Party, which also lays claim to Muslim votes, had done nothing for Muslims while her government had always worked for Muslim welfare and had given respect and adequate representation to Muslims and did not allow communal violence in the state.