Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Thursday said the Congress, which was now seeking a caste census, had not implemented the Kalelkar and Mandal commission reports recommending reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Launching her party's election campaign in Chhattisgarh, she also criticised the BJP-led Union government for ignoring OBC, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes women while providing 33 per cent quota for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
Mayawati spoke at two election rallies in Jaijaipur and Bilaspur constituencies during the day.
“..now they (Congress) talk about caste census....after independence, Congress was in power at the Centre for many years but it neither implemented the Kaka Kalelkar commission report nor the Mandal commission recommendations,” she said in Jaijaipur.
Due to the struggle and efforts of the BSP, the Mandal commission recommendations were implemented by the V P Singh government, she claimed.
"V P Singh had offered two key portfolios to us in his government, but we refused and sought to fulfill our two demands – implementation of the Mandal commission report and Bharat Ratna for Babasaheb Ambedkar. Both demands were fulfilled by the V P Singh government," she added.
It was not the Congress which honoured Ambedkar with Bharat Ratna, she said.
The Narendra Modi government has provided 33 percent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies by bringing in the women reservation bill, but ST, SC and OBC women were not given a quota, Mayawati said.
Farmers in the country have been exploited during the rule of both Congress and BJP at the Centre, the BSP supremo said.
At the rally in Bilaspur, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister accused the BJP and Congress of ignoring the interests of Dalits, tribals and minorities.
Since independence, Dalits and tribals brought Congress to power but the grand old party did injustice to the poor, laborers, farmers and small traders, she said.
"Even today Dalits and tribals are deprived of the legal rights granted to them by the Constitution. If the governments at the Centre had worked honestly for their welfare, we would not have needed to form the BSP," Mayawati said.
Farmers have been bearing the brunt of the bad policies of the BJP-led Union government, and poverty, unemployment and inflation are rising in the country while only a few capitalists are growing, she alleged.
-With PTI Input
