India: Huge rally marks 25 years of downtrodden’s party

Tens of thousands of people from all over the country, including Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, gathered in the Uttar Pradesh capital city, Lucknow, Monday for Chief Minister Mayawati's rally to mark the Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) 25th anniversary celebrations.

The silver jubilee celebrations at the Ramabai Ambedkar grounds coincided with party founder Kanshi Ram's birthday. Rough estimates put the crowds figure at nearly 20 lakh participants from across the country, party officials claimed. BSP president Mayawati had the most pleasant surprise in store for her when her party workers from Karnataka garlanded her with a special garland believed to be made of Rs 1000 currency notes worth Rs. 5 crore.

The BSP, which was founded on April 14, 1984, with a pro-Dalit agenda, completed 25 years last year, but the celebration could not be held then because of Lok Sabha elections.

"Apart from gearing up the cadre for the upcoming assembly elections, Behenji (Mayawati) will also highlight the achievements of her government in order to give a befitting reply to our opponents, who try every means to malign the party's image," a BSP functionary said.

A 7,000 square metre dining hall was also set up that will offer a variety of Indian delicacies and dishes to the rally participants. The 12 km route from Hazratganj, the heart of the city, to the rally venue at Ramabai Ambedkar grounds was draped in blue. Be it the decorative lights, the welcome arches, banners and hoardings, and even the lights around fountains at major road junctions, everything was painted blue.

The Rs.1,200 crore Ambedkar Memorial was alsobeen decorated, while all advertisement hoardings all along the thoroughfare to the venue seemed to have been taken over by the BSP. Mayawati's portrait was emblazoned on the freshly painted hoardings.

Meanwhile, parties across the political spectrum, including the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Monday joined hands against the communal violence in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district, leading to the Lok Sabha being adjourned.

Speaker Meira Kumar initially allowed SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to raise the issue of the violence in Bareilly, parts of which have been under curfew since March 2. Mulayam Singh alleged that the district and state administrations in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)-ruled state were responsible for the violence. "The state government is spending state resources to hold rallies. They are not interested in restoring peace in the city. Even children are suffering because of the violence and the curfew,“ he said.

Congress MP Jagadambika Pal and Janata Dal-United's Sharad Yadav agreed and reiterated that the Mayawati-led government had failed to curb the violence and asked the central government to make a statement. The BJP also stepped in and asked the speaker to allow Aonla MP Maneka Gandhi to speak on the issue. Maneka Gandhi, along with party colleagues Rajendra Aggarwal (Meerut MP) and Yogi Adityanath (Gorakhpur MP), were prevented from reaching Bareilly Sunday morning by the police, fearing provocative comments.

A minor communal clash followed by sporadic arson March 2 afternoon led the administration to clamp curfew in several parts of Bareilly. What started with the exchange of hot words between members of rival communities almost instantly snowballed into a violent clash as members of a particular community went on an arson spree, burning down a few shops. With no fresh incident of violence reported, curfew was on Monday relaxed in all the five police station areas of the riot-torn city.

- Asian Tribune -