Wednesday, April 14, 2010

[ZESTCaste] BSP leader shot dead during Ambedkar Jayanti programme

 

http://www.ptinews.com/news/609575_BSP-leader-shot-dead-during-Ambedkar-Jayanti-programme

BSP leader shot dead during Ambedkar Jayanti programme

STAFF WRITER 18:22 HRS IST
Gonda (UP), Apr 14 (PTI) A local BSP leader and member of the Zila
Panchayat Hanuman Saran Shukla was shot dead this afternoon during an
Ambedkar Jayanti programme here.

Police said Shukla was shot at by an unknown assailant when he came on
the dais after garlanding a portrait of Ambedkar at the Panchayat
Sabhagar.

Shukla, who suffered injuries in the head, was rushed to a hospital
where doctors declared him brought dead, police added.

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[ZESTCaste] Bihar govt committed to improve lot of Dalits: Nitish

 

http://www.ptinews.com/news/609727_Bihar-govt-committed-to-improve-lot-of-Dalits--Nitish

Bihar govt committed to improve lot of Dalits: Nitish

STAFF WRITER 19:38 HRS IST
Patna, Apr 14 (PTI) Expressing his commitment to improve the lot of
Dalits, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said they should be
brought back to the mainstream of the society.

Inaugurating the 'Mahadalit Vikas Jagrukta Abhiyan', oragsnised by
ruling JD-U here at S K Memorial hall, Kumar said the NDA government
during its four and half years of rule had taken a number of steps to
improve the lot of dalits.

Kumar said the Bihar government took measures to improve the lot of
Dalits by constituting the 'Mahadalit Commission' on August 15, 2007
with the mandate 'to identify the last man of the society and suggest
measures to improve his lot.

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[ZESTCaste] BJP quotes Antyoday to woo Dalits

http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/newdelhi/BJP-quotes-Antyoday-to-woo-Dalits/Article1-530934.aspx

BJP quotes Antyoday to woo Dalits
Vikas Pathak

New Delhi, April 13, 2010
First Published: 23:50 IST(13/4/2010)
Last Updated: 23:52 IST(13/4/2010)


Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said social justice should be a commitment
and not a "drama" aimed at publicity, in an oblique attack on Rahul
Gandhi's attempts to reach out to Dalits.

The BJP chief said the party, inspired by Deen Dayal Upadhyay's
Antyoday, shared B.R. Ambedkar's ideal of social justice without
seeing it as a mere instrument for power.

Gadkari, speaking on the eve of Ambedkar Jayanti, launched an attack
on Maoists while invoking the Dalit icon. His argument: the
Constitution, which the Maoists wanted to destroy, was an outcome of
Ambedkar's efforts. "We will strongly oppose the Maoists who attack Dr
Ambedkar's constitution."

LK Advani delivered the same message in Badami in Karnataka: root out
Maoism and recall Ambedkar's contributions.

Though Gadkari did not refer directly to Congress leader Rahul, the
context had been set by BJP spokesperson Ramnath Kovind, a Dalit.
"Rahul Gandhi's meals at Dalit houses are just for publicity," Kovind
said minutes before Gadkari. "But Gadkariji did not resort to dikhaava
(showing off)."

Gadkari has been attempting to expand the BJP's Dalit base as part of
a larger attempt to increase the party's vote share by 10 percentage
points.


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[ZESTCaste] CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY DEBATES

 
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[ZESTCaste] The War of the Garlands

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/04/14/the-war-of-the-garlands/

April 14, 2010, 9:02 AM IST

The War of the Garlands

By Tripti Lahiri
The next elections are far away, but on the birthday of Bhimrao Ramji
Ambedkar, the country's political parties will be fighting for his
legacy in a place named — what else? — Ambedkar Nagar.


AFP/Getty Images
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Kumari attends a prayer in front
of an Ambedkar statue. Some battles are fought with bullets. This one,
we're pretty sure, will be fought with garlands.

Mr. Ambedkar, a graduate of Columbia University who is the father of
India' constitution, was also a member of the ostracized group at the
bottom of India's caste hierarchy once known as "untouchables" but
called "Dalits," which shaped his thinking on rights and justice and
made him an icon for the community.

"The best gift which he has given to the country is the respect for
the individual," said Vijay Bahadur Singh, a minister of parliament
from the Dalit-supported Bahujan Samaj Party that rules Uttar Pradesh,
where Ambedkar Nagar is located.

Mr. Singh said his party, headed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati Kumari, will mark the day with speeches at local headquarters
about Mr. Ambedkar's ideals as well as protests against legislation
drafted by the governing Congress Party to reserve a third of
parliamentary seats for women, which Mr. Singh called
"anti-development."


European Pressphoto Agency
Rahul Gandhi addresses a press conference during a January state visit
to Bhopal, India. On the same day and at the same place, Rahul Gandhi,
scion of the Gandhi political dynasty and minister of parliament from
Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, will be there to flag off Congress's
celebrations, party members confirmed. Newspapers have reported that
Mr. Gandhi will send traveling parties to different parts of India's
biggest state to talk about the party's history.

"Rahul Gandhi is attempting to take the battle into the BSP camp. They
are hoping to storm the citadel," said political analyst Mahesh
Rangarajan, who frequently writes on Uttar Pradesh politics. "Whether
they will succeed is a different matter altogether."

Mr. Gandhi has been credited with helping his party dramatically
improve its showing in the state in the 2009 national elections, and
his visits to Dalit households for cups of tea and slumber parties
have been widely covered by the press.

The Bahujan Samaj Party is unhappy about the scheduling.

"If they are so enamored with Dr. Ambedkar they would have made a
program not clashing with our program," said Mr. Singh. "He's going to
garland the statue of Ambedkarji on the 14th, and we are having a
meeting in the same place. Same place, same statue. There is bound to
be a law and order problem."

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is organizing
Wednesday's celebrations, could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Rangarajan said that a serious political struggle was going on
between the two parties over how best "to get to a just society."

"I think it's a fight for a legacy and it's a fight for the future —
centrist liberalism versus a formation that that sees itself as
socially radical," said Mr. Rangarajan.


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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati, Rahul Gandhi in Ambedkar row

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mayawati-rahul-gandhi-in-ambedkar-row/606224/

Mayawati, Rahul Gandhi in Ambedkar row

Agencies Posted online: Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 at 1443 hrs
New Delhi : As BSP and Congress play the Dalit card on the birth
anniversary of B R Ambedkar, the district authorities here today told
Rahul Gandhi that he could garland the Dalit icon's statue only after
Mayawati's party function was over.
Congress Legislative Party leader Pramod Tewari said his party had
sought written permission from the district administration for
39-year-old Rahul to garland Ambedkar's statue here.

"We had sought written permission but were denied the same," he said.

However, District Magistrate Kunwar Vikram Singh said, "We have not
denied permission but we will allow the garlanding of the statue by
Congress leaders only after the BSP's function ends here."

The BSP's function here is scheduled from 10 am to 4 pm while the
Congress function is planned from 10 am to 2 pm.

Congress accused BSP of attempting to monopolise Ambedkar's legacy,
saying that it belongs to the entire nation.

"It is very unfortunate. This is trying to monopolise a legacy which
belongs to the entire country. Nobody has exclusive rights on the
memory or the teachings of any national leader. No political party
should try to monopolise the legacy of our national leaders," Party
spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said in New Delhi.

He said the values, teachings and the goodwill generated by Ambedkar
were not the exclusive domain of any one.

UPCC President Rita Bahuguna Joshi complained that the entire
administration was trying to prevent people from coming to Ambedkar
Nagar by diverting the routes.

"I had a fight with the District Magistrate this morning. We have told
them that we have taken enough lying low," she said.

Both the Congress and BSP are preparing to play their Dalit card on
the 119th birth anniversary of Ambedkar and both the parties have
organised functions at a short distance of each other in this
district. The Ambedkar statue in question is in the middle of the two
places.

Tight security arrangements have been made in the district with the
AICC general secretary scheduled to flag off Chetna Yatra (awareness
drive) to mark 125 years of party's establishment, and BSP planning to
stage a demonstration against "wrong policies" of the UPA government
and "short comings" in the Women Reservation bill.

On the directives of Mayawati, a battery of senior leaders, including
state cabinet ministers, will stage a demonstration, they said.

Ambedkar Nagar, which has a sizeable Dalit population, holds
significance for the BSP as it had been represented by Mayawati thrice
in Lok Sabha in 1998, 1999 and 2004. Meanwhile, Rahul, visiting the
district for the second time, is scheduled to flag off 10 vehicles to
cover all the 403 assembly constituencies in the state to form part of
party's Chetna yatra, a senior party leader said, adding he will also
address a rally.

The rath yatras that the Congress will launch from Ambedkarnagar will
constitute the most ambitious exercise the party has ever undertaken
to capture UP's political mindspace. The 10 yatras will be spread out
over 103 days, and each will last 90 days. Between them, they will
reach every one of the state's 403 Assembly constituencies.

To ensure the success of the programme, senior party leaders,
including Rita Bahuguna Joshi, are already camping in the area.

"The party has mobilised workers from adjoining districts, including
Barabanki, Gonda, Faizabad, Azamgarh and Basti, for the function,"
party sources had said.

"Four companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) have been
dispatched to the district from DGP headquarters," Additional Director
General of Police Brij Lal had said yesterday, adding that IG Faizabad
has been asked to arrange additional force.

The sources had said that two additional SPs, five deputy SPs, 40
sub-inspectors, 50 head constables and 150 constables from the
adjoining districts would also be deployed.


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[ZESTCaste] The rights choice (Opinion)

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/The-rights-choice/605969

The rights choice

D. Raja Posted online: Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 at 0238 hrs
Every year, on the 14th of April, thinkers and political activists
revisit Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, and each time, return with
refreshingly new ideas. Well before many of the world's nascent
democracies could emerge as strong democratic countries, he
contributed immensely to the establishment of a democratic polity
here, laying the foundation of a democratic republic interlaced with
the philosophy of liberty,that has given a true meaning to freedom.
Except for a few eccentrics who use communal fanaticism to hound out
any creativity, we still hold on to the values of liberty of
expression, freedom of speech and above all the freedom to pursue any
entrepreneurial venture. Ambedkar's birthday is not a celebration for
only Dalits, tribals and the marginalised, but also for women who
crave emancipation, for all those who are fighting for revolutionary
change. The people owe the civil rights they access to Ambedkar. And
it is not as if, one fine morning after independence. Ambedkar listed
all those fundamental rights and incorporated them in the
constitution: it was a hard-fought, step-by-step battle, born out of
his own life experiences and sufferings that Ambedkar conceptualised
the civil rights of every citizen of a nation where everybody is to be
equal. But for Ambedkar the accessibility of basic necessities of life
namely food, water, shelter and clothing are not the only ones that
are needed to survive. It is the right to be treated as an equal, and
it is the reclamation of human personality that drove him to push for
the civil rights that would allow a fellow human being to be able to
walk on the streets with his chin up, to enter any hotel, restaurant,
barber shop, cinema hall, bus, train, to be treated as an equal. Such
a concept of civil rights is the contribution made by Ambedkar to the
nation. The Constitution of India abolished untouchability and passed
a law in 1955 to enforce the civil rights of all individuals,
including Dalits, called the Untouchability Offences Act — later
renamed the Protection of Civil Rights Act. This piece of legislation
is an exquisite exposition of what constitutes civil rights, granting
access to shops, places of entertainment, restaurants, processions,
public conveyances, water. India never needed a Rosa Parks; the
freedoms that Ambedkar stealthily integrated into the constitutional
conscience of the nation came well before the March to Washington for
jobs and freedom in August 1963. In our first three decades, thanks to
Ambedkar, our rights used the civil rights concept of equal access.
The next two decades, as a nation, we moved to the civil liberties
concept, in which the state machinery chose to deny the fundamental
freedoms that accrue to every one of us. Very soon, though, access
rights began to be demanded by the poor, the disadvantaged and the
oppressed of our country — using, now, the human rights perspective
under the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act of 1989 were
born of this period, an indication of the necessity to have a far more
stringent law. Today Dalit human rights organisations use these laws
to reassert claims to freedoms for the oppressed. Undoubtedly the
existence of the directive principles of state policy in the
Constitution allowed many, including the judiciary, to push the
modern-day claims of the common man to livelihood and right to life.
The country would have been a far better place to live in had the
directive principles — some of which Ambedkar wanted to be on par with
fundamental rights in the first place — were understood by those in
power. Were the realisation to dawn on us, on Ambedkar's birthday,
that civil rights, civil liberties and human rights, despite their
nomenclature, are yet to be realised fully, then that would be the
greatest tribute we could pay to him. The nation should rededicate
itself to providing a reasonable life to every citizen: education for
all, employment for all, health care for all, housing and a clean and
healthy environment for all. But as the country progresses along the
neo-liberal paradigm of development, the oppressive state machinery
and the unequal society have more brutal methods to repress demands
for rights.


The writer is national secretary of the CPI and a Rajya Sabha MP


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[ZESTCaste] Nepal: Dalit commission report on Bardiya killing

 

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Dalit+commission+report+on+Bardiya+killing&NewsID=237889

Dalit commission report on Bardiya killing
Last Updated : 2010-04-08 11:20 PM
The Himalayan Times - Saved Articles(s)

Rastriya Samachar Samiti

KATHMANDU: The National Dalit Commission today made its report public
on Bardiya killings.

The report says that Nepal Army personnel raped Devisara BK, Amrita BK
and 12-year-old Chandrakala BK and killed them.

The Commission has recommended that the Government provide Rs. 1
million to the victims' family as compensation and manage free
education and means of livelihood for the affected children

Nepal Army personnel deployed in Bardiya National Park, Bardiya had
killed the three on March 10 accusing them of poaching.

Earlier, the National Human Rights Commission also had recommended the
government to initiate action against the Army personnel involved in
the murder.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalits reiterate vow to uplift community

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_dalits-reiterate-vow-to-uplift-community_1371090

Dalits reiterate vow to uplift community
Neeta Kolhatkar / DNATuesday, April 13, 2010 23:43 IST

Mumbai: On the 119th birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar,
several members of the Dalit community say they have incorporated the
leader's ideologies in their day-to-day lives, but reiterated that
it's time others understood his teachings as well.

Jogendra Kawade, a Dalit leader, said: "Politically, Mayawati is
carrying on the Dalit legacy, but that doesn't mean she is taking
forward the ideas of Babasaheb."

According to deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, leaders in
Maharashtra cannot afford to ignore this great leader. "It is that
true that some people have tried to use his [Ambedkar's] name to gain
political mileage. But it is unfair to say all politicians do that,"
he said.

Most Dalit politicians affirm their affiliation to Babasaheb's
ideologies, but his real followers are the ordinary Dalits.

For instance, in 2002, Pralhadrao Hatkar from Nanded opened a school
in his house for poor Dalit children. "Babasaheb had said that even if
you have little, share it with others," he said.

Nitin Lone, who has set up a water-packaging business in Marathwada,
employs youth for various jobs. "I want to ensure that people of our
community do not remain backward."

Jagdish Nagarkar, a social activist, said: "We are what we are because
of Babasaheb. Ambedkar Jayanti is the day of revolution and
inspiration for us."


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[ZESTCaste] BSP, Cong laocked in a keen battle to woo Dalits

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/BSP-Cong-laocked-in-a-keen-battle-to-woo-Dalits/articleshow/5798681.cms

BSP, Cong laocked in a keen battle to woo Dalits


13 Apr 2010, 2301 hrs IST,Man Mohan Rai,ET Bureau

LUCKNOW: Though the crucial 2012 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh
are almost two years away but the clarion call for the big battle
would be
given on Wednesday by the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress,
which is increasingly occupying the vocal opposition space in the
state.

The Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi would be flagging of his
party's 'yatra' (long march) in 10 different directions of the state
from BSP czarina Mayawati's hometurf of Ambedkar Nagar on Wednesday,
which significantly is the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar.

Rahul Gandhi who has increasingly been concentrating to win back the
state for his party seems to have chosen the day and date purposefully
to take on Mayawati.

Ambedkar Nagar holds special significance in the BSP lexicon. Besides
having a large Dalit population, it has twice been represented by
Mayawati in the past. The Chief Minister had earlier also renamed the
district known as Akbarpur to Ambedkar Nagar after the Dalit icon.

Choosing the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar to launch the party
campaign is also symbolically important, as the Congress has been
looking to dent the Dalit votebank of Mayawati.

Not to be outdone Mayawati, who has often seen red over Rahul Gandhi's
efforts to woo her devoted Dalit votebank, has also declared the start
of her party's political campaign from the same place and day raising
political temperatures in the state.

Mayawati has called on her party cadre to hold demonstration against
the Women's Reservation Bill, a subject close of the Congress chief
Sonia Gandhi's heart, in all districts of the state on Wednesday.
Mayawati has even declared that she would be under taking an aerial
survey of the party demonstration across the state and BSP sources say
that she might even land up in Ambedkar Nagar taking everyone by
surprise.

After this the BSP would be holding a series of demonstrations, aimed
at the Congress and its "anti-Dalit mindset", in one district after
another starting May onwards till the year end, which would cover the
entire state.

With the Congress 'yatra' also expected to cover all districts of UP
over the next few months both the party's would be locked in a keen
political confrontation.

Already the party cadres in Ambedkar Nagar have been locked in a
tussle over putting up their posters and banners and things are
expected to intensify as the campaign of the two parties proceed.

Mayawati who after sensing disquiet in the BSPs committed Dalit
votebank over her social engineering experiment to bring Brahmins and
Dalits together has now gone back to the party basics.

While Rahul Gandhi hoped to cash in on this unrest among the Dalits
over Mayawati's social engineering experiments, she was quick to allay
their apprehensions. Her move to sideline trusted lieutenant and the
party's Brahmin face Satish Chandra Mishra was seen in the same light.

Chief Minister Mayawati has now sharply turned back her focus on
Dalits and to counter any move by the Congress to try and dent her
votebank. But with the Congress under Rahul Gandhi bent on taking the
battle to Mayawati's court the political scene has already intensified
in the state much ahead of the assembly polls.


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[ZESTCaste] Dalit face missing, BJP still out to climb bandwagon

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/dalit-face-missing-bjp-still-out-to-climb-bandwagon/605576/

Dalit face missing, BJP still out to climb bandwagon

Tarannum Manjul Posted online: Tuesday , Apr 13, 2010 at 0457 hrs
Lucknow : The BJP is all set to woo the Dalits — despite lacking a
single recognised Dalit leader.
The party has planned a campaign against the Ranganath Mishra
Committee's recommendation for SC quota reservation for Dalits who
converted to Christianity or Islam. Under the banner of the BJP's
Aarakshan Bachao Manch, its Dalit leaders are to travel across the
state.

The Manch has its agenda in place for the next five months. The first
programme — held in Lucknow on Sunday — was attended by national
general secretary Thavarchand Gehlot, along with national spokesperson
Ramnath Kovind and the national secretary Ashok Pradhan.

Diwakar Seth, state coordinator of the Manch, said, "We will initially
start with the mahanagars." This will be followed by programmes in
districts and then protests and dharnas at the tehsil level.

"We are opposing the Ranganath Mishra Committee report, which says
that Dalits who have converted into Islam or Christianity should also
be given reservation under the SC quota," he said. "We will tell
people what steps different BJP governments at the state and the
Centre had taken for them."

But the party's problem is the absence of recognisable Dalit faces in
the state.

The only name mentioned is that of former MP Ashok Pradhan, who is
little known outside Aligarh and Bulandshahr districts. The Manch is
relying chiefly on Rajnath Singh and party state president Ramapati
Ram Tripathi.

Party insiders, however, say this lacunae will not help to strike a
chord with the state's Dalit population.

"Gehlot is not well known even in the party," a senior leader pointed
out. "On Sunday, it was found that only senior workers knew who he
was. He too seemed to be finding it difficult to relate with the
people here."

Like Gehlot, Kovind too is an unknown face in UP.

The state BJP, he said, needs Dalit faces. "We have to fight against
the Congress and the BSP who are better placed in this aspect," he
added.


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[ZESTCaste] Battle for Dalit votes hots up in Bihar

 

http://toi.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Battle-for-Dalit-votes-hots-up-in-Bihar/articleshow/5768421.cms

Battle for Dalit votes hots up in Bihar
Dipak Mishra, TNN, Apr 7, 2010, 01.07am IST

PATNA: The battle for the Dalit votes is on in Bihar. The stakes for
state's tallest Dalit leader, Ram Vilas Paswan, is high and he has
been busy trying to counter his chief political advisory chief
minister Nitish Kumar on the issue. Holding a series of meetings,
Paswan has given a call to Dalits to boycott Nitish Kumar for
allegedly insulting them by calling them "Mahadalits". His party has
petitioned the National SC/ST Commission chairman Sardar Buta Singh to
direct the state government to dissolve the Mahadalit Commission.

He has also ridiculed Nitish's claim on showering gifts to Dalits and
makes promises. "When we return to power we will purchase back the
house of late Bhola Paswan Sastri (former CM of Bihar) and turn it
into a museum. Nitish recently remarked that he would rename a park in
Sastri's name as if he was doing a favour to some beggar," Paswan
said. He alleged that the 3-decimel land given to Dalits were
"troubled land". "We will give each Dalit family one bigha of land
when we come to power," he said.

During the last three years, Nitish has been targetting the section of
Dalits he has christened as Mahadalits consisting of 23 of the 24
Dalit sub-castes __ leaving out only Paswans from the ambit.
Originally he included 18 of them. He added four more. Just after the
defeat in the bypolls, he added the Ravidas sub-caste-who are
numerically even stronger than the Paswans.The NDA organized the
Mahadalit meet in Patna which was considered in political circles as a
success.

"Our government has provided 18 per cent resevation to SCs and STs in
panchayat bodies as a result of which over 1,400 mukhiyas in the state
are Dalits," deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said. He also pointed towards
the government's initiative of providing Rs 10,000 to each Dalit
students who passed their exams in first division.

The LJP chief enjoyed the status of "King maker" in Bihar for a
decade. He used to flaunt the fact that when he was with the NDA the
political scales tilted towards the NDA and when he joined the UPA the
situation resevered with the UPA sweeping the polls. He declared that
because he had fougth the assembly polls independently, the NDA
managed to emerge victorious. However, the 2009 Lok Sabha stripped him
of the the "King-maker" image as the RJD-LJP alliance came a cropper
and Paswan himself lost. With his very political survival in the state
is under question. Paswan is going all out to maintain his Dalit
mascot image.

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[ZESTCaste] Rahul versus Maya on Ambedkar Jayanti

http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/lucknow/Rahul-versus-Maya-on-Ambedkar-Jayanti/Article1-530937.aspx

Rahul versus Maya on Ambedkar Jayanti

Umesh Raghuvanshi, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Lucknow, April 13, 2010
First Published: 23:56 IST(13/4/2010)
Last Updated: 10:20 IST(14/4/2010)


Congress general-secretary Rahul Gandhi is set to flag off a rally in
Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday to mark his party's 125th anniversary,
locking horns with the state's ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on its
own turf.

The BSP is also scheduled to hold a rally in the city on the same day,
the 119th birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar, who the BSP looks up to as
an inspirational Dalit figure.

Rahul's Chetna Yatra — a series of 10 rallies that will cover all 403
assembly constituencies of the state — will be flagged off in Ambedkar
Nagar district, 200 km from Lucknow.

The district has a sizeable population of Dalits, the BSP's main
support base, and has been represented by Chief Minister and BSP chief
Mayawati thrice in the Lok Sabha.

On Tuesday, the Congress moved an application before the district
administration seeking permission to garland an imposing Ambedkar
statue before flagging of the rallies.

"The local BSP unit has virtually taken custody of the Ambedkar
statue. BSP flags can be seen all around the statue. We have not heard
anything on the issue from the district administration," Rita Bahuguna
Joshi, president of the UPCC, told HT.

District authorities are yet to take a decision. "We received the
application from the Congress at 2.30 pm today (Tuesday). We have
sought a report from the police and a decision will be taken on the
issue thereafter," said district magistrate Kunwar Vikram Singh.

Congress leaders said the rallies had nothing to do with vote bank
politics and alleged the BSP was conniving to derail their plans. "The
district administration is acting at the behest of the BSP ministers
who are camping in Ambedkar Nagar. We are getting calls from Congress
workers in many districts about the denial or cancellation of bus
permits," said Joshi.

The BSP seemed concerned about the impact the rallies might have in
its stronghold. It has organised demonstrations on Wednesday against
the Congress-led central government.


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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati paints Lucknow blue for Ambedkar anniversary

 

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3816650

14/04/2010
Mayawati paints Lucknow blue for Ambedkar anniversary

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has virtually got the
city painted blue on the eve of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar's birth
anniversary.

Various memorials and monuments erected by Mayawati in different parts
of the state capital were draped in blue lights, while a net of tiny
blue lights was hung over every roundabout here.

Thousands of hoardings, posters, banners and buntings embossed with
pictures of the BSP supremo flanked all major thoroughfares of
Lucknow, which wore a festive look.

This was the second event within a month's span that Lucknow was
soaked in blue - the ruling BSP's colour - that had transformed the
city skyline. It was on March 15 - BSP founder and Mayawati's
political mentor Kanshi Ram's birth anniversary - when similar
adornment was witnessed here.

Besides her own pictures, Mayawati also made it a point to display
portraits of her party's ideologues and icons - Ambedkar, Narain Guru,
Shahuji Maharaj and Ramaswamy Periyar, besides of course Kanshi Ram -
all along the 18-km thoroughfare from the Lucknow airport to the
Ambedkar Memorial.

Other monuments, including Buddha Sthal, Kanshi Ram Memorial, Ramabai
Ambedkar Maidan, Kanshi Ram Eco Park, Prerna Bhawan etc., built by the
Uttar Pradesh chief minister at a cost of Rs.6,000 crore were also
decked up in blue. And so was the chief minister's official residence
as well as all key government buildings.

Hordes of BSP volunteers were expected to visit the state capital to
offer their tributes at the Ambedkar memorial, that was spruced up for
Wednesday's show.

Source: IANS

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