BJP, BSP slam SP over disrespect to Ambedkar in Lucknow

The BJP staged a protest near the statue of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar at a prominent Lucknow intersection on Wednesday as the issue of posters which show half of Ambedkar’s face juxtaposed against half of Akhilesh Yadav’s, grew knottier. The state’s commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has, meanwhile, demanded that police reports be filed against those who were responsible for the posters.

These posters had come up around the office of the Samajwadi Party on April 28- the day a meeting of the party’s Lohia wing had taken place. Interestingly, at that meeting, members of the wing had taken a pledge to uphold the principles of the Constitution and protect the right to reservation.

Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati decried the ‘poster war’. On Wednesday morning, she took to X to say, “All parties should unite and support the government in every step taken by it regarding the Pahalgam terror attack. Instead of doing dirty politics under its cover by putting up posters and making statements etc., because this is creating confusion among the people, which is not good for the country.”

She warned that if the architect of the Indian Constitution was insulted at all, especially by the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, the BSP would take to the streets against the parties.

Lalji Prasad Nirmal, an MLC, said cutting off Baba Saheb’s picture in half was highly insulting.

Nirmal, who has served as the chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation, said Yadav was anti-Dalit as during his tenure he had done away with quota in promotions. He alleged that the lakhs of Dalit officers and employees who had suffered the pain of demotion had not forgotten it as yet.

While protests were planned for all over the state on Wednesday, in Lucknow, the placards held by BJP workers referred to Yadav as a ‘traitor’.

India