SP ka naara hai, khaali plot hamara hai: BSP reply to Azam's Ambedkar remark

MEERUT: Opposition BSP on Tuesday reacted sharply to Samajwadi Party minister Azam Khan’s statement on the statues of BR Ambedkar and alleged that it simply reflected “anti-Dalit outlook” of his party.

The UP minister, although indirectly, suggested on Monday that the statues of Ambedkar were used to illegally grab lands.

Khan, who accompanied chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to Ghaziabad, told a public rally: “The statue (of Ambedkar) pointing its finger into the distance seems to say that not only does it own the plot of land on which it stands, but also the one towards which it points its finger.”

Slamming the controversial minister, Sunil Jaatav, Meerut district president of BSP, said, “Azam Khan seems to have revealed his own party’s agenda by talking about encroachment of land, but he has wrongfully brought Ambedkar into the picture. SP ‘ka nara hai, khaali plot hamara hai’ (It is in fact SP’s slogan that all the vacant plots belonged to them).”

BSP’s Meerut zonal coordinator Raviraj Singh described the Azam’s remarks as anti-Dalit.

“The remark simply reflects the anti-Dalit outlook of Khan and his party. We don’t want to get into a war of words with somebody who does not even respect BR Ambedkar -- who drafted the Constitution. They are anyway going to lose the UP polls,” the BSP leader said.

Jatav on Monday had also said that the Khan's remarks were a reflection of his and SP's “anti-Dalit mindset”. “It is a known fact that Khan suffers from verbal diarrhoea. We are awaiting party chief Mayawati's directions on the action we should take.”

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