Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Friday welcomed the announcement of Bharat Ratna for former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh as well as agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, and demanded that BSP founder Kanshi Ram should also be honoured with the highest civilian award.
In a post on X, Mayawati said, “All the personalities who have been honoured with Bharat Ratna by the present BJP government are welcome. But in this matter, it is not appropriate to disrespect and ignore especially the Dalit personalities. The government must pay attention to this also.”
She further said, “After a long wait, Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was honoured with the title of Bharat Ratna by the government of Shri VP Singh. After that, the struggle done by respected Shri Kanshiram ji, the messiah of the Dalits and the neglected, in their interests is no less. The government must pay attention to this also,” she said.
Rao and Singh as well as Swaminathan will be honoured with the Bharat Ratna, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday. Born in Punjab’s Rupnagar on March 15, 1934, Kanshi Ram worked for the upliftment and political mobilisation of the backward classes.
He founded Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS-4), All India Backwards (SC/ST/OBC) and Minorities Communities Employees’ Federation (BAMCEF) in 1971 before the BSP in 1984.
He died on October 9, 2006 in Delhi. Kanshi Ram was the Lok Sabha MP from Hoshiarpur in Punjab from 1996 to 1998 and from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh from 1991 to 1996. He was also a Rajya Sabha member from 1998 to 2004.
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