'Govt to continue to build memorials'

“We shall not succumb to any pressure come what may',” Mayawati announced while addressing the media after paying floral tributes to dalit icon B R Ambedkar on his 119th birth anniversary here.

The chief minister said that her party was ready to pay any price to safeguard the honour of dalit icons.

Mayawati alleged that during its long rule in the country after independence, the Congress had ignored the interests of the dalits and never bothered to show respect to the dalit icons because of its ‘casteist mentality’.

“Had the Congress and other parties showed respect for the dalit icons and built memorials in their honour, our government would not have to build parks and memorials'', she said.

Alleging that the Congress was always ‘anti-Ambedkar’, Mayawati said that the party did not confer ‘Bharat Ratna’ on the dalit icon. “Bharat Ratna was conferred on Ambedkar under BSP pressure by a non-Congress government'', she said.

Reffering to the Women Reservation Bill, the BSP supremo said that her party was in favour of granting quota within quota for dalit, backward and poor women from the upper castes.
The chief minister also launched her party's countrywide agitation against the Bill and asked the partymen to participate in the demonstration in a big way to make it a success.

She said that she would be undertaking an aerial survey of some districts to boost the morale of the party workers and leaders.