Mayawati slams previous Samajwadi Party govt for changing Jyotiba Phule Nagar's name

"The SP government, driven by its narrow politics and casteist animosity, changed its name," Mayawati said.

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Saturday accused the previous Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh of changing the name of Jyotiba Phule Nagar district to Amroha.

In a post on X in Hindi, Mayawati said, "In the memory and honour of a distinguished figure from the Extremely Backward/OBC community, my BSP government undertook numerous initiatives here in UP --- including the creation of the new Jyotiba Phule Nagar district from Amroha. However, the SP government, driven by its narrow politics and casteist animosity, changed its name."

She also said that during the BSP government, Kasganj district was made Kanshiram Nagar; similarly, Kanpur Dehat was renamed as Ramabai Nagar, Sambhal as Bhimnagar, Shamli as Prabuddha Nagar, and Hapur as Panchsheel Nagar. The BSP chief charged that the SP government retained these districts, but it changed the names of all of them.

This reflects the extremely unfortunate conduct, character, and face of their PDA politics, she said.

Paying rich tributes to Phule, the BSP chief said, "On the occasion of his birth anniversary today, I along with the BSP offer my deepest respects and heartfelt tributes to Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, who is renowned as the great grandfather ('pitamaah') of social change in the country and was born into the 'Bahujan samaj' within the extremely backward classes.

"The names of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and his wife, Savitribai Phule, as pioneers of women's empowerment through the medium of education are etched in golden letters in the annals of history," Mayawati said in her post.

Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar drew inspiration from Jyotiba Phule, and later devoted special attention to the cause of education.

Furthermore, during the mid-nineteenth century, the monumental efforts undertaken by Mahatma Jyotiba Phule for the liberation of Dalits and the oppressed ignited a new spark of social change not only in Pune, but also across the entire state of Maharashtra, she said.

This period marked the inception of a historic movement for women's liberation and empowerment, a struggle for which no amount of praise or commendation would be sufficient, she said in a post on X.