Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has opined that Dayashankar Singh, the former vice-president of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), would not be arrested by the Samajwadi Party (SP) government.
She said the BJP and the SP had joined hands against the BSP and the BJP is pressuring the SP government not to arrest Singh.
The Dalit leader also told reporters on Sunday: "If the SP, under pressure from the BJP, does not arrest Dayashankar Singh for disrespecting the chief minister's aunt and start legal proceedings against him, then the BSP, when it comes to power, will order an unbiased probe into the matter."
Mayawati is referred to as "behenji" (sister) by many people, including SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose son Akhilesh is currently UP chief minister. This makes Mayawati, Akhilesh's bua (or paternal aunt). It was this word Mayawati used in her speech.
"The BJP would have been better off, if it had protested for the honour of a Dalit daughter along with Dayashankar Singh's daughter," she said, referring to BSP activists threatening and traumatising Singh's 12-year-old daughter after Singh was caught on camera saying Mayawati was "worse than a prostitute" when it came to distributing election tickets. Singh has since then been suspended and removed from all party posts.
"The BJP made Dayashankar Singh use foul language against me, and thought suspending him would win the hearts of Dalits, but this took a U-Turn," Mayawati said.
Mayawati, a Dalit leader who heavily banks on this section of the society for her political growth, is looking to become the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh again, with the assembly elections coming up in 2017. It was to this end that she said the BJP, by not holding protests against Singh's remarks on her, had shown its "anti-Dalit" mentality. Observers expect her statements to fan anti-BJP sentiments within Dalits, which Mayawati will look to use during the elections.
