BSP flashes photo of Sonia with money garland

In a sharp retort to the Congress party's tirade against the flaunting of a currency note garland by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati at a recent Bahujan Samaj Party rally in Lucknow, state Public Works Department minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui on Thursday fished out a photograph of Congress president Sonia Gandhi wearing a currency note garland.

The display of the picture remained the highlight of the party's unique statewide protest against what the party leadership termed as 'petty politicking by all opposition parties'.

Addressing a protest rally of BSP workers at the Lucknow Collectorate, Siddiqui also displayed photos of two other opposition leaders donning similar 'royal' insignias.

While a photograph of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran Lal Krishna Advani showed him donning a silver crown on his head, another showed Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav swinging a silver gada (a spherical weapon believed to have been used by Lord Hanuman).

"No one raises even an eyebrow if Sonia Gandhi receives a currency note garland; no one talks about LK Advani wearing a silver crown; and even when Mulayam Singh Yadav flaunts a silver gada no one minds that. But all hell breaks loose if a Dalit's daughter is offered a garland of currency notes," Siddiqui told the gathering amidst cheers.

He claimed, "The opposition was trying to frustrate the rally from day one. Initially, they got a PIL filed against holding of the rally. When they did not succeed with that, they engineered disturbing of a beehive, leading to rush of a swarm of bees to the rally venue. However, that too failed as the bees chose to settle down under the shade of the dais without causing any kind of disturbance to anyone or biting anybody. Therefore, the opposition eventually raised the garland bogey."

Slogans of virodhiyon hosh mein aao; behenji se mat takrao (Opponents come to your senses, don't take on Mayawati) rent the air as a series of BSP leaders addressed the gathering, singing praises for Mayawati and flaying the opposition.

Showing photographs of Congress president wearing a crown and a currency garland around her neck, Siddiqui took a dig at Congress leader Digvijay Singh who had criticised Mayawati on the garland issue.

"There is one Congress leader, who was also a chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, who is working in Uttar Pradesh these days and who has been terming the garland offered to Mayawati as against the RBI norms. I would like to ask him whether the one in Congress president's neck is not against the norms," he said.

Asking the Congressmen to "peep into their hearts", Siddiqui said 'that when their leaders wear currency garlands they feel elated but when a Dalit ki beti (daughter of a Dalit) wears it they raise a question mark over it".

Reacting to BSP's charge about the note garland also worn by Sonia Gandhi, UP Congress spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh said, "All I wish to point out in a nutshell is that while Sonia Gandhi with all her inheritance of four Nehru-Gandhi generations has total assets worth Rs 1.32 crore , Mayawati's officially declared assets have already shot up to Rs 62 crore in a matter of just four years."

Reacting to Advani's photo being flashed by the BSP, BJP's UP unit president Hriday Narain Dixit said: "The two things (crown and cash garland) cannot be compared. We demand that the BSP tell the people about the source of the garland which was offered to Mayawati."

Additional Reportage: PTI