In the wake of the controversy over Ramcharitmanas, Bahuhan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has attacked the Samajwadi Party reminding the Samajwadi leaders about the attack on her in 1995 purported to be carried out by the SP.

The BSP leader asked the SP to stop insulting the Dalits by calling them Shudra.

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Meanwhile, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, reacting for the first time to the Ramcharitramanas controversy raked up by the SP leaders, alleged that it was an effort to derail the development programmes initiated by the BJP Government in the state.

Yogi said such issues should be ignored rejected by the people. Political leaders are trying to rake up such issues for their vested interests. “These people should not be given any importance,” he added.

Earlier, SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya had demanded a ban on certain portion of Ramcharitmanas as it insults backwards and dalits. His statement was supported by his party leaders and even president Akhilesh Yadav.

Recently, the SP had erected hoardings asking people to call themselves Shudras to support their stand on Ramcharitramanas.

On Friday, BSP president Mayawati, in a series of tweets, has said, “The scriptures of the weak and neglected sections of the country are not Ramcharitmanas, Manusmriti, etc. but it is the Indian Constitution in which Baba Saheb has given them the identities of SC, ST, OBC rather than Shudras. Don’t insult them by calling them Shudra and don’t defy the Constitution.”

Mayawati further said that before advocating the Dalits and OBCs, the SP chief should remember the incident of June 2, 1995 at the Lucknow Guest House and peep into the past. It should be seen from the perspective of the SP government made a murderous attack on the daughter of a Dalit who was going to become the CM.”

She said while the BSP is known as a party which values the self-respect of SCs, STs, OBCs, Muslims and other religious minorities in the country, Congress, BJP and the Samajwadi Party were known only for exploitation, injustice and neglect of great saints, gurus and people born into these classes.