Lucknow, March 13 Uttar Pradesh Minister Asim Arun said on Friday that Rahul Gandhi's attempt to claim Kanshi Ram's legacy was "artificial," claiming that the Congress leader had "no knowledge of history or geography".
Arun was reacting to Gandhi's remarks at an event here in Lucknow that if Jawaharlal Nehru had been alive, then Kanshi Ram would have been made a chief minister from the Congress.
In a statement issued here, Asim Arun said Kanshi Ram founded the Bahujan Samaj Party specifically to oppose the Congress.
"In fact, Kanshi Ram wrote an entire book detailing the Congress' exploitation of Dalits. Rahul Gandhi ought to read Kanshi Ram's book, 'Chamcha Yug' (The Era of the Stooges). Kanshi Ram believed that the Congress adopted policies designed to ensure that no Dalit leader could ever rise with their head held high," said Arun, Uttar Pradesh's Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Social Welfare, Scheduled Caste, and Tribal Welfare.
The Congress only wanted "sycophant" leaders from the Dalit community, he alleged.
"The truth is that the Congress treated Kanshi Ram as an untouchable and never accorded him any respect during his lifetime. Now, Rahul Gandhi is merely putting on an act solely for the sake of votes."
"Kanshi Ram was a self-respecting leader who dedicated his entire life to upholding Dalit dignity," Arun said.
The minister said with the election approaching in the state, both the Congress and Samajwadi Party are attempting to lay claim to Kanshi Ram's legacy, despite having "no genuine connection to it whatsoever".
He said that under Kanshi Ram's guidance, the BSP formed alliances with the BJP on three separate occasions.
"It is widely believed that had Kanshi Ram been alive today, he would likely have been closest to the BJP," Arun said.
"BSP chief Mayawati holds the strongest claim to this legacy, for she is aware of how the Congress and the SP have treated Dalits and exploited their leaders," the minister said.
Speaking at the Samvidhan Sammelan held on Friday in Lucknow ahead of the birth anniversary of Kanshi Ram, Gandhi paid tributes to the Dalit icon.
"If Jawaharlal Nehru were alive, then Kanshi Ram would have been a chief minister from the Congress," he said.
Nehru, India's first prime minister, died in 1964, while Kanshi Ram broke onto the political scene by establishing the BAMCEF in 1978, which championed the cause of the backward classes, and later bolstered his position with the formation of the BSP in 1984.
"The path on which we were moving, we should have moved at a faster pace. There have been shortcomings on the part of the Congress," the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
He added that had the Congress done its job, Kanshi Ram "would not have been successful."