Shift focus from gau-raksha and triple talaq, focus on borders: Mayawati

Lucknow: BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday expressed pain at the beheading of Indian jawans on the border and said the time has come to shift focus from “divisive” matters like cow protection and triple talaq to law and order and security.

She criticised BJP saying that though the party was in power at the Centre and in many states, it had been unable to control the situation as a result of which borders were not safe and jawans were being killed on a daily basis.

“Time has now come to shift focus from narrow and divisive issues like ‘Gau raksha’ (cow protection), slaughter houses, love-jihad and triple talaq to national interest, law and order and borders,” Mayawati said in a party release here.

Cow protection, closure of illegal abattoirs and triple talaq are issues which have been consistently raised by the BJP in recent times especially in Uttar Pradesh.

Mayawati said that there is there is anger in the country over killing of jawans and mutilation of their bodies by Pakistani forces.

People think that if the Narendra Modi government has to go in for surgical strikes again, it should do it, she said adding that there should be a review of the foreign policy towards Pakistan.

Attacking the BJP, Mayawati said the party’s policies were not beneficial either to the common people or the country.

“Although various curbs are being imposed on common people in the name of national security, it is not having the desired impact…it has failed to secure borders and there is immense anger among the people over murder of soldiers on the borders and mutilation of their bodies,” she said.

The BSP chief in a meeting also reviewed her party’s strategy for Rajasthan and asked leaders to prepare people having missionary zeal for the next Assembly elections.

The BSP, she said, had faced betrayal in the past with the party in power luring its MLAs by offering ministerial berths.

She claimed the poor, deprived, backwards, Dalits and religious minorities in Rajasthan were being exploited and were having a hard time.

PTI