Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using India-Pakistan tensions following the February 14 Pulwama attack to hide their “failures and incompetence”.

“People feel the country’s security and dignity is not in strong and safe hands. Narendra Modi and BJP leaders are using the tension between India and Pakistan to hide their failures and incompetence,” she said in an address to BSP office-bearers in Lucknow. Mayawati said the people are concerned over the terror attack as well as tensions on the India-Pakistan border.

“The BJP leadership should have desisted from indulging in politics after the death of over 40 CRPF jawans in Pulwama terror attack,” she said.

She said Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s return to India had reduced tensions between India and Pakistan. Varthaman was captured a day after India carried out an air strike on a terrorist camp in Pakistan in response to the Pulwama attack. She also called for a longterm policy to ensure the country’s security and dignity “so that no country can dare to ignore or intimidate India.”

She called for a long-term and reliable policy to ensure national security and dignity “so that no country can dare to ignore or intimidate India.”

She paid tributes to the CRPF jawans and urged her party leaders to share the grief of their families and extend all possible help to them.

“Party leaders should meet the family members often to know their well-being as the government forgets them after completing the formalities. The central and state government should fulfil the promises made to the families of jawans,” said Mayawati, who returned to Lucknow on Friday to review the BSP’s preparations for the national elections.

Mayawati said the SP-BSP alliance was gaining strength and popularity. She said it has made the BJP jittery and called upon the BSP workers to forget their differences and work hard to make the alliance successful.

Mayawati said the people were fed up with the BJP-led government’s anti-poor and pro-rich policies and wanted to get rid of it. “The BSP-SP alliance is capable of defeating the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. The people will teach the BJP a lesson in the Lok Sabha election,” she said.

Mayawati accused BJP of being anti-Dalit and anti-OBC. She added the BJP has made the reservations provided to the SC and OBC ineffective by keeping reserved posts vacant.

“Mayawatiji is getting desperate. It shows. She is today holding a placard with moral slogans. But she herself knows the countless immoral acts when she was in power. Unscrupulous, she would do well to remember that the party she is now opposing not only made her chief minister thrice but also saved her life. Need we say more,” UP BJP spokesman Chandramohan said.

First Published: Mar 04, 2019 07:45 IST