Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: IBNLive.com
Date: October 4, 2013
URL: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bsp-takes-exception-to-jairam-rameshs-remark-on-kanshi-ram/426417-37.html

BSP on Friday decried Union Minister Jairam Ramesh's remarks against its late leader Kanshi Ram, saying the party was being dragged into the "fight between Congress and BJP" to mislead people ahead of Assembly elections in four states.

Terming as "baseless" and not true Ramesh's remark to Narendra Modi asking him if he agreed with Kanshi Ram on building a sanitation complex in Ayodhya, the party maintained that the late leader had never made such a statement.

"We condemn the statement of Ramesh. It is baseless and not the truth. It's an attempt to malign image of Kanshi Ram in the fight between Congress and BJP and an attempt to mislead the people. It's totally unfair," a BSP spokesperson said in Lucknow.

"Kanshi Ram had never made such a statement (regarding toilets at disputed site at Ayodhya) in his entire life. Such misleading statements are being circulated to mislead people keeping in mind assembly elections in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh," he said. It is a conspiracy against BSP movement and its leadership, he alleged.

"Had construction of toilet at Ayodhya been desire of Kanshi Ram, why BSP government in UP would not have tried to fulfil it like his other desires?" he said. Ramesh had targeted Modi on Thursday for his "toilets first, temples later" remark, asking him if he agreed with Kanshi Ram, who had said during the BJP's Ayodhya movement that the solution to the Ayodhya controversy is to build a giant sanitation complex.