Rahul writes to PM on Bharat Ratna for Kanshi Ram, Mayawati reiterates demand

NEW DELHI: (Mar 15) The clamour for Bharat Ratna for Kanshi Ram grew on the BSP founder's birth anniversary on Sunday, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as well as former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati demanding the country's highest civilian honour for the Dalit icon.

While Gandhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appealing to him to confer the Bharat Ratna on Kanshi Ram posthumously, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said the government should not repeat the mistake that the Congress had done with B R Ambedkar and bestow the honour on the party founder without any delay.

"Like the Congress party, which did not honour the architect of India's Constitution, Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, with the Bharat Ratna, the current BJP-NDA government at the Centre should not make any further delay in honouring Bahujan leader Kanshi Ramji with the Bharat Ratna," Mayawati was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the BSP.