Appealing the Modi-led central government to emulate the principles of Sant Ravidas, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President Mayawati on Tuesday said that no one can become big with a small mind.
In a statement released here, the BSP chief said that Sant Ravidas, who lit the lamp of social transformation, spent his whole life in spreading the message of humanity and put up a persistent resistance against discrimination based on caste lines, adding that his humanitarian message was significant in the narrow and caste-driven atmosphere of today.
Mayawati said that the people in power should not just practice the ritual of remembering him but should instead first rid their minds of narrow-mindedness, casteism and communalism because no one becomes big with a small mind.
The former UP CM said that Sant Ravidas was a powerful social reformer and he spent his life in fighting against the class-system based on the birth of an individual and other evils prevalent in the Hindu religion and also strongly advocated for betterment in it.
The BSP supremo said that her party carried out many works in the name of Sant Ravidas, among which the major ones were the naming of Bhadohi district on his name, the establishment of a park and a ‘ghat’ in the name of the seer in his birthplace Varanasi, the construction of Sant Guru Ravidas Rajkiya Mahavidyalaya in Faizabad, the establishment of a statue of the seer in Varanasi, a prize in the name of Sant Ravidas.
Apart from this, Sant Ravidas Polytechnic, establishment of Chandauli, Sant Ravidas SC/ST training institute, the monikering of a bridge being made on the Ganga river in Varanasi after Sant Ravidas, aid for the Sant Ravidas Dharmshala in Badaun, the acceptance of establishing a statue of Sant Ravidas in Bilsi, etc were done under our government.
Lashing out at the BJP governments, she said that due to the short-sighted policy and the practice of working with a small mind, increasing inflation, poverty, unemployment is rampant and national security is also facing a serious issue which should be dealt with swiftly.
