Lucknow, Oct 27 BSP president Mayawati on Tuesday voiced concern over the increasingly personal, caste-driven and abusive nature of political discourse in the country, urging leaders across parties to exercise restraint and focus on issues such as poverty, unemployment and inflation.
In a post in Hindi on X, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said the exchange of allegations and counter-allegations had deteriorated to the point of violent rhetoric, warning that such politics could erode public trust in the political system.
“The level of mutual distrust, hatred, bitterness and allegations and counter-allegations in Indian politics has, with its continuous decline, now become quite unrestrained even at the personal level, turning into unparliamentary, indecent, insulting, narrow-minded and caste-ridden discourse, sometimes even reaching the level of violent rhetoric. This is extremely sad and a matter of grave concern for the country’s dignity, honour and prestige,” Mayawati said.
She further said “people holding top positions” should not encourage objectionable and poisonous politics, even if they could not show mutual respect.
“Moreover, even at the highest level, those holding positions of authority should, in any case, not promote objectionable and poisonous politics against one another, even if there is no appropriate mutual respect. Otherwise, particularly because of the growing prevalence of narrow-minded and self-serving politics that is hostile to the poor, public faith in the political system here could weaken, which would in no way be in the country’s or the people’s interest,” she said.
Mayawati also referred to public unease over alleged widespread corruption at the government level and questions being raised over the electoral process, saying the rivalry between political leaders was aggravating the situation.
“The public is already quite troubled by widespread corruption at the government level and questions being raised over the electoral process. In such circumstances, the ego battles between leaders are making the situation even more difficult, whereas people want everyone to concentrate on finding solutions to burning problems such as the country’s growing poverty, unemployment and inflation,” she said.
Calling for restraint, the BSP chief warned that the growing competition among parties and their leaders to make objectionable remarks against one another would further poison the political atmosphere.
“The increasing race among all parties and their leaders to make indecent comments and issue statements against one another will make the political atmosphere here even more bitter and poisonous, which is inappropriate. It would be better if everyone paid due attention to this,” she said.
The remarks came two days after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge made a controversial remark about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s late father at an event in Patna on Sunday, drawing sharp criticism from the BJP and its allies.
The BJP condemned the remark and demanded an apology.
Mayawati did not name any leader or refer to a specific incident in her post. Her comments also come amid exchanges between political leaders of the BJP and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections.
(PTI News)
