Mayawati gets chopper, special needs students don't get wheelchairs

Lucknow : It was a function meant to provide hope to differently-abled people like Suresh and Sanjay Kumar. But sadly, that did not happen.

The occasion was a noble one - the inauguration of a state-of -the-art school for the differently-abled in Lucknow. While Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati arrived in style - she covered the distance from the chopper's parking bay to the stage - in a 10-car motorcade, differently-abled students had to crawl over one kilometre to the venue. The reason - there were apparently no wheelchairs. This was, despite the fact that empty wheelchairs were spotted by an NDTV reporter.

Suresh Kumar, resident of Tej Kisan Kheda in Lucknow said, "I had to crawl like this for almost a kilometre to reach this place. It would have helped if there would have been a wheelchair to bring us to our seats."         

But such details seemed to have been forgotten once the Chief Minister got on the stage. Once the formalities of inaugurating India's first University for students with special needs were over, political needs took over. Taking on Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati said he should focus more on Delhi than her state UP.

Advertisement

"I would like to tell the Yuvraj of the Congress party that, instead of showing your anger at us through various sorts of theatrics or false statements for votebank politics in UP, just go and vent your anger before your government in Delhi," she said. (Read)

The remarks were believed to be a reaction to a recent statement made by Rahul Gandhi.  Recently, at an informal meeting with locals in UP's Bhadohi district, Rahul Gandhi said that he felt sorry at the state of development in Uttar Pradesh.

Advertisement

Maywati's political attack did not go down well with everyone.  Many students felt that the unveiling of the first state of the art university for students with special needs, was a rather unusual setting for her to launch such an attack. Sarita, a college student said, "I wish she had not focused more on attacking Rahul Gandhi. Instead she could have talked more about what she's going to do for us."