Mayawati hits out at SP for repeatedly changing Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University's name

    Lucknow, Jun 26 (PTI) BSP chief Mayawati on Thursday hit out at the Samajwadi Party for repeatedly changing the name of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University to King George Medical University when it was in power in Uttar Pradesh and also criticised the subsequent BJP government for failing to rectify this.
    In a post on X, she paid tributes to Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj, hailing him as the "father of reservation in India" for providing job reservations to Dalits in Kolhapur princely state.
    In her extensive post, Mayawati elaborated on the initiatives taken by her four-time BSP governments in Uttar Pradesh to honour Shahuji Maharaj. She mentioned naming a new district, educational institutions, and establishing his statues in grand public places and memorials.
    She highlighted the establishment of Uttar Pradesh's first Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University in Lucknow, which she claims was immediately operationalized.
    She accused the SP, which came to power after her government, of forcibly changing the name of this university to King George Medical University, despite a medical college by the same name already existing in Lucknow.
    She also hit out at the BJP for not rectifying this "extremely hateful and casteist attitude" of the SP.
    Urging for the restoration of the original name of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University as soon as possible, she said, "Therefore, the sooner the original name of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University is restored, the better."
    The institution, originally King George Medical College, was granted university status and renamed Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University by Mayawati's government in 2002. However, in October 2003, just two months after Mulayam Singh Yadav became chief minister, the SP government changed back the name of the university to King George's Medical University.
    The renaming continued in 2007 when Mayawati returned to power after the BSP's victory in the assembly elections, and the institution's name reverted to Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University.
    Finally, when the SP regained power after the 2012 elections, Akhilesh Yadav's government once again changed the university's name to its current King George Medical University.
    In the post, Mayawati also highlighted the continued relevance of Shahuji Maharaj's principles, especially in the current times "when there is a conspiracy to render helpless, subjugate, and enslave the people of the country, especially Dalits, tribals, and other backward classes, by making their constitutional right to reservation inactive and ineffective".

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)