Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on April 14 said she would embrace Buddhism along with her supporters if the protagonists of Hinduism did not help remove "evils prevailing in the religion and its rituals".

"Hinduism is still full of evil practices. Still in many parts of the country dalits are not allowed entry into the temples. I appeal to the dharmacharyas to remove these evils from the religion. Otherwise, I along with my supporters will be forced to embrace Buddhism," she said, addressing a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) rally.

Playing to the galleries, Maywati asked the milling crowd whether they approve of her decision to embrace Buddhism and whether they would join her. All of them raised their hands in support.

She said B R Ambedkar was also forced to embrace Buddhism because of the prevalent evils and rituals in the Hindu religion.

Saying that her government took a bold step to construct a memorial for Ambedkar in order to eulogise his contributions to the country and spread his teachings, Mayawati lashed out at her detractors who she said were spreading canards on misuse of government funds on organising the grand show on the birth anniversary of Ambedkar.

"Considering the great contributions made by Ambedkar, spending hundreds of crores on his birth anniversary is not be enough," she said.

In the same vein, she said BSP would buy properties in the state capital and set up statues of party supremo Kanshi Ram who is the "prerna strot" (source of inspiration) of the dalit movement.

PTI