Uttar Pradesh: Nishad Party announces trust in Phoolan Devi’s name

LUCKNOW: In his bid to claim Phoolan Devi’s legacy in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Nishad Party president Dr Sanjay Nishad visited the ‘Samadhi Sthal’ of the ‘bandit queen’ in Mirzapur’s Chaubeghat area on Tuesday.
He also announced setting up an international trust in the name of former Samajwadi Party MP, who hailed from the Nishad community.
“I would also appeal to the central and the state governments to order a highlevel inquiry to ascertain the status of her property after her death.Her mother lives in a pitiable condition in Jalaun,” said the Nishad Party chief.
Phoolan Devi was shot outside her residence in Delhi on July 25, 2001 when she was the SP MP from Mirzapur. The political parties observe July 25 as her `Shahadat Diwas’ every year.
However, the functions held in her memory this year had been different as the political parties did not merely stop at that.
While the Nishad party chief said that a self-defence training centre for women would be set up in Mirzapur once the party comes in power, the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) had planned to install 18-feet statues of the late leader in 18 districts on her 'martyrdom' day.
The police, however, foiled the plan and seized dozens of statues brought from Bihar by party workers.
Later, party president Mukesh Sahni, a minister in the NDA government in Bihar, said that the party would install the statues once it comes to power in the state.
The party referred to her as a ‘Veerangana’ (brave woman) and took a line, “Phoolan abhi zinda hai, hamare aur aapke vichaaron mein, Mata Bahno ke sangharshon mein.”
The pamphlet that the VIP had printed on her ‘Shahadat Diwas’ mentioned that she was put to non-stop harassment by a ‘specific community’ in the village but she “did not bow down” and eventually made her way to the parliament.
The Nishad-centric parties also harp on the fact that the Time Magazine had put her as the fourth most revolutionary woman in the world in the list of 16 women.