Senior leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Mr Satish Chandra Misra, has claimed that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) Ayodhya Yatra in Uttar Pradesh, supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is an attempt to communalise the political atmosphere in the State.
Senior leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Mr Satish Chandra Misra, has claimed that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) Ayodhya Yatra in Uttar Pradesh, supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is an attempt to communalise the political atmosphere in the State.
Participating in an interaction on "The Current Status of Politics in Uttar Pradesh" at Observer Research Foundation in Delhi on August 29, Mr Misra, BSP general secretary and a Member of Parliament, said the Yatra, being undertaken from August 25 to September 5, was done with the connivance of the ruling party, the Samajwadi Party (SP).
He claimed that all members of the society, including the Hindus and Muslims, have seen through their designs. Muslims specifically have realised that they are not safe under the SP, given the increasing number of Hindu-Muslim riots over the past year and a half.
He said that the Congress too is out of favour in Uttar Pradesh due to their involvement in various scams at the national level. Not only the backward classes but upper caste Hindus and Brahmins also support the good track record of the governance of the BSP.
Mr Misra touched upon a variety of topics pertaining to the whole gamut of governance in UP.
He started his analysis of the present government with a focus on law and order. He noted that while his party’s government, under Chief Minister Mayawati, had brought under its full control the law and order situation which was in shambles in 2007, law and order has become dangerous once again. In the past 18 months, there have been reports of 130 riots, of which 30 have been classified as big riots, he said. In comparison, no riot of any dimension had taken place in the 5 years of the BSP rule, he said.
Mr Misra said both gundaism and corruption levels have reached their peak. He pointed out that three SP MLAs had indulged in illegal activities but got away unscathed. The SP simply suspended them, instead of filing criminal cases and sending them to jail.
Citing the examples of Ms. Durga Shakti Nagpal, the deputy DM of Ghaziabad, and her boss, Mr Misra said honest police officers, who do not agree to conspire with the corrupt members of the government, are being suspended and transferred. He said even high ranking police officers are being beaten up and killed.
The interaction was chaired by ORF Director Sunjoy Joshi.
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