Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Saturday hit out at the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the Opposition parties for sensationalising and politicising criminal incidents in the State in a bid to discredit a government headed by a Dalit. She was speaking here after inaugurating the Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) State office here.
Ms. Mayawati's government is in the eye of the storm following the recent death of Deputy Chief Medical Officer Y.S. Sachan, and cases of rape and crimes against women.
Sachan's son claim
In response to a question on Dr. Sachan's son's claim that his father was set to confess before the court, Ms. Mayawati refused to comment.
“A judicial inquiry in the matter is going on. It would not be appropriate to comment before its completion,” she said.
Ms. Mayawati said heinous crimes were taking place in other States too, but the respective governments were silent on them.
“In Mirchpur, Haryana, Dalits have not been allowed to stay in their homes despite the intervention of the Supreme Court. There are many serious matters in Congress-ruled Haryana and even in Delhi, as in the BJP-ruled States. Why can't the State governments, the Centre's Ministry of Home Affairs and the State commissions take note of those?” she asked.
She cited the Mirchpur caste violence, the Khairlanji killings, the gruesome murder of Additional Collector Yashwant Sonawane and senior journalist J. Dey, and rape and murder cases in Maharashtra.
“Ever since the BSP started forming the government in U.P. under the leadership of a Dalit ki beti [Dalit's daughter], Opposition parties have not been able to digest this fact. Our party came to power on its own strength and on full majority. Embittered by this, the Opposition gives a political colour to any incident that takes place in U.P. and tries to sully our party's image,” Ms. Mayawati said.
‘Bid to corner U.P. ’
She alleged there was an attempt to corner the U.P. government. “Since the past few days, the situation is such that if there is any criminal incident in U.P., the Centre quickly jumps into the fray and starts a charade of sending notices through its State commission,” Ms. Mayawati said in a veiled reference to the Uttar Pradesh Human Rights Commission's notice on Dr. Sachan' death.
The Centre also manipulated the media, using it to generate a bad image of her government. These attempts thus clearly pointed to the “anti-Dalit mentality” of the Congress and the Opposition, she said.
Inflation
Ms. Mayawati came down heavily on the United Progressive Alliance for the recent fuel price hike and its “bad economic policies” that aimed at “benefiting the rich.”
“Ever since the UPA has come to power, the prices of essential commodities and eatables have been consistently rising. As a result, inflation has reached such a level that the aam admi and the poor are finding it difficult to survive,” she said.
Rally
On Sunday, Ms. Mayawati will be addressing a meeting of party workers from Maharashtra and Gujarat in Mumbai. Addressing the Mumbai media, she condemned the murder of J. Dey and expressed condolences to his family.
