Ministers embarrass Rajnath Singh

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW, AUG. 1. The Ministers of the Lok Janshakti Party, partners in the ruling BJP- led coalition in Uttar Pradesh, today led demonstrations in various districts exposing the ``contradictions'' in the Government. While the Chief Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh, disapproved of the way his Ministerial colleagues led the agitations, the Ministers maintained that they did not mean to embarrass the Government.

The agitations had been planned at the instance of the Lok Janshakti leader and Union Minister for Communications, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, to press their nine-point charter of demands, including the right to employment, right to education and security for the Dalits. He had advised his party workers to stage dharnas and submit memoranda of demands to the respective District Magistrates.

The Ministers led their own groups in 12 different districts, according to the party sources here. In Lucknow, the demonstration was led by the Minister of State for Excise, Mr. Yashwant Singh.

When his attention was drawn to the event, the Chief Minister said it was not proper for Ministers to lead such protests. Before taking such steps, they should have talked to him, he said, and hinted that he would talk to his colleagues about the propriety of their action and advise them to refrain from such acts in the future.

Mr. Yashwant Singh, however, said the idea was only to highlight the demands of his party and not to protest. The Ministers' action was not wrong as every party should have the right to present its views on public issues irrespective of whether or not it was part of the Government.

Unbridled activities of Ministers have been causing considerable embarrassment to the Uttar Pradesh Government, with the Opposition pointing to the fragility of the coalition. Recently, a Minister, Mr. Dhanraj Yadav, allegedly led a mob of villagers to attack a colony of minorities in Siddharth Nagar district. The Samajwadi Party and the Congress have been demanding action against him while the Government has been keeping mum over the issue.

On another occasion, a Minister had criticised the stay of the Chief Minister at a village in Jalaun district, as part of the BJP's programme of its MLAs spending a night in villages to familiarise themselves with the rural life. The Minister reportedly said it was only a nautanki (street play). He later retracted his statement and blamed the media for creating a ``misunderstanding.''

The Government faced a similar embarrassment when a few Ministers attended a wedding in the family of a notorious outlaw in Banda district. When the press highlighted the issue, a Minister, Mr. Vivek Singh, justified his participation. He also justified violence as a means to get the grievances of the Bundelkhand region redressed. If the Government paid no heed to the region, people would be forced to take to arms, he said. He too retracted his statement when word was sent that he might be dropped from the Ministry.

Ministers of the Loktantrik Congress Party are known for joining issue with the BJP leaders every now and then. Taking exception to the criticism of the functioning of the State Energy Department headed by the LCP leader, Mr. Naresh Agarwal, an LCP Minister said it was improper to single out the Energy Department for malfunctioning when so many other departments headed by BJP Ministers were in a worse condition. The BJP, however, decided to ignore the issue.

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