The Hindu : Mayawati's 'governance' draws flak in Parliament

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 22, 2003

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Mayawati's 'governance' draws flak in Parliament

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 21. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati's `style of governance' was the subject of an animated discussion in both the Houses of Parliament today.

In the Lok Sabha, Opposition and Treasury benches alike called upon the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee to evolve a code of conduct for Chief Ministers. The issue was raised through an adjournment motion by the Samajwadi Party leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has been at the receiving end of Ms. Mayawati's policies.

He accused the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister of unleashing a `political vendetta' against him and his colleagues. He urged the House to examine the decisions made by him as Chief Minister. ``If I am found guilty I am willing to accept whatever punishment the House decides''.

The former Prime Minister, Chandra Shekhar warned that the State was on the brink of a civil war, unless something drastic was done. ``The language being used by the Chief Minister and the manner in which the Government is being run is reprehensible'' he said.

The CPI(M) leader, Somnath Chatterjee, said the move to slap cases against the SP leader smacked of revenge, while Ramvilas Paswan(LJP) came down hard on Ms. Mayawati and challenged her claims to being the spokesperson of Dalits. ``She doesn't have a following outside U.P.'' he said.

Dasmunsi (Cong.) said the politics of vendetta had started in 1999 itself when Rajiv Gandhi's name was put in the Bofors chargesheet. ``What is happening to Mulayam Singh can happen to anybody'' he said.

V.K. Malhotra (BJP) agreed with the members' demand that the PM evolve a code of conduct. However Prabhunath Singh (Samata) demanded that the U.P. Chief Minister be booked under POTA.

In the Rajya Sabha, the Opposition insisted that the Centre intervene and stop `political victimisation' in Uttar Pradesh while the Samajwadi Party demanded dismissal of the Mayawati Government.

The SP demand was articulated by Ram Gopal Yadav, who charged that the Chief Minister's action had resulted in a sense of insecurity among those in the Opposition. While stating that in many cases, successive Chief Ministers had granted money from the discretionary quota as per rules, the SP chief was being `singled out'. He charged that the CAG report had indicted Ms. Mayawati for having `flouted rules' in 145 cases.

The Leader of the Opposition, Manmohan Singh, expressed concern over the ``mass victimisation'' and said the action was setting a bad precedent and affected successful functioning of parliamentary democracy.

He took exception that even a former Governor, Motilal Vora, was not `spared' and demanded that the Centre should `wake up' to the `growing crisis of governance' hurting the pace of development in the State.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, assured the House that the Government would seek details from the U.P. Government and place it before the House.

The House witnessed heated exchanges, after the SP leader, Amar Singh expressed apprehension over threat to his life. Responding to the members' demand, Ms. Swaraj said she would take up the issue of security for the member with the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani.

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