Attacking the Samajwadi Party government for its reluctance to take action against the Minister of State, Ram Murti Singh Verma, in the journalist murder case, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati said the Minister should have been arrested “the day the incident occurred.”
Things had come to such a pass that even mediapersons were feeling unsafe in the State, she said.
‘Jungle raj’
The BSP president slammed the Samajwadi Party government for the rapid increase in crime. She referred to the killing of two Dalit youths in Allahabad on Friday. A girl who was burnt alive in Fatehpur on Saturday. “There are 75 districts in the State and not a day passes without a murder being reported from a district,” Ms. Mayawati told journalists at the BSP’s State headquarters here on Sunday.
Reiterating her charge that Uttar Pradesh, under the present regime, had become synonymous with jungle-raj and corruption, she said: “The janata is waiting for this government to go.”
Ms. Mayawati took potshots at Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for his visits to foreign countries and compared it with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trips abroad. “There appears to be a game of one-upmanship between the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister on who undertakes more foreign visits,” the BSP president said. Stating that the problems faced by the people were being brushed aside, Ms. Mayawati the situation was akin to the one described in the famous saying: “When Rome burnt Nero fiddled.”
She said like the NDA government, which was “limited to the Prime Minister’s Office,” the SP government existed for “only one family” and “ for a particular caste”.
‘Not against Yoga day’
On the Modi government’s decision to celebrate International Yoga Day on June 21, Ms. Mayawati said the BSP was not opposed to it. However, the BSP chief attacked the BJP and its affiliates for “playing communal card through yoga”. Ms. Mayawati added that the restrictions imposed on the entry ofnon-Hindus in the Somnath temple had vitiated the communal atmosphere.
