On a day of widespread protests by political parties, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati called for the removal of the ‘incapable’ chief minister, causing the chairperson of the SC Commission to retort that Mayawati should remember her own time.
On Thursday, a note issued by former chief minister Mayawati tore into Yogi Adityanath saying if he could not protect the honour of women, he must resign.
She also said the government had not allowed a party delegation to meet the family of the gang-rape and murder victim in Hathras, and had called the deceased’s brother to the police station. “This is a very painful situation. It seems as if the victim’s family is being harassed. Under Yogi Adityanath, this has become common practice with the administration and the police”.
The BSP chief also called upon the Central government to pay attention to what was happening in the state and “make a capable person the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh”.
“If there is too much pressure of the RSS, the Centre should at least impose President’s rule in the state. For how long will it test Adityanath”, she said.
Responding to the BSP chairperson’s charges, Lalji Prasad Nirmal, chairperson of the Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Commission, said, “Mayawati is the biggest enemy of dalit women”. He pointed out that it was in her regime that an amendment was made to the law for prevention of atrocities on SCs, nullifying the possibility of a direct FIR in cases of rapes.
He further said the UP CM had dealt strictly with crimes against dalits. “He invoked the NSA (National Security Act) against those who burnt the houses of dalits and committed atrocities against them in Jaunpur, Azamgarh and Lakhimpur”.
“Mayawati should tell us how many NSAs did she invoke for such crimes”, he said.
Nirmal added that Mayawati was disturbed only because the state’s CM had ordered bulldozers to be run over the properties of mafiosi like Atiq Ahmed and Mukhtar Ansari. “They had been given patronage by Mayawati,” he said.
“In her regime, poor dalits remained poor. She had no programmes for their economic empowerment. Her only goal was to accumulate a mountain of wealth which she did”, Nirmal said.
