Just as the Samajwadi party and the BJP went on a major assault against the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh over the killing of a PWD engineer allegedly by a BSP MLA in the state last week, the Congress raised eyebrows on Friday when it took the unusual step of saying that the issue should not be politicised.
Surprisingly, seeking to downplay the shocking murder of the engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta, the Congress on Friday evening maintained that the incident should not be given a political colour. ?The family (of the engineer) should not feel that parties are taking political advantage of the death … It should not be politicised,? party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said. Ahmed?s statement come in the wake of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi?s remarks along similar lines on Thursday.
Both the BJP and the SP, however, went hammer and tongs against the BSP. While the SP demanded a CBI probe into the incident as well as a judicial probe into the ?business of fund collection? by the BSP chief, the BJP on Friday said it would launch an agitation against the Mayawati government. ?PWD engineer MK Gupta?s murder for failing to pay a hefty donation for the birthday of UP Chief Minister Mayawati has once again proved that her regime is no better than the earlier Mulayam Singh Yadav dispensation,? BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters. Describing Mayawati as the ?bigger evil? of the two, Javadekar said, ?If one is to use Mayawati?s parlance, one is ?saapnath? (king of snakes) and the other is ?naagnath? (king cobra).?
SP leaders, meanwhile, said they would take the issue to the Centre and to the courts. ?We will talk to Prime Minister in this regard…if need arises the SP parliamentary board will meet the President. If nothing works out, I will personally move the court,? SP general secretary Amar Singh told reporters after a meeting of the party?s Parliamentary Board which met here today and adopted a resolution on the issue.
SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav said a CBI probe was essential as any agency under the state government will not be able to carry out an impartial probe since Mayawati had already made a statement giving a clean chit to the accused MLA. ?Who will dare to go against the statement of the CM?? Yadav asked. The SP president also said that ?UP has now become the most criminalised state of the country….from a state with a glorious past, it has become a notorious state.?
Political circles here, however, felt that the Congress had resorted to a subtle shift in its stand on the issue. The party had last week joined Samajwadi Party in protests on the issue and party general secretary and in-charge of UP affairs Digvijay Singh had made a scathing attack on the Mayawati-led UP government, accusing it of ?extortion and collection drive? for her birthday. AICC spokesman Abhishek Singhvi too had severely criticised the UP government and the chief minister and had alleged that her birthday had become an annual ritual of ?propitiation of a deity?.