Lucknow, January 27
The Uttar Pradesh Government’s decision to invoke POTA against jailed Independent legislator Raghuraj Pratap Singh, alias Raja Bhaiyya and his father Udai Pratap Singh has turned into a major political controversy with the BJP, major ally of the BSP in the state government, demanding immediate withdrawal of this Act. UP Chief Minister Mayawati, however, is sticking to her guns and has said that the jailed MLA had hatched a plan to kill her.
The controversy took a curious turn with the seizure of arms, ammunition and jewellery from the compound of the Bethi palace, where these were kept in boxes and buried deep inside the ground
State president of the BJP Vinay Katiyar fired a salvo at Ms Mayawati calling her decision to invoke the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) against Raghuraj Pratap Singh and his father as “undemocratic” which is tentamount to misuse of the Act.
“Neither Raja Bhaiyya nor his father is a terrorist; neither of them is involved in any anti-national activity. So invoking of POTA against them is gross misuse of this Act,” he told a group of newspersons here.
Mr Katiyar had already been reprimanded by the national leaders for unnecessarily creating bad blood between leaders of the BJP and the BSP, two major allies in the state government. Earlier, he had quoted Dalit icon Dr B.R. Ambedkar and his views on cultural nationalism in his meetings which invited objections from Mayawati forcing the national leaders to step in. They asked Katiyar to tone down his views on Ambedkar.
Mr Katiyar said he was not protecting Raja Bhaiyya or his father Udai Pratap Singh, who had criminal cases against them. “They should be tried under different Acts under the law, but by invoking POTA against them the government has violated the spirit of the Act,” he said.
He said this action of Mayawati-led government could have a cascading effect and misuse of this Act may start in other states too.
Defending the action of the government, officials said raids were conducted at the house of the jailed legislator in Pratapgarh and arms and ammunition, packed in jute bags and buried deep inside the ground, were seized from his house.
“We have information that Raja Bhaiyya had amassed weapons to kill the Chief Minister,” said an official, adding that an AK-47 was also seized from the Bethi palace of Raja Bhaiyya.
