Lucknow, October 23
Fishing in Mau’s troubled waters began today with charges and counter-charges by religious and political leaders. State action was limited to unsuccessful police raids on various residences of Independent Mau MLA Mukhtar Ansari at Lucknow, Mau and Ghazipur.
The DGP, Mr Yashapal Singh confessed that it was “not easy” to nab Mukhtar. Ironically three armed state policemen, men who were directly reporting to the DGP, were guarding the controversial MLA. While admitting this to be the case, Mr Singh said that the role of his men in shielding the MLA would be probed into.
In a related development, Samajwadi Party MP from Ghazipur and Mukhtar’s brother Afzal Ansari, charged that state government was conducting the raids after succumbing to pressure from the Raj Bhawan. It was a mockery of democracy if an elected government acted under pressure from the Governor, he retorted.
Blaming the Congress for misleading the governor, Mr Ansari said that he had sought time from the Governor to present the other point of view. He shared with the media a 5-minute video snippet that he hoped to show the Governor.
According to him the same snippet, without sound track, was shown over the TV channels to point out that Mukhtar was violating curfew and inciting riots. In the sound track one could hear Mukhtar pacifying crowds to return home, ordering the ambulances, directing doctors to take immediate action, and monitoring treatment at the Benaras Hindu University Hospital where most of the seriously injured were taken.
UPCC President Salman Khurshid and senior Congress leader and sitting MLA from Azamgarh Ram Naresh Yadav charged the state government of being partial by disallowing them from visiting Mau. They said that SP Rajya Sabha MP, Nand Kishore Yadav and SP MLC Kamla Prasad Yadav had been given permission to move around freely.
Mahant Aditya Nath ‘Yogi’ MP from Gorakhpur, hinted at a long-drawn operation to what he described as “getting justice for the Mau victims”. Amongst the interventions was a visit to the Governor with the victims, calling upon the Union Home Minister, filing a PIL at the High Court, Supreme Court and even launching a ‘Mau chalo’ campaign..
Meanwhile, the Home Secretary, Mr Alok Sinha, said that ex gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of the seven of the eight riot victims had already been made. In the case of the eighth victim the family had probably moved away and could not be located as yet. Payment of Rs 25,000 to each of the 35 persons injured in the communal violence had also been made.
