NEW DELHI: The incident of horrific violence in Mathura, that led to the death of 24 people, including two senior policemen, has sparked off a war of words in the political sphere. The BJP that is preparing for the Uttar Pradesh elections came out strongly against the Samajwadi Party government, demanding a CBI inquiry into the incident.
Even as the Centre sought a report from the state government, BJP went a step further accusing the agitators who were occupying the government land to be enjoying protection from the ruling Samajwadi Party.
BJP President Amit Shah deputed party secretary Shrikant Sharma to take stock of the situation after clashes broke out during a drive to evict illegal occupants in Jawahar Bagh.
As the details of the incident kept tumbling out, the BJP changed its demand from a judicial probe to CBI inquiry into the violence.
Hema Malini, rapped over tweets, to reach Mathura at 'earliest' Actress-turned-politician Hema Malini came under sharp attack for her ignorance on the gruesome incident. BJP was left red-faced when Malini uploaded on Twitter her photographs during a movie shoot in Mumbai even as her party launched a scathing attack on the Uttar Pradesh government in the wake of the encroacher-police clash that left 24 people dead. Read more |
Sharma termed the killing of policemen as "height of anarchy" as the state was undergoing lawlessness. He alleged that the policemen were ill-prepared to control the mob as "they were under pressure from the administration to go easy as land-grabbers had links" with the ruling party.
"The ruling party first had over 280 acres of land captured by these criminals. The main conspirator in the case has full protection of the Samajwadi Party. Policemen were sent to the spot with their hands tied and this is why two of them died," Sharma charged.
BSP supremo Mayawati said the SP government should resign taking responsibility for the "unfortunate and painful" incident and demanded a time-bound judicial inquiry.
Congress said that it was time that Samajwadi Party Government "came out of its slumber" but added that "there should be no politics over the dead".
Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to UP Chief Minister Akhilesh and assured all help. The Home Ministry also asked the state government to provide a detailed factual report as early as possible on the incident.
"This state government has become a blot and people will wipe it away during the polls," Sharma added. BJP has coined a new slogan for Uttar Pradesh elections - no crime, no corruption, next time BJP Government.
BJP termed the violence as intelligence failure saying it was not able to detect weapons being amassed by the encroachers.