NEW DELHI: With the UP government under fire over the Hathras incident, BJP leaders claimed the matter was being blown out of proportion. Senior party leader and former Union Minister Sanjay Paswan said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on the job, having asked CM Yogi Adityanath for strict action.”
“Hathras incident is being exaggerated and there are clear hints of media trials going on, which should be avoided. The PM has already asked the chief minister for actions, and we should wait,” he said.
Paswan, who was a Union Minister of state for HRD in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, said the Hathras incident is a pointer to access to pornographic contents on the social media platforms. “There is an urgent need to discipline the social media. There should be a thorough probe in the incident, but the media trial should be avoided,” said Paswan.
However, there appears apprehension among the Dalit leaders within the BJP. “The incident has come on the eve of the by-elections for seven assembly seats in UP, besides the Bihar assembly polls. The incident is likely to be a talking point among the people in the elections. It should be addressed politically,” said a senior Dalit leader of the BJP. The BJP had made significant inroads in the Dalit vote bank on the back of the implementation of central schemes, which had delivered rich dividends to it in 2019 elections.