BHUBANESWAR: The bribery charge brought against the police by none other than the Minister of State for Home Tusharkanti Behera has kicked up a political storm with the Opposition BJP and Congress demanding a response from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
While the BJP demanded that the minister should be sacked for denigrating the SC/ST atrocity victims, the Congress questioned the silence of the chief minister on the issue.
Alleging that the statement of Behera is a reflection of anti-dalit and anti-tribal nature of the BJD government, president of the SC Morcha of BJP Bibhu Prasad Tarai said this has encouraged those who are responsible for the growing atrocities on dalit and tribal people.He alleged that over 22,000 case of atrocity against SC/STs are pending in the state and such crime is increasing by eight per cent every year. He stated that the minister does not have any information on this.
The BJP leader said the minister has been elected from a reserved seat but has failed to protect the interest of the SC/STs. Instead, he has ridiculed them by bringing such charges against state police machinery.Leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Narasingh Mishra said what the minister said is an admission on the part of the government about such bribery. But why has the minister not acted against any police officer so far and remained silent, he asked.
Targeting the chief minister, the Congress leader said like all other important issues he has remained silent. The CLP leader said that the CM should respond as he has no moral right to continue in his post after what his junior minister has revealed.