Mayawati Fires First Salvo Against Kalyan Singh

Within hours of the Kalyan Singh government assuming office in Uttar Pradesh, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the coalition partner, fired the first salvo yesterday with BSP general secretary Mayawati objecting to a directive issued to officials not to misuse an act aimed at preventing atrocities on Dalits.

The directive was issued on Monday night to ensure that the controversial SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act was not misused to harass innocent people.

The act was allegedly misused against the upper castes during Mayawatis tenure in office, drawing protests from the BJP as well as Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party.

Taking a tough posture, Mayawati said: My party will not hesitate to take hard decisions if there is even a slight laxity on the BJPs part to protect the interests of the Dalits. The BSP is ready to sacrifice anything for protecting the interest of Dalits.

Apart from her remarks on the Kalyan Singh governments directive during a press conference in Lucknow, Mayawati sounded a warning to the coalition partner on two more counts.

On the chief minister raising the Ayodhya issue, the BSP leader said if the BJP moved beyond a certain point and hurt the feelings of minorities, her party would take a serious note of it. She, however, did not see anything wrong in Kalyan Singh visiting Ayodhya yesterday: It is a matter ofsomeones faith in the religion. How canI object to it, she remarked.

Secondly, Mayawati said an emergency meeting of her party district-level office-bearers would be held in Lucknow on September 26 where they would be told to send fortnightly reports on the progress of various programmes initiated by her government. There is considerable resentment among the BJP ranks with decisions abour renaming institutions and creating several districts during her tenure in office.

According to Mayawati, her party was not taken into confidence before the government issued the directive on the controversial act. She said she had spoken to party chief Kanshi Ram and had requested him to take up the issue with top BJP leaders. She felt the directive would encourage the upper castes and would create a feeling of insecurity among the Dalits.

Kalyan Singh has surrendered to Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has also criticised the act. Even senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra has agreed that such a step should not have been taken without consulting the coalition partner, Mayawati claimed.

However, Mishra later told newspersons: I only told Mayawati that I am not aware of this but will convey her feelings to the chief minister. I have also assured her that if there is any misunderstanding on this count, we will sit together and sort it out.

Kalyan Singh, however, said there was nothing wrong in the directive and that it was issued merely to prevent its misuse. He said his government was committed to protect the interest of the Dalits, and if there was any misunderstanding, he would speak to Mayawati.