BJP slams Ajit Singh's demand for Charan Singh memorial

The BJP Monday took to task Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh for trying to gain political currency out of the orders to evict him from his official residence in New Delhi which he was occupying illegally.

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Uttar Pradesh unit chief Laxmikant Bajpayi said Singh was not only bringing a bad name to his illustrious father, Choudhary Charan Singh, by trying to cling on to his illegally occupied house but also was trying to hoodwink the people by demanding that the house be converted into a memorial to the late prime minister.

Ajit Singh had held a rally in Meerut Sunday demanding that the house be converted into a memorial.

Bajpayi said Ajit Singh should clarify why he did not get this done when he was a union minister in UPA-II and his party was crucial in keeping the government afloat. "The son of a great father should not stoop to bullying tactics by invoking the great man's legacy," he said.

Dismissing the demands spelt out by leaders like former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, former prime minister H.D. Devegowda, Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav and state PWD minister Shivpal Yadav, who were by Ajit Singh's side at the Meerut rally Sunday, Bajpayi cited a letter of last month wherein union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu had written back to the Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on where the law stood in such situations.

"These people are indulging in politics of bad taste," Bajpayi said, also noting that a Supreme Court order barred any bungalow in Lutyens' Delhi being converted into a memorial.

Based on this apex court ruling, the then union cabinet had issued a policy guideline endorsing the decision with immediate effect, he told media persons here, adding that Ajit Singh should stop dramatising the whole issue.