MP BJP wants sacking of officials responsible for Mandsaur

The Madhya Pradesh unit of the BJP today said the state government, led by the party, should sack the erring officials, who failed to prevent the violence and firing which killed five farmers in Mandsaur on Tuesday.
"The services of the administrative officers who committed errors regarding the incident should be terminated," MP BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chauhan told reporters here when asked if transferring the Mandsaur collector and SP was enough or the government should suspend them.
Madhya Pradesh has a BJP government with Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the chief minister for more than 10 years.
The MP BJP chief, however, said everything would be clear only after the conclusion of the ongoing magisterial inquiry.

Asked what went wrong on part of the state government, he alleged that the "peaceful" farmers' protest had turned violent due to a "Congress conspiracy and involvement of anti-social elements".
"Such a (violent) protest has never happened in Madhya Pradesh and the administration did not anticipate it. Government property was damaged on a large-scale," said Chauhan.

He though admitted that some of the problems of the farmers were genuine.
The BJP leader accused Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and other leaders of the party of "instigating" the farmers today.
"Rahul Gandhi, a person with a 'Z' level security cover, arrived at Mandsaur sitting behind Congress MLA Jitu Patwari on a motorbike. This itself shows that senior Congress leaders were behind the incidents.

"Gandhi was going to Mandsaur only to encourage the Congress leaders involved in instigating the violence," he alleged.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Singh said the chief minister and Home Minister Bhupendra Singh should resign in the aftermath of the Mandsaur incident as transferring the SP and collector was "not sufficient".
"The farmers got agitated due to the false promises and poor administrative skills of the chief minister and the home minister. This incident has exposed how self-absorbed the BJP regime is. It is appalling that the home minister admitted that the officials had misled him about the Mandsaur firing," he added.

Earlier in the day, the Madhya Pradesh government issued transfer orders to Mandsaur Collector SK Singh and SP OP Tripathi.