Telangana encounter: BSP and BJP spar on Twitter over UP's crime record

After BSP grabbed the chance to hit out at the Yogi government, suggesting UP police "learn" from its Hyderabad counterparts, the former retorted with statistics on encounters it has under its belt

Even as the Telangana police won praise on social media over the alleged encounter of the Hyderabad rape and murder accused, a war of words has broken out between the Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Twitter. After the BSP grabbed the opportunity to hit out at the Adityanath government, suggesting the UP police “learn” from its Hyderabad counterparts, the former retorted with statistics on encounters it has under its belt. Its Twitter post said 103 criminals had been killed by the UP police in 5,178 encounters in the last two years or so, while 17,745 criminals had either surrendered or cancelled their bail to go to jail voluntarily. The tweet saying “Hardly state guests” made an oblique reference to the 1995 state guest house incident, in which BSP supremo Mayawati (pictured) was allegedly attacked by some workers of its on-off ally Samajwadi Party in Lucknow.

Transfer orders

The Andhra Pradesh government has issued an order restricting the tenure of employees, both contractual as well as outsourced, who work as peshi or as the personal staff of ministers and other senior officers, to three years. The move is aimed at curbing corruption and preventing leaks of crucial information. Henceforth, it will be mandatory to transfer the staff after they complete three years in their postings. The tenure was seven years. Will this mitigate instances of wrongdoing? Only time can tell.

Grand celebration

The Congress-led government in MP is set to complete a year. The party and the government are planning to celebrate its “successful one year” on a grand scale. The government, which assumed office on December 17, 2018, will publish a book titled Logon ki sarkar, Log hi Sarkar (people’s government, people are the government). All ministers have been asked to work on the PR outreach for the book, which is being printed. Sources say the ministers have been specially asked to compare the first year’s success with the 15 years of the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government, while promoting the book.