Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday carried forward the mood set by her son Rahul Gandhi a day earlier when she described Uttar Pradesh as “andher nagari” and said the atrocities on farmers in Greater Noida’s Bhatta-Parsaul had left the country ashamed.
“We will not tolerate this any more. There is a sustained campaign to acquire farmers’ land and give it to vested interests. We understand the plight of the people in UP and we assure you that the Congress will always stand by you,” she said while addressing a rally in Varanasi’s Benia Bagh on Thursday at the end of the two-day UPCC convention.
Deriding the state of affairs in UP, Mrs Gandhi said: “Narrow mindedness and caste politics has taken over the state in the past two decades. Opportunistic alliances have been forged and the hunger for power had led to six-monthly governments. Defections have set a new record in UP. I am now happy that the people of this state have started realising the gravity of the situation and are looking towards the Congress.”
Joining issue with the Congress in its ongoing war with the Mayawati government, UP’s state cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh alleged on Thursday that no “human remains” had been found in the six samples of ashes sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Agra. “The six samples of the ash were sent to the forensic laboratory and the initial report says no human remains have been found in the ashes, which proves that no mass murder or mass rape took place in the area,” he told reporters in Lucknow on Thursday.
In Varanasi, meanwhile, Mrs Gandhi said chaos and anarchy prevailed all across Uttar Pradesh. “Yeh andher nagari ho gayi hai. Har taraf anyaya aur bhrashtachar ka bol bala hai,” she said.
The Congress president and chairperson of the ruling UPA said those who accused the Manmohan Singh government of corruption should first introspect. “We have taken stern action in every case on corruption, and it is because of this we got maximum support in the recent polls in five states. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others,” she added.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had alleged some days ago that several farmers were killed in the mayhem in Bhatta-Parsaul on May 7 and their bodies were burnt to destroy evidence. Mr Shashank Shekhar Singh said the Congress MP’s claims were false and no mass murder had taken place in the two villages. He also rubbished the Congress statement that several women were raped in Bhatta-Parsaul.