UP chief minister Mayawati on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and said that he had either gone “mad” or was working for her political rivals.
Terming the WikiLeaks revelations as “mischievous, baseless and absurd”, the CM said at a press conference that the “WikiLeaks owner” should be sent to a mental asylum. “If his own government cannot keep him in an asylum, I am willing to keep him in the Agra asylum,” she added.
Mr Assange, meanwhile, demanded that Ms Mayawati “admit her error and apologise” for her attack. He said she should take up the issue with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton as the allegations within them were made by American diplomats.
The CM also announced that she would now give more importance to BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Misra and UP Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh — the two men quoted in the US cable. “There is an attempt to malign the image of honest and upright officers in the government and leaders in the party. I will now elevate the status of such officers and leaders to encourage them,” she said.
“WikiLeaks reports are being happily quoted by BJP leaders and it seems that one of these leaders must have gone to buy sandals and must have also been present in my kitchen,” Ms Mayawati said.