Situation in Uttar Pradesh worse than Emergency: Varun Gandhi
By IANSMonday, January 10, 2011
BARIELLY - Training his guns on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi said here Monday that conditions in the state were worse than during the 1975-77 Emergency.
The MP from Pilibhit was speaking to mediapersons after calling on jailed independent legislator Raghuraj Pratap Singh, popularly known as Raja Bhaiya.
The legislator was jailed after being booked under the stringent Gangsters Act for kidnapping and attempt to murder.
“I am convinced that Raja Bhaiya has been implicated and Mayawati’s intention is to politically crush the self-respecting man who has clearly done no wrong,” said Gandhi, son of BJP leader Maneka Gandhi.
Questioning the chief minister’s decision to slap stringent charges against Raja Bhaiya, he asked: “Why has the Gangster’s Act not been slapped on the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) own MLA who was responsible for murdering an engineer or another BSP legislator accused of raping a minor girl?”
“The situation in UP (Uttar Pradesh) had therefore turned quite horrendous, with the government gagging everything that was democratic and crushing the common man’s voice,” said Gandhi.
“Raja Bhaiya is a good human being who had stood up to oppose injustice and that was the sole reason why he was being targeted in this manner,” he said.
During the 21 months of Emergency rule in the country thousands of political activists were jailed and the media muzzled.
