New Delhi, May 17: Rallying behind Rahul Gandhi, Congress today dared Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati to order a CBI or judicial inquiry into the violence over farmers' agitation in Bhatta Parsaul village in Greater Noida.
“Bhatta Parsaul is crying for justice as men were murdered, women molested and even children not spared. Here is an aggressor, who is giving himself a character certificate thereby making a mockery of justice,” party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters.
Virtually throwing a challenge to Chief Minister Mayawati, he said if the state government was so confident that nothing of that sort had taken place there, “Why it is shying away from a CBI or judicial inquiry into the whole episode.”
He questioned why the village still gives the look of a cantonment and mediamen as well as the National Human Rights Commmission are not being allowed to enter Bhatta Parsaul.
“Let the UP government open the village routes and allow people and the NHRC team to visit there. If Mayawati government is clean, why it is running away from the probe,” he said, when pointed out that the UP government has dismissed Gandhi's claims that women were raped in the village and heaps of ashes containing burnt bones have been found there.
The Congress spokesperson also made it clear that the party is not giving up the Bhatta Parsoul issue.
“We have promised to the villagers to give them justice. Congress will continue its crusade. It is the right of every political party to fight against injustice. We will continue to fight till those who have perpetrated such crimes are brought to justice,” Tewari said.
Gandhi had yesterday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with an eight-member delegation of farmers from the affected villages and complained to him about alleged “rape” of women and “murder” of farmers in Mayawati-ruled state but BSP denied the charges.
The Congress leader also showed the Prime Minister pictures purportedly of bodies burnt and other forms of violence against farmers and their family members.
The BSP dubbed Rahul meeting the Prime Minister Minister with the farmers as another instance of Congress' “indulging in petty politics” and dismissed as “baseless” the allegation that a large number of lives were lost and women raped. PTI
