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Congress leaders try to push President's rule in UP with Narayanan

A team of Congress leaders from Uttar Pradesh, led by state party president Salman Khursheed, met President K R Narayanan on Tuesday to appraise him of what they called a breakdown in the constitutional governance there.

The President, who heard the leaders out for 45 minutes, has assured that their demands would be given due consideration. He would examine the situation closely to see if the case warranted Article 356, Khursheed said, briefing the media outside Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Congress team comprised among others N D Tewari, Jitendra Prasada and Mohsina Kidwai who presented the President, and later the press, with evidence of rising crime rate in the state.

''The entire state has been dragged into lawlessness and anarchy with no hope of any control by the BJP-led government since it is dominated by a large number of ministers with criminal backgrounds,'' the Congress team told the President.

In the last six months, 350 state and district level leaders of Opposition parties have been killed and the police have virtually surrendered to lawlessness, the Congress leaders said.

The picture of Dalit women and weaker sections is even more dismal, the leaders complained to the President, giving him written instances of atrocities against them.

In the capital city of Lucknow, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's constituency, homicidal attacks have taken place within a five kilometre radius of the chief minister's home.

In fact, the situation is so bad that the state government has had to ask businessmen to acquire licensed guns to protect themselves, the team claimed.

Mohsina Kidwai alleged that though the police apprehended quite a few murderers in the last few months, most of them were let off at the chief minister's instance.

In districts like Pratapgarh, even police officers have to seek protection against the politicians who rule like medieval monarchs.

The general inflation has hit Uttar Pradesh severely with the price of onions jumping to Rs 18 per kg, potatoes to Rs 16 per kg and tomatoes to Rs 45 per kg. The price of Dalda has doubled and that of sugar tripled.

''It is an open secret that the unwieldy and elephantine government has ministers who have insatiable appetites and a lot of spare time. Because of their uncertain future, large amounts of money are being collected,'' the Congress leaders said.

District officials, they said, have been told to follow the dictates of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionaries, and liberally collect funds under the guise of donations for front organisations.

Even BJP president Kushabhau Thakre confessed recently that the situation in UP is deplorable, the team pointed out to the President.

UNI

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