Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that the government is willing to examine the cases lodged against dalits protesting during the Bharat Bandh call given last year. He was responding to the demand put up by Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati who recently demanded that cases lodged against dailt protestors be withdrawan threatening to pull out of the recently formed governments in MP and in Rajasthan.
The Congress fell short of the simple majority in both Madhya Pradesh and in Rajasthan by a whisker and had to bank on outside support to form the governments in both states. The BSP had given outside support to the Congress-led governments in the two states, the party had managed to wrest from the ruling BJP in the recently held assembly elections.
Reacting to Mayawati’s demand, Gehlot while speaking to media persons said the inncocent should not be punished. He said that the law takes its own course in deciding who is guilty and who is not. “Sometimes, those who are booked can be innocent. She (Mayawati) could be right on this count and the government will look into it case by case,” Gehlot said. The innocent should not be framed, he added.
Cases have been lodged and how many of them (protestors) are guilty is a matter of investigation, he said. But the chief minister maintained that there should be “rule of law in the country, in the state, right up to the village level and the government should function by the rule of law.”
Mayawati had on Monday said she would reconsider her party’s outside support to the new Congress governments in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh if the cases against “innocent” people in connection with the April 2 Bharat Bandh are not immediately withdrawn. The BSP supremo claimed cases were registered due to political and caste considerations in Uttar Pradesh and otehr BJP-ruled states.
The Issue
Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati has recently demanded that cases lodged against dailt protestors during the Bharat bandh be withdrawan threatening to pull out of the recently formed governments in MP and in Rajasthan.
