Running for cover, Madhya Pradesh Youth Congress chief Meenakshi Natrajan has chosen the path of complete denial with regard to the letter allegedly issued by her listing slogans on the beef issue which have stung Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee. At the same time she says that four out of the five slogans listed in the letter are correct and will continue to be used but denies the use of the slogan — Gai hamari mata hai, Atal Behari khata hai, videsh bhej khilwata hai.In other words, her defence is that the MP Youth Congress letter number 65-24/2003, released by BJP leader Uma Bharti, was forged. But forged in such a way that four out of the five slogans were correct and the fifth was an invention? When asked whether MPCC spokesman Lalit Srivastava — who had confirmed that the letter was genuine — and CM Digvijay Singh, who has also been quoted as admitting that the letter as genuine, were lying then, all she could say was: ‘‘Suppose such a circular had been issued then it would have been implemented word for word, but there are no posters, no slogans, nothing that the letter asks the cadre to carry out, how is that possible?’’As far as allegations of beef export are concerned, when it was pointed out that even Digvijay had admitted that such reference was wrong and the criticism was targeted at beef production, she said: ‘‘They take up issues such as cow slaughter and now the Bhojshala only before the elections. We will not allow the BJP to repeat the Gujarat pattern here.’’She said the state Youth Congress had taken up the issue after the incident in Ganj Basoda where a number of shops belonging to the minority community were torched after reports of cow slaughter. ‘‘The party at the state level brought up the issue and the Youth Congress followed their lead.’’ A former NSUI president, Natrajan enjoys the backing of party general secretary Mukul Wasnik as well as Ambika Soni.
