Mahajan exposed BJP’s hidden agenda: Cong

Sibal said Mahajan was acting as a mouthpiece of Prime Minister A B Vajpayee whose party believed in saying something and doing exactly the opposite. Mahajan’s statement assumes political significance since it was made at Faizabad at a time when the BJP is fighting a losing battle all over Uttar Pradesh. It was made deliberately to rouse communal tensions, create a Hindu-Muslim divide and reap political dividend, Sibal said.

The Congress spokesperson said he was at a loss to understand how a “responsible” union minister could make such a statement when the whole temple issue was being adjudicated in a court of law and hence was subjudice.

In a sharp attack on the competence of Vajpayee to look after the needs of the people of Lucknow whom he is representing for the third successive term, Sibal said the PM had spent only Rs 1.24 crore of the two crore received under the Local Area Development Fund.

Charging the BJP with saffronising the bureaucracy in UP, Sibal said 60 odd top Government officers, including Chief Secretary Yogendra Narayan and Director General of Police K L Gupta, were forced to attend a lecture.

The State Government, Sibal said, had posted persons with RSS background to various universities and educational bodies. It also spent Rs 12 lakh for building Deoras Dwar in memory of former RSS chief Babasaheb Deoras in Lucknow University when the Government was not in a position to pay salaries to the teaching staff.

The Hindi Sanstan and Sangeet Natak Academy are filled with RSS activists. The situation is no different in Urdu Academy, Lalit Kala Academy and Bharatendu Natya Academy, he said.

The performance of the BJP Government in UP has been dismal on the economic front with overdrafts of Rs 300 crore from the Reserve Bank of India, and indebtedness crossing a record Rs 51,000 crore, resulting in bankruptcy of the State, Sibal said.