SC order on statues not flouted,observations misinterpreted: BSP

Asserting that the state government had fully honoured the undertaking it had given to the Supreme Court,Mishra said the Chief Minister holds a law degree and respects institutions like the Supreme Court,the High Court and the Election Commission of India.

Mishra also threatened to file defamation suits against Opposition leaders for making out-of-context comments and trying to damage Mayawatis reputation. He said these statements also amounted to criminal contempt in a sub-judice matter. However,he refrained from naming any leader.

Pointing out that the Congress had spent huge sums of money on building memorials of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru,he accused the party of being casteist for opposing the BSP governments memorials.

Mishra also expressed his unhappiness with the media coverage of the Supreme Court proceedings. It would have been better if the media had gone through the judgement before reporting on the issue because certain observations made by the court during the course of arguments have been portrayed as if they were part of the verdict, said Mishra,who is also the state governments counsel in the apex court.

Our contention in this matter was that the media was misled by the petitioner. The court is still to finally make up its mind, he added.

Stressing that there had been no violation of the affidavit submitted by Chief Secretary,A K Gupta,Mishra tried to play down the apex courts showcause notice to him,saying that the court observed that prima facie it appears that there was a case for initiating contempt proceedings against Gupta.

The Chief Secretary would personally appear in the court on November 4 and clarify his position on the issue, said Mishra. On accusations that crores of rupees were spent on the statues,he said: Only three to four crore rupees were spent on Chief Minister Mayawatis statues.

with PTI