Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party, the main opposition group in the State Legislature, alleged on the floor of the House that the state government has withdrawn riot cases lodged against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya and other BJP leaders.
The allegation was hurled when State Law Minister Brajesh Pathak informed the house that the government has withdrawn about 670 cases lodged against leaders for political reasons. The Samajwadi Party demanded to furnish a party-wise list of leaders.
“It is not appropriate legally to furnish a party-wise list of leaders and disclose their names publicly,” replied Pathak much to the dismay of SP members, who created unruly scenes to press for their demand.
The Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chowdhary alleged that the government has withdrawn riot cases lodged against the Chief Minister, deputy Chief Minister and several other senior BJP leaders.
“It was due to this reason, the government is not making public details of cases withdrawn,” he charged.
This led to a wordy duel between the opposition and treasury benches. The Law minister countered the charge alleging that when the Akhilesh Yadav government came to power they had first withdrawn cases against terrorists.
“In contrast, in its first Cabinet meeting, the Yogi Adityanath government waived off interests on farmers’ bank loans,” he claimed.
Enraged over the Law Minister’s allegations, SP members demanded to furnish documents. They requested the Speaker to stall the proceedings till the government furnished proofs to support the charge. They sat on a dharna in the Well in protest against the Law Minister’s allegation.
“Many terrorists are sitting in the treasury benches and today a terrorist has become the Chief Minister,” countered the Leader of Opposition, forcing the Parliamentary Minister Suresh Khanna to intervene and advise SP members to uphold parliamentary practices.
Later, he requested the Speaker H.N. Dixit to delete utterances of Leader of Opposition directed against the Chief Minister.
