JOIN USSP, BSP still harbour 'rapists' in UP
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati may have said she totally agreed with a suggestion that rape accused should not be fielded in elections and other political parties have supported her assertion, whether parties will actually act on their promise remains to be seen.
There are at least four rape accused, who were either legislators or leaders in the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) or the BSP. Of them one is even a minister.
Three of them are with the SP and one is from BSP.SP legislator from Bulandshahar Sribhagwan Pandi alias Guddu Pandit faces a case of alleged rape in his home district.
He was accused of repeatedly raping a girl when he was in BSP. Pandit switched loyalty to SP when BSP denied him a ticket in the Assembly polls. SP obliged him with a ticket and he won.
SP MLA from Nagina in Bijnore district Manoj Paras also faces a rape case. But the party not only gave him a ticket but was also made him a minister of state.
Similarly Shahnawaz Rana, a senior SP leader is also accused of rape attempt.
BSP legislator Aleem Khan too is facing a rape charge. Party supremo Mayawati had, for reasons unknown, spared him when she launched ‘operation clean’ last year before the Assembly polls.
Action never taken
Incidentally, political parties never take action against their leaders when they are charged with rape offence.
BSP, for instance, expressed its solidarity with its then MLAs Yogendra Sagar and the then minister Daddu Prasad when they were accused of rape while the party was in power.
SP is silent on whether it will refuse tickets to the rape accused in the polls. Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party have supported the suggestion.
“I am one hundred and one per cent in favour of the suggestion that the political parties should not field rape accused in the elections'', Mayawati said in reply to a query at a press conference here a few days back.
She added that the Delhi gang rape incident had awakened the nation and had shaken the conscience of the people to some extent.