SP candidate calls journalists semi-literate

On a day when the Aam Aadmi Party said media was ready for sale, Samajwadi Party’s (SP) “muscleman” Lok Sabha candidate Ateeq Ahmed chose to describe journalists as a “bundh of semi-literate people” needed to be “properly trained”.

Ahmed said officials are nothing more than “sheep” and “goats” and he knew how to get them to do the work. The mafia don-turned-politician and SP candidate from Shravasti constituency, who has as many as 44 criminal cases pending against them, made the remarks while speaking at a meeting of the party workers at Bardahi Baazar area in the constituency on Thursday evening.

He was responding to allegations of violation of the model code of conduct after he had taken out a procession with scores of luxury vehicles in the area a few days ago while campaigning. He was apparently angry with the media for publishing the news.

“A lot of people, with little education, have now entered the field of media. The journalists should attend the meetings of the Election Commission to learn what violation of model code of conduct means,” Ahmed said adding that the media was ` a bunch of “semi-literate people”.

He also lashed out at the officials for booking him in the case of alleged violation of the model code. “The officials are nothing more than sheep and goats. I know very well how to get them to work,” he thundered from the stage.

Ahmed had recently demolished an under-construction wall of the office of the basic education officer in the town because it obstructed the expansion of his election office. The SP workers had complained to him that the local officials had stopped them from expanding their election office saying that the construction encroached upon the government land.

Angry over the official action, Ahmed reached the spot with a large number of his supporters and had the wall demolished. The education department was getting the walls constructed as there was a housing complex in which employees of the department lived.

Ateeq had recently displayed his “muscle power” on the road after being declared SP nominee. His supporters had taken out a procession in which they brazenly displayed firearms. There were 200 vehicles in his procession and his supporters carried modern weapons.