By IANS
Lucknow : Indicative of the changed political equations in Uttar Pradesh, Governor T.V. Rajeswar on Monday flayed Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan for attempting to portray India's most populous state as one with "low crime".
Without naming Bachchan, Rajeshwar declared while addressing a joint sitting of the newly constituted state assembly: "Describing UP as a state with low crime was like inflicting an insult on the people of Uttar Pradesh."
Referring to a much talked about advertisement in which Bachchan lauded the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government by saying "UP mein hai dam kyonki jurm yahan hai kum (UP is powerful as the crime is less here)", Rajeshwar termed it a "crude joke" on the people of the state.
He even went to the extent of terming the Yadav government as "unconstitutional" since "it was formed by staging defections and splitting other (political) parties".
He said the past four years of Yadav's rule were a period of "anarchy" and "lawlessness".
Listing the priorities of the new government of Chief Minister Mayawati – the first majority regime in 16 years – the governor said it would "come down heavily on the mafia and restore the rule of law".
Promising deterrent punishment criminals and other law breakers, Rajeshwar declared: "The government would invoke stringent laws such as the NSA (National Security Act), the Gangsters Act and the Goonda Act against all hardened criminals, irrespective of their affiliations."
Taking a dig at Yadav's Man Friday Amar Singh, whose brainchild Uttar Pradesh Development Council Mayawati has scrapped, he described it as the ousted government's "act of cheating".
He hailed the new chief minister for constituting board at various levels to regulate transfers of bureaucrats and felt this would go a long way in "rooting out corruption in transfers and postings" – a charge Mayawati was often accused of during her previous stints in power.