By IANS,
Lucknow/New Delhi : Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi was Thursday jailed for 14 days on charges of insulting Chief Minister Mayawati while parliament was paralysed over a vicious mob attack that left Joshi’s Lucknow house in shambles.
Joshi was sent to judicial custody by a court in Moradabad town after being charged under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Mayawati.
Her arrest earlier in Ghaziabad followed a violent attack on her residence in the Uttar Pradesh capital by men screaming slogans in support of Mayawati. After breaking and damaging what they could, the mob set ablaze the house as well as vehicles parked in the compound.
The vandalism sparked uproar in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, leading to their adjournment, while Congress and other political leaders accused Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of thuggery.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi convened a meeting of senior MPs of her party from Uttar Pradesh to discuss the issue.
Congress spokesman Manish Tewari called the attack on Joshi’s house “nothing short of jungle law … and terrorism” while general secretary Digvijay Singh described it as “state-sponsored vandalism, state-sponsored crime”.
“We are aware that when this was happening, all top officers were with the chief minister. All this has happened at the behest of the chief minister,” Digvijay Singh said in New Delhi. “The police were told this is going to happen. The media was told to reach (Joshi’s) house.”
Chief Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi admitted that Joshi had used inappropriate words during a speech targeting Mayawati, but insisted that “the reaction (in Lucknow) is completely disproportionate. What kind of vandalism, hooliganism (is this)?”
According to Joshi’s aides, a group of men with a part of their faces covered with handkerchiefs and armed with iron rods, sticks and petrol stormed her house after midnight Wednesday, screaming slogans against her and hailing Mayawati.
The men went about breaking everything in the house before pouring petrol in all directions and setting the complex on fire.
A maid at her house, Munni, 50, told reporters that the fire raged for nearly two hours. Scores of policemen were in the vicinity “but were mute spectators”.
Later, four domestic aides were taken away in a police vehicle. “I managed to hide in one of the toilets,” said Munni.
According to photographs of the vandalism, a BSP legislator led the attackers.
R.A. Shankhdhar, an advocate who lives across the road, told IANS: “I woke up on account of loud slogan shouting. I found flames from the house. Within minutes the cars parked inside the compound were ablaze. One of the vehicles (a Maruti van) belonged to me.”
As she was taken into custody, Joshi denied offending Mayawati or Dalits.
“I had simply sought to draw the people’s attention to Mayawati’s (financial) dole to every Dalit rape victim was ironical as the police chief was spending lakhs on the helicopter ride he undertakes to hand over that paltry amount to the victim,” Joshi told reporters.
“My intention was to remind Mayawati that being a woman she should realise that a paltry monetary compensation cannot make up for what a woman loses on account of rape,” she added.
Joshi added that she had already apologised for the remarks. “As soon as I found that my statement had been twisted, I made it a point to offer my apologies.”
Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party also reacted strongly to the vandalism in Lucknow and Joshi’s arrest.
BJP MP Maneka Gandhi accused the BSP of using the police as its personal force. “I have never seen a situation like this anywhere in India, ever.” She urged the central government to dismiss the BSP government in Uttar Pradesh and impose President’s Rule.
Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Prasad Yadav also denounced the BSP.
The incidents in Uttar Pradesh found their echo in both houses of parliament, which were adjourned as MPs from rival camps were on their feet shouting slogans against one another.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned once and then for the day. The Lok Sabha was adjourned thrice, until 2 in the afternoon, after Speaker Meira Kumar failed to restore order.