The Hindu : BJP may stage-manage another Godhra: Mayawati

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 16, 2003

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National

BJP may stage-manage another Godhra: Mayawati

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI. OCT. 15. The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, has expressed the fear that the BJP may stage-manage a "Godhra type'' incident as the Assembly elections approach. "My information is that the BJP may stage manage another Godhra type of incident, so that it can cash in on the issue during the coming elections," she said at a press conference this afternoon.

Ms. Mayawati said the dates for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad temple campaign were deliberately kept close to the Assembly elections so that it helped the BJP in the four States going to the polls in December. "The agitation is creating communal tension throughout the country, the dates have been set in a manner so that it helps the BJP electorally."

The Bahujan Samaj Party president accused the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, of being hand in glove with the BJP. Mr. Yadav was deliberately targeting the Dalits at the behest of the BJP, she said and cited the recent violence in Agra as an example. "Mr. Mulayam is being used by the BJP to create a divide among the Muslims and Dalits by pitting them against each other.'' "Mr. Mulayam hopes to get the Muslims on his side by merely talking tough against the VHP, while the BJP gains every time the temple issue is raked up." Both the BJP and the Samajwadi Party would be equally responsible if anything untoward happened, she said.

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