Lucknow:
Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma today intensified his attack on Mulayam Singh Yadav accusing him of conniving with BJP to flare up communal passions and dared the Samajwadi Party chief to a public debate on the Babri issue.
He alleged that BJP was trying to vitiate the atmosphere in the state by creating tension on the Ram temple issue, which would benefit the saffron brigade and the SP.
He also questioned why SP government in Uttar Pradesh had not recommended an NIA probe into the custodial death of terror suspect Khalid Mujahid, an accused in serial blasts that had rocked Lucknow and Faizabad courts in November 2007, and suggested that right-wing Hindu outfits could have been behind the attack.
"Mulayam should come on a platform face to face against me on Babri mosque issue. I will reply to him and he should reply to my questions," Mr Verma told reporters in Lucknow.
The minister said that Mr Yadav had stated that a CBI inquiry should be conducted into allegations against him on Babri issue but if the SP is serious, its government in Uttar
Pradesh should make a recommendation on the issue to the Centre.
"CBI or NIA conducts an inquiry only when either the court orders or the state government recommends. The state government should recommend the inquiry and I will make all efforts to get it done," he said.
He asked why a CBI inquiry was not ordered into killing of Hindus in Ayodhya.
"SP and BJP are colluding. After Godhra incident, SP contested elections in Gujarat. During debate in Parliament, Sushma Swaraj sided with Mulayam," Mr Verma alleged.
He said that BJP was confident that the issue would flare communal passion in the state which would benefit the saffron brigade and SP. "It is part of their strategy."
He said that he was "clarifying things" so that tension should not spread among Hindu and Muslims and urged people to vote on merit in Lok Sabha elections.
Mr Verma claimed that going by the happening since 1990, it was clear that SP and BJP "were acting in connivance".
He wondered how SP could form a government with only 135 MLAs at one time. "How come the then Vidhan Sabha speaker Kesari Nath Tripathi allowed defection. How come the party was allowed to take oath. At that time BJP was at the Centre and SP in the state."
Mr Verma was once a close confidant of Mr Yadav but was gradually sidelined after Amar Singh came into the picture. The Kurmi leader quit the party in 2007 and joined the Congress before 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
Taking pot-shots at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the minister said that on one hand he gives call of making Congress-free country, on the other he has made an announcement of installing statues of Sardar Patel.
"Sardar Patel was a Congressman all his life. He was the one, who, after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)," he said.
On BJP national general secretary and UP incharge Amit Shah's visit to Ayodhya, Mr Verma quipped that he went to pray for his acquittal in criminal cases.
He alleged that BJP was trying to vitiate the atmosphere in the state by creating tension on the Ram temple issue, which would benefit the saffron brigade and the SP.
He also questioned why SP government in Uttar Pradesh had not recommended an NIA probe into the custodial death of terror suspect Khalid Mujahid, an accused in serial blasts that had rocked Lucknow and Faizabad courts in November 2007, and suggested that right-wing Hindu outfits could have been behind the attack.
"Mulayam should come on a platform face to face against me on Babri mosque issue. I will reply to him and he should reply to my questions," Mr Verma told reporters in Lucknow.
The minister said that Mr Yadav had stated that a CBI inquiry should be conducted into allegations against him on Babri issue but if the SP is serious, its government in Uttar
Pradesh should make a recommendation on the issue to the Centre.
"CBI or NIA conducts an inquiry only when either the court orders or the state government recommends. The state government should recommend the inquiry and I will make all efforts to get it done," he said.
He asked why a CBI inquiry was not ordered into killing of Hindus in Ayodhya.
"SP and BJP are colluding. After Godhra incident, SP contested elections in Gujarat. During debate in Parliament, Sushma Swaraj sided with Mulayam," Mr Verma alleged.
He said that BJP was confident that the issue would flare communal passion in the state which would benefit the saffron brigade and SP. "It is part of their strategy."
He said that he was "clarifying things" so that tension should not spread among Hindu and Muslims and urged people to vote on merit in Lok Sabha elections.
Mr Verma claimed that going by the happening since 1990, it was clear that SP and BJP "were acting in connivance".
He wondered how SP could form a government with only 135 MLAs at one time. "How come the then Vidhan Sabha speaker Kesari Nath Tripathi allowed defection. How come the party was allowed to take oath. At that time BJP was at the Centre and SP in the state."
Mr Verma was once a close confidant of Mr Yadav but was gradually sidelined after Amar Singh came into the picture. The Kurmi leader quit the party in 2007 and joined the Congress before 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
Taking pot-shots at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the minister said that on one hand he gives call of making Congress-free country, on the other he has made an announcement of installing statues of Sardar Patel.
"Sardar Patel was a Congressman all his life. He was the one, who, after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)," he said.
On BJP national general secretary and UP incharge Amit Shah's visit to Ayodhya, Mr Verma quipped that he went to pray for his acquittal in criminal cases.
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