Bhopal: There are five ministers in the state cabinet from Gwalior, Bhind and Morena but when the three districts were blazing during Bharat Bandh on Monday, these ministers were sitting pretty in Mantralaya, Bhopal. Even as they had prior information about the violence, they did nothing to stop it. Those ministers are Maya Singh, Jaibhan Singh Pawaiyya, Narayan Singh Kushwah (from Gwalior), Lal Singh Arya (from Bhind) and Rustam Singh (from Morena).
The five ministers remained in their respective homes, keeping themselves away from the affairs because of vote bank. Though, they could have controlled the violence by discussing the issue with SC/ST leaders, they remained silent as they did during the farmers’ agitation. They did not want to infuriate one section by supporting another.
Rustam Singh and Narayan Singh Kushwah who were present at the Mantralaya were not called by the chief minister to a meeting to review the violence.
They also evaded a question on the issue saying only the home minister would be able to speak about it. Kushwah said since he was in Bhopal, he got all the information about the violence from reporters. However, Arya said some anti-social elements were spreading violence in the name of agitation. In fact, the lack of efforts by the ministers and the BJP organisation led to the violence.
CM deletes hurriedly made tweet
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was under pressure due to the violence. So much so that he tweeted: The government would file a review petition against the Supreme Court’s decision on the Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act. Nobody could remember that the Centre had already filed a review petition. So, the chief minister had to delete his tweet saying that Centre had already filed a review petition and peace should be maintained.
Home Minister must quit, demands LoP
Leader of opposition Ajay Singh demanded resignation from state home minister Bhupendra Singh following the incidents of violence. He said all those incidents were indicative of the fact that he failed to maintain law and order in the state. He appealed to the people to maintain peace in the state.