Lucknow: An Uttar Pradesh court on Friday asked the police to register an FIR against 10 persons,including five top ministers in Mayawati government,for their alleged association with a magazine 'Ambedkar Today'.The magazine,in its May 2010 edition,had carried an article allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.
Bahraich chief judicial magistrate Satya Prakash Dwivedi gave this order on a petition filed by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Awadh Prant D h a r m a Pracharak Sant Ram Singh.The five ministers were named in the petition as the magazine had listed them as its patrons.The ministers are: Naseemuddin Siddiqui,Babu Singh Khushwaha,Swami Prasad Maurya,Daddu Prasad and Paras Nath Maurya. Besides the five ministers,the others against whom FIR is to be registered are Rajeev Ratan,Ashwani Kumar Shakya,Ashok Anand,Sushma Rana and Prakash Maurya.
Rajiv Ratan,the publisher and chief editor of the magazine,is the son of Parasnath Maurya.Earlier,a local court in Jaunpur had issued a similar order on July 12. "Ambedkar Today is published from Jaunpur and is considered to be the mouthpiece of the BSP.Even Mahatma Gandhi was not spared,'' Singh said. Soon after the publication of the article,Mayawati government had,on May 19,2010,directed the CB-CID to probe the matter.Copies of the magazine were seized and its registration cancelled.The government had also sought an explanation from the editor.
In his reply,Ratan had apologised for hurting the sentiments of the community.He also said that since he was not ke e p i n g well,he could not scrutinise the article before its publication.Regarding the five BSP ministers as patrons,Ratan said the names were used without their consent. The government action in the case was prompt as the article was against Mayawati's new 'sarvjan formula' and it particularly hit the Brahmin community whose vote was crucial in bringing BSP to power in May 2007.
While BSP leaders saw a conspiracy to malign Mayawati's image,the VHP functionaries described handing over of inquiry to CB-CID as a cosmetic exercise and the editor's explanation an attempt to save BSP ministers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
(source-toi)
No comments:
Post a Comment