Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Thursday attacked the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party for invoking the stringent National Security Act and booking people under sedition charges, saying they were examples of “state terror”.
Mayawati was referring to two separate incidents in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress is in power, police charged three people under the National Security Act for allegedly slaughtering cows, in Khandwa town of the state last week. People charged under the law can be detained up to 12 months.
Last month, the Bulandshahr district administration in Uttar Pradesh also invoked the National Security Act against three people of the seven people arrested in connection with the alleged cow slaughter incident in December. The BJP heads the government in the state.
“Congress govt in MP [Madhya Pradesh] like BJP slapped atrocious NSA against Muslims for cow slaughter,” Mayawati tweeted. “Now the UP BJP govt [government] booked 14 AMU students under notorious sedition charges. Both are examples of state terror [and] condemnable. People should decide what is difference between the Cong [Congress and] BJP govt [government]?”
Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party in December had extended support to the Congress to form government in Madhya Pradesh after Assembly elections.
In Uttar Pradesh, fourteen students of the Aligarh Muslim University were booked for sedition following clashes on the campus on Tuesday after a confrontation with journalists from news channel Republic TV.
Madhya Pradesh Minister PC Sharma said the Congress government was only doing what was promised in the manifesto. “If she thinks something is unethical, she can write to us, we will have discussions,” Sharma told ANI. “There’s no comparison between BJP and Congress.”
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