The ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) on Saturday came under heavy fire from the Opposition over a letter purportedly calling a meeting of officials to discuss the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya.
As the letter raised a furore, the State Government clarified that it was a “typographical error”. In a desperate attempt to save the ruling Samajwadi Party from any further embarrassment over the controversial letter of the Home Department calling a meeting to discuss “reconstruction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on the lines of Somnath temple” on Monday, Principal Secretary (Home) RM Srivastava not only went on record to claim it is as a big “error” on the part of his department, but also assured of stern action against “whoever was responsible for it.”
Uttar Pradesh Home Sec retary Sarvesh Chandra Mishra was transferred and another official suspended over the issue, State’s Principal Secretary (Home) RM Srivastava said. While Mishra was transferred and put on wait mode, a section officer in the home department, Prem Kumar Pandey, was suspended over the letter, which talked about calling a meeting of officials to discuss the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya, the officer said.
“It was a big error on behalf of my department as it not just carried confidential information passed on to us by the Intelligence department but senior police officers were also summoned to lucknow for discussion,” Srivastava said at a Press meet here. “The language used in the letter is not correct,” Srivastava said, adding an enquiry would be conducted and action would be taken against those responsible.
Interestingly, initially he tried to justify the error claiming that overburdened officials of the Home Department sometime made such mistakes but to avoid any controversy he also assured that all those responsible for it will be not spared.
To further convince the media of the error of the Home Department, RM Srivastava while rendering an “apology” reminded the media about the disturbance that took place from Barabanki, Faizabad to Sultanpur during immersion of idols in Dussehra last year. “last year violence took place in three districts which included Faizabad, so how could I summon the police officers from these districts to lucknow on the day when the immersion of idols is to take place this year,” he pointed clarifying that it was just meant to be an interaction with the officers through video-conferencing.
RM Srivastava further clarified that the meeting was called with reference to Intelligence inputs on Sankalp Diwas called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on October 19 and that there was a misprint in the letter. “The meeting on Monday organised by the Home Department was to handle the situation of Sankalp Diwas but by mistake, the subject of the meeting was misprinted which was later also corrected,” he claimed adding that the issue has been brought to the notice of the competent authority and the Minister concerned (Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also holds the Home portfolio) must also be aware of the same.
In the letter Sarvesh Chandra Mishra directed the Director-General of Police, ADG (law and Order), ADG (Intelligence), IG (law and Order), IG (Railways), IG lucknow Zone, DIG Faizabad Range and DM/SSP of Faizabad to attend a meeting headed by PS (Home) RM Srivastava here at Command Centre on 2nd floor of lal Bhadhur Shastri Annexe on October 14.
Reacting strongly, BJP said the letter was a conspiracy of the “Cong-SP-BSP secular syndicate” and that it would not help “such forces” in the 2014 general elections. “The letter is a conspiracy of secular syndicate of Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. Such a conspiracy will not help to avoid white-wash of such forces in the next lok Sabha elections,” BJP national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in Kanpur.Refusing to buy the “error” explanation, the Congress said that the clarification was “shady”, and raised suspicion that there was some “match-fixing between the SP and the BJP.”
The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) spokesman Zeeshan Haider said that there can be an error of a word or two, but it stretched credulity when entire sentences were different from the draft. “This is ridiculous, and raises enough questions” he said.