Mayawati woos Muslims

LUCKNOW: Mayawati has started playing to the minority gallery. “Innocent Muslims are being arrested and killed in the name of terrorism,” the UP chief minister said as she lambasted the Congress and the Samajwadi Party at the All India Muslim Conference organised by the BSP on Monday. She cited the Batla House encounter as an example of the “atrocities” unleashed against the Muslims.

“If the UPA does not stop this trend, Muslims will also never forgive the Congress like the Sikhs who had been alienated... it would be like repeating the Indira Gandhi episode of 1984,” she warned.

Surprisingly, Mayawati supported the demand originally made by SP general secretary Amar Singh for a judicial probe into the Batla House encounter in which two suspected terrorists were killed recently.

Monday’s convention was a poor show compared to the massive rallies BSP is known for. Mayawati used the opportunity to demand a ban on the Bajrang Dal, without naming it. “All organisations involved in violence and acts of terror, regardless of community, should be banned,” she declared. She also criticised the recent anti-Christian attacks in Orissa and Karnataka.

g_deepak@dnaindia.net