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Won’t speak against govt and risk sedition: BJP MLA on health infra
First-time MLA Rakesh Rathore was apparently heard expressing “helplessness” when asked by journalists to comment on why a trauma centre set up in 2016 in Khairabad’s Jamayatpur area was still not functional.
A viral video showing a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker in Uttar Pradesh telling the local media in Sitapur that he wouldn’t speak against the state government and risk being booked for sedition has stoked Opposition charges that the state government was muzzling criticism, even among its own ranks.
First-time MLA Rakesh Rathore was apparently heard expressing “helplessness” when asked by journalists to comment on why a trauma centre set up in 2016 in Khairabad’s Jamayatpur area was still not functional. It falls in the Sitapur assembly segment, from where Rathore was elected in 2017.
Rathore, 55, appeared to say: “Hum zyada bolenge toh deshdroh, rajdroh hum pe bhi to lagega (If I say more, I will be booked for sedition too).” He also suggested that MLAs have little standing before the government when he questioned: “…vidhayakon ki haisiyat kya hai?” To another query, he said sarcastically, “Bhaiya hum to wahi kahenge jo sarkar keh rahi, wahi sahi maano ... (All I will say is believe all that the government says).”
Rathore later confirmed the authenticity of the video but said that he was only responding to queries by mediapersons.
“He is not the first one. There have been many ruling party MLAs who have been raising the governance issue vis a vis Covid. But now they are fearing for speaking up. This government acts in vendetta against all who speak against it--be it opposition, general public, or members of their own party”, said Samajwadi Party state spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary.
“Unfortunate that our lawmakers cannot see what WHO and Mumbai High Court have said in praise for UP’s fight against Corona. Time for them to perform their part of responsibility,” said UP minister and government spokesman Sidharth Nath Singh
Earlier, during an interview to HT, Nath had made the government’s stand clear on lawmakers whose audios, ideos or letters have come to the public domain and embarrassment to the government. “Healthy criticism is okay. But the ruling party lawmakers must also realise they are part of the government and hence should contribute to solving the problem rather than creating it,” Singh said during a recent interview to HT.
