Foreign tour, Saifai fest: SP government defends itself

LUCKNOW: Under attack from opposition parties for arranging foreign tour of Ministers and cultural festival when Muzaffarnagar riot victims were suffering in relief camps, SP government today defended itself saying political parties were resorting to "negative opposition" to defame it.

"The political parties have resorted to negative opposition of the SP government, which has fulfilled almost all its promises made in election manifesto. Our policies and schemes are being followed by others states," SP spokesman and Cabinet minister Rajendra Chowdhury said.

Defending foreign tour of eight ministers, Chowdhury said there was a tradition of such tours through which Parliamentary functioning of other countries was understood and better ties between two countries established. "The SP government has not done anything new," he said.

On the cultural festival in SP supremo's native village Saifai, which ended last night with performances by Bollywood actors, Chowdhury said opposition parties were unnecessarily making hue and cry over the event, through which folk arts and local talent is promoted.

"The Mahostava has proved as a platform to promote youth power. Persons excelling in different fields were honoured during the event..Ignoring all the programmes and only highlighting performances of Bollywood stars at Saifai shows biased attitude towards SP," Chowdhury said.

He said as far as Muzaffarnagar riots were concerned, the state government had done whatever was possible and distributed Rs 90 crore among the victims.

Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh had criticised the SP government for sending the ministers on foreign junket, saying it was busy in "fun and frolic" at a time when people were dying of cold in the state and Muzaffarnagar riot victims were suffering.

BJP Chief Spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak had alleged that state ministers were interested in having "fun" instead of public service.