Najma Heptullah blames SP government for Dadri incident; warns BJP will assume power in UP if SP fails

NEW DELHI: Minority affairs minister Najma Heptullah has blamed the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh for failing to prevent the "sad and condemnable" Dadri incident that claimed the life of Mohammad Akhlaq, allegedly for consuming beef, and warned that if the state cannot maintain law and order, "sooner or later" BJP will assume power in the state. The state goes to the polls in 2017.

"Government (Centre) is strong enough to implement the law and authority. If they (SP government) are not capable of it in UP, we will take care of it. Sooner or later, we will take care of it because they have not performed. Instead of strengthening their law and order situation in UP they are going to the UN.... Ok, then we will come and take care of it," Heptullah said.

Heptullah rubbished UP minister Azam Khan’s comment that he will take the matter to the United Nations. "I think he is talking through his hat. We don’t want anybody to interfere in our affairs, we never allowed UN to interfere in our differences with Pakistan on Kashmir. We can sort out our own problems and don’t need UN to take care of our people," she said.

She said the government should be strong enough to enforce law, and the UP government should get down to doing that rather than going to UN with its problems. Heptullah dismissed Khan’s allegation that PM Modi is in a way responsible for the incident, and that it was done on the directions of the RSS.

"As a minister of the UP government, Khan is responsible for the incident. He has taken oath of the Constitution, so he should have taken care that this didn’t happen," she said. She, however, refused to get drawn into the demand for banning cow slaughter across the country, and insisted incidents like the one in Dadri isn’t repeated.

"Whether cow slaughter is banned or not is not the issue. In the case of Delhi rape (Nirbhaya case) incident, everybody reacted, but nobody started killing them (the culprits). There is a system, you cannot destroy it," she said.

Terming the incident as a one-off, she said it reflects the intolerance and impatience of today’s youth. Heptullah said the Samajwadi Party government should take corrective measures and the culprits should be punished.