Cornered Mayawati keeps away from assembly

Refuting charges of corruption against her, a visibly cornered Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati decided to absent herself from the state assembly, which witnessed heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches over the issue.

Even as presiding officer Harish Chandra Srivastava on Tuesday came to Mayawati's rescue by disallowing the adjournment notice tabled by leader of the opposition Azam Khan, commotion prevailed in the house throughout the day.

Taking serious cognizance of the videotapes showing Mayawati demanding 'cuts' out of the constituency development fund of her party MLAs and MPs, the entire opposition in one voice sought a debate on the issue.

Earlier, on Monday, the Samajwadi Party had handed over a copy of the video recording to Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri, seeking a criminal case against the chief minister and her dismissal.

The presiding officer, however, rejected the demand on 'technical grounds'. He sought to attach greater importance to the date of the recording, nearly two years old, rather than making the tape public on Monday.

"Since the tape dates back to February 2001, the issue cannot be treated as of immediate public importance and therefore not a fit case for adjournment," Srivastava told the house amidst much noise and uproar.

Though he allowed a few senior opposition members to speak on the merits of the adjournment notice, the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party-Bhartiya Janata Party combine created a huge ruckus, making it impossible for them to address the house.

What irritated a large number of the opposition was the failure of the chair to calm down the ruling BSP members.

Senior Samajwadi Party leader Reoti Raman Singh, said, "In my 30 long years as a legislator, I have yet to come across a case where a serious charge with substantive evidence was being ignored on flimsy technical grounds." He termed this as a case of 'blatant bias and slap on the tradition of healthy parliamentary practices'.

Eventually, the presiding officer was left with no option but to order repeated adjournments until the evening. The day's proceedings finally concluded without any business issues being taken up for discussion.