Goon remark: SP minister asks Mayawati to check her language

Lucknow: Reacting to BSP supremo Mayawati`s charge that the Samajwadi Party government was indulging in political vendetta, Uttar Pradesh Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav on Monday asked her to exercise restraint on the language she uses for her political opponents.

"SP government has never acted out of vendetta... She is repeatedly calling the party men as goondas...She should exercise restraint on her language," said Yadav, state minister for PWD and Irrigation. Addressing a function to mark B R Ambedkar`s 122th birth anniversary here yesterday, Mayawati had accused SP government of political vendetta after hoardings installed by her party for Ambedkar`s birth anniversary were allegedly removed. Mayawati had said that SP "goons" will be "taught a lesson" when she returns to power. Reacting to the comments, Yadav said if they wished they too could do the same to Mayawati and her party men as SP was currently in power. Rejecting allegation of the BSP chief that SP "goons" and workers have grabbed the land leased to marginal farmers during her regime, Yadav said it was totally baseless. He alleged that BSP supremo was the biggest land mafia during the previous government, having grabbed land from Lucknow to Delhi. On the allegations on the law and order front, Yadav cited the various criminal cases reported during Mayawati`s government, including the murder of a deputy CMO in jail, and stressed that "an impartial probe would put many BSP men in jail". PTI