BSP chief Mayawati. AR Antulay had lost his chief ministership of Maharashtra for allegedly collecting money in Indira Gandhi’s name. In Mayawati’s Uttar Pradesh, the state education minister has been collecting a portion of the grant meant for Sanskrit schools in Behenji’s name.
How much is too much for the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati? The answer seems to be: No limit! Corruption in her government is at its zenith. Ministers in her Cabinet run amok to extort money to fill her ever-swelling party and personal coffers. Unfortunately, the same is happening even after she publicly issued a warning to her ministers and party men not to take any bribe in her name and not to accept any donations on her birthdays.
But a letter shot off by the Vice-Chancellor of Dr Sampoor-nand Sanskrit University in Varanasi, B Kutumb Shastri has exposed her public posturing. The VC in his letter 6867/09 dated June 2, 2009 alleged that the secondary education minister Ranganath Mishra has collected Rs 5 lakhs each from 156 Sanskrit schools across the state on her behalf and those who did not fulfill his monetary demands were denied government funds.
What is more shocking is that the letter quoted the Cabinet minister as saying that “he has to give Rs 5 crore to behenji (read Mayawati) while he has so far given only Rs 2 crore.” The VC in the letter has stated that “I have come to know that the minister has collected Rs 5 lakh each from all Sanskrit schools through Mahanand Mishra, assistant director, (now retired), education directorate, Allahabad, to give it to you (read Mayawati).”
The government grants were sanctioned only to those Sanskrit schools which met the minister’s demand for Rs 5 lakh. “Only those schools have been sanctioned funds which paid the money. Those who did not pay money were removed from the list of government funds,” the VC further alleged in his letter to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.
It may be recalled that the then Mulayam government had announced government funds for 256 Sanskrit schools in the state for their smooth functioning. Majority of the Sanskrit schools in the state are in bad financial shape and mainly depend upon government grants for their running and survival.
Earlier, these schools were at the mercy of donations made by different religious bodies, charitable trusts and influential people. These schools have always cried for regular government grants in the past to keep Sanskrit and Indian traditions alive. It was towards the end of his regime that the Mulayam government had finally taken a decision to make government grants available to these schools.
The anguish of VC B Kutumb Shastri has not only exposed the corrupt acts of the Mayawati government but also proved hollow its “sarvajan samaj slogan” and its rainbow social engineering which claims to have roped in the support of Brahmins and other sections of the society in addition to her traditional vote-bank – the Dalits.
“It would be injustice to Brahmins if only 156 out of a total 256 schools were sanctioned the government grants. Where would the remaining go and how would they survive?” questioned the VC in his letter.
Startling allegations levelled by the VC has sent shock waves in the power corridors of the state. Despite receiving a copy of the letter on June 6, 2009 the Chief Minister Mayawati and her principal secretaries are keeping mum on the issue.
When contacted, the VC of Dr Sampoornand Sanskrit University admitted having written the letter to Chief Minister Mayawati. But he refused to make any comment on the content of the letter saying it was confidential.
But the confidential letter has already spilled its beans in -political circles. The Samajwadi Party state president Akhilesh Yadav has demanded a high-level probe into the allegations leveled by the VC and demanded the resignation of the secondary education minister. “After these allegations, the minister has no right to continue in office. The letter has exposed how Mayawati is filling her personal coffers by extorting money even on government grants,” Yadav said.
BJP spokesperson Hriday Narain Dixit said the letter has vindicated the party’s charges that Mayawati and her Cabinet ministers were involved in siphoning off government funds. “Its round the year loot in Uttar Pradesh under Mayawati regime. After donations on her birthday, her ministers are now pocketing cuts from government funds meant for the development and welfare schemes to make her bank accounts swell,” charged Dixit.
The secondary education minister, Rangnath Mishra, has, however, vehemently denied the VC’s charges. Interestingly, he has announced an inquiry against the charges leveled against him by the VC.
“There is not an iota of truth in the VC’s allegations. I have never directed any of my subordinate to collect money from any schools in the state, leave alone Sanskrit schools. Anyway, I am ordering an inquiry to prove his charges wrong,” the minister reacted.
Mishra is not the lone minister in the Mayawati government who is facing corruption charges. Another minister Ayodhya Prasad Pal, minister of state (independent charge) for sports and youth welfare, has also been charged with taking bribe of Rs 3 lakhs each from budding cricketers seeking admissions in sports colleges and hostels in the state.
Though the minister has refused to make any comments on the charges but many a cricketer have alleged that names of only those who coughed up Rs 3 lakhs to the minister’s touts were included in the final list of candidates.
“I had cleared all the three tests but my name was not included in the final list as my father refused to pay Rs 3 lakh for admission,” says Rakesh Kumar, a budding cricketer.
In the past, several of Mayawati’s other Cabinet colleagues have also been charged with large-scale corruption in the departments they head – PWD minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui, forest minister Kunwar Fateh Bahadur Singh, rural development minister Daddan Prasad to name a few. Although no concrete proof has so far been come to the fore against any of these ministers but many a bureaucrat confide to the media of the extortions going on in their departments.