Maya lashes out at UPA, calls N-deal anti-Muslim

New Delhi: Coming out against the Indo-US nuclear deal for the first time, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Tuesday termed the UPA's proposed deal with the US as 'anti-Muslim.'

She added that UPA would not be able to find support for it.

Mayawati, who had recently withdrawn support from the UPA government at the Centre, said, ‘‘the deal is being made at the cost of cheaper gas from Iran and the Muslims are vehemently opposed to it.”

Launching a scathing attack on the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, she said in the apprehension of losing Muslim support, both the parties were spreading a canard against the BSP of going for an electoral understanding with the BJP.

''Obviously, the propaganda against the BSP is to create confusion in the minds of people of Uttar Pradesh, especially the Muslims,'' she told a luncheon-press conference at her official residence.

Ruling out possibility of any pre-poll alliance of BSP with BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections, Mayawati said the Congress and Samajwadi Party were spreading rumours in this regard as the current scanario had upset their political plans.

'' These parties are also perturbed over the growing popularity of BSP and spreading rumours of non-existent BSP-BJP alliance in order to misguide the people of the state especially the Muslim community which would never forgive the Congress and allies if N-deal is signed,'' she said।

Terming any insinuation in this regard 'baseless', 'confusing' and 'part of political conspiracy', the UP Chief Minister said her party was opposed to the nuclear deal and the SP had to support it as part of the bargain to negate the various inquiries against Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, his relatives and friends.

15 hurt in Jammu violence

Jammu, Jul 1 (DNS) Pitched battles broke out between protesters and police who opened fire to quell violence in which 15 people were injured as the BJP-Shiv Sena sponsored shutdown in the city over the Amarnath Shrine land row entered the second day today.

Demonstrators also blocked traffic and burnt tyres demanding removal of Governor N N Vohra over his decision to hand over affairs of the Amarnath Shrine Board to the Jammu and Kashmir government.

Effigies of Vohra, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed were torched at many places in the city, official sources said.

Staging a massive protest at Muthi on the outskirts of the city, Kashmiri migrants clashed with police who swung batons and burst teargas shells to quell violence in which 12 people were injured.

When this proved ineffective, police fired 3O to 40 rounds in the air in an attempt to disperse them, the sources said.

Later, an SPO fired at the protesters critically wounding two youths, they said.

Enraged over this, the mob took the SPO and another policeman, a trainee recruit, as hostages, thrashed them and threw their weapons into a river.
The two were rescued by the army and were hospitalised.
A child was injured when some persons stoned vehicles carrying Amarnath pilgrims at Banihal, some 187 kms from here.DNS