Minister remains defiant, gives bizarre defence

LUCKNOW: Facing flak for re-inducting tainted Vinod Kumar Singh aka Pandit Singh and retaining cabinet minister ranked KC Pandey, chief minister AkhileshYadav defended the duo saying their acts had been blown out of proportion. On Pandit Singh, the chief minister said the inquiry report has come and those found guilty would be punished. However, he refused to elaborate who has been found guilty saying he was yet to read the report. On KC Pandey, the CM said the former was not at much fault as was being projected. At times people's representatives are given work by common people which they do, Akhilesh said.

Gonda police chief Navneet Rana had exposed the attempts of KC Pandey, vice-chairman of UP Council of Sugarcane Research, to secure the release of cattle smugglers by offering him a bribe of Rs 1 lakh. Ironically, no action was taken against Pandey but Rana was given the marching orders on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, khadi and gram udyog minister Rajaram Pandey, who has sparked of a controversy by making indecent remarks against a woman IAS officer, remained defiant on Thursday. Speaking to mediapersons after cabinet expansion at Raj Bhawan, Pandey said: "What was wrong in praising someone beautiful. I haven't said anything indecent about the woman IAS officer (Sultanpur district magistrate K Dhanlaxmi)."

In a bizarre defence, Pandey said he was merely praising the work being carried out during her (K Dhanlaxmi) stint while speaking at a programme in Sultanpur, of which he is the incharge. "While praising the same, I only said she was beautiful and I find nothing wrong in it," the minister further said.

Pandey denied having made any personal remarks on the woman IAS officer and accused the media of having distorted his statement. He left saying, "I stand by whatever I had said", even as the clamour for his sacking grew louder in the party.

Speaking at a programme to distribute unemployment allowance in Sultanpur on Tuesday, the 56-year-old minister had described district magistrate K Dhanlaxmi as "sundar hain ... bahut hi madhur vaani hai ... karyashamta bhi adhik hai", much to the embrassment of the officer who was present on the dais. The minister then went on to add: "Inki kad kaathi bhi bahut achchi hai".

"It is individuals like Rajaram Pandey who put politicians in bad light. Making such remarks about a woman before a crowd of thousands, and using such language as he did, projects politicians badly. How can people respect anyone with such manners," said SP MLA from Lucknow Ravidas Mehrotra.

The Opposition parties on Thursday slammed the SP government for re-inducting Vinod Kumar Singh who was earlier dropped from the ministry after he allegedly abducted a senior medical officer.

"By re-inducting Singh, the SP government has sent a wrong signal that it is shielding criminals. The morale of officers will certainly go down due to this move of the state government," Congress spokesman Amarnath Agarwal said.

The BJP also accused the Akhilesh Yadav government of promoting hooliganism by taking in the ministry those having criminal charges. "The re-induction has proved that SP cannot distance itself from people with shady background," a BJP spokesman said.