Ajay Mishra Teni’s position is untenable
Teni’s statements about the incident, the SC’s intervention, his remarks on protesting farmers, and the language he has used, all point to the need for him to step down
It speaks to the essential fickleness of our newsrooms and the shortlived length of public outrage that the most damning developments in the Lakhimpur Kheri case have barely attracted our national attention. But if you follow what’s happening in the Supreme Court (SC), in the pursuit of justice for the farmers crushed under a car owned by the son of minister of state for home, Ajay Mishra Teni — and in the pursuit of justice for the three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers subsequently killed by an irate mob — the incontrovertible conclusion is that the minister must be sacked.
To start with, the minister, who holds a constitutional post and a portfolio related to the most sensitive issues of national security and law and order, seems to have lied on record to the Indian people.
On October 5, Teni asserted that his son Ashish Mishra (now in custody), was not even present at the spot in Uttar Pradesh (UP) where the ghastly tragedy unfolded. In fact, he went on to argue that had his son been present in their car (the ownership was never disputed), he would never have survived the mob attack that followed.
BJP spokespersons took their cue from these statements and began echoing the line in public.
By the admissions that have been made in court and reported widely, the UP government’s probe has now established that there is “clinching evidence” of Ashish Mishra’s presence at the site in Lakhimpur Kheri. Investigators have spoken of how there is an entire hour that day that Mishra junior is unable to account for.
Several witnesses have gone on record to talk of how Mishra junior escaped into the sugarcane fields right after the Thar vehicle mowed down the farmers walking on the narrow, dusty pathway ahead.
You could argue that the minister did not wilfully lie and claim that he was misled by his son. Even so, the fact that his statements, repeated multiple times, have been found to be falsehoods, casts a shadow over both his credibility and authority. Worse, in a clear contravention of his position as the Union minister of state for home, he publicly criticised the UP police, blaming them both for allowing a pathway to the protesting farmers and for the death of Shyam Sundar, one of the BJP workers who was killed.
I have always argued that Teni should have been asked to go right at the beginning, if the BJP wants to do right by its men who were beaten to death by an angry mob after the minister’s son’s car ran their comrades over.
But now even the lawyer for Sundar, Arun
Bharadwaj, has expressed a lack of faith in the probe being run by the special investigations team in UP, demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry instead.
The other claim made in the immediate days after the incident — that journalist Raman Kashyap was killed by the farmers who turned violent — has also been outed in court as a lie. Kashyap’s father had said from the first day that his son’s body bore the bruises of having been dragged under the same vehicle responsible for the murder of the four farmers.
And there are now reports that the forensics study shows that the weapons of three of the accused were discharged, although the time at which they were used is not clear. But this too overturns the claims made initially that no firearms were discharged.
The court has been scathing in its observations, pointing to the confusion created by filing two different but overlapping First Information Reports (FIRs). The bench, headed by the chief justice, has remarked that the way the evidence is being collected seems designed to protect the “main accused”. The court is leaning towards deploying judges from outside the state to monitor the probe.
We forget now about the minister’s own speech warning the protesting farmers — who had put up posters against him — that he could “discipline them in two minutes”. It was an address made roughly a week before the vehicles mowed through the farmers. In it, Teni can be heard saying that if he wished, he could ensure that the farmers would have to leave “not only Palia, but Lakhimpur itself.”
Even then, the language used by the minister was unconscionable. But with the SC’s criticism and the hollowness of his claims having been shown up by a judicial process, Ajay Mishra Teni cannot — and must not — continue as minister of state for home.
AJAY MISHRA TENI SHOULD HAVE BEEN ASKED TO GO RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING, IF THE BJP WANTS TO DO RIGHT BY ITS MEN WHO WERE BEATEN TO DEATH BY AN ANGRY MOB AFTER THE MINISTER’S SON’S CAR RAN THEIR COMRADES OVER