Oppn, ally lambast BJP MLA for derogatory remarks against Mayawati
LUCKNOW/NEWDELHI: An MLA from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in UP on Sunday came under severe criticism from an ally and opposition leaders for calling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati a “blot on womankind” and “worse than a transgender”, even as the National Commission for Women (NCW) said it would formally issue a notice to the legislator seeking an explanation.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra and Union minister Ramdas Athawale were among those who slammed BJP’s Mughalsarai MLA Sadhana Singh for her derogatory remarks. SP and BSP workers also held demonstrations in some districts.
Singh made the controversial remarks at a rally on Saturday while referring to the infamous incident when Mayawati was assaulted by SP workers in a Lucknow guest house in 1995. The incident had led to years of animosity between SP and BSP.
“Former UP CM Mayawati sold her dignity for power and joined hands with those who disrespected her... She is a blot on womankind. Cannot say if she can be counted among men or women, she is worse than a transgender ,” Singh had alleged.
“India is warming rapidly — cities are warming faster than other parts of the states. The Himalayan states are recording a higher warming trend compared to southern states. This will have a massive impact on agriculture and economy. About 30 to 40% of the forest ecosystems are expected to undergo significant changes with the current warming trends,” said NH Ravindranath, scientist at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and co-author of several IPCC reports.
IMD’s 2018 climate report — which also documented deaths due to extreme weather events — showed an increasing trend of 0.6 degree over a period of 100 years with a significant increase in maximum temperature of about 1 degree in 100 years. “Our warming rate is lower than the global average but we can’t be complacent because our baseline is already high. The average maximum summer temperatures recorded in India are far higher than the global averages, so we are affected by heat waves more frequently. To stop the acceleration of warming in India, we have the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). With focus on increasing forest cover and shift to renewable energy, reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from thermal plants , we are hoping that warming trends can be arrested,” said KJ Ramesh, director general of meteorology, IMD. “The temperature data is a clear signal that we are seeing the impacts of global warming. Both daytime and nighttime temperatures have gone up in the last two decades. It’s worrying because both the frequency and intensity of heat waves are increasing in India. The pattern is very similar to the global trends in temperature rise. We see it as a demonstration of global climate change,” said M Rajeevan, secretary, ministry of earth sciences (MoES). The 2018 annual rainfall over the country as a whole was 85% of Long Period Average (LPA) value for the period 19512000. Rainfall data also indicates that 2000 onwards, in most years, average rainfall has been lower than the average for the past 50 years but this may not be “statistically significant”, Ramesh said. IMD earlier reported that rainfall data for 1951 to 2016 shows that rainfall events of more than 10cm to 15cm per day are increasing while those of less than 5cm per day are gradually decreasing.