Minister must go

Over two months after four farmers and a journalist were mowed down during a peaceful protest in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police has established that the killings were the result of a ‘pre-planned conspiracy’. The probe team has been allowed by the court to substitute lesser charges (rash driving; causing grievous injuries by negligence; causing death by a rash and negligent act) with graver ones (attempt to murder; voluntarily causing injuries by dangerous weapons), while retaining the charges of murder, rioting and criminal conspiracy, among others. The damning findings have not only corroborated the telltale evidence provided by the gruesome video clips of the incident, but have also rendered BJP MP Ajay Mishra’s continuation as Union minister untenable and indefensible as his son Ashish Mishra is among the 13 accused.

The clamour for Ajay Mishra’s ouster has grown even louder after the SIT report, though the BJP-led government at the Centre has been stubbornly resisting the Opposition’s demand. What has struck a discordant note is the ruling dispensation’s reluctance to condemn the abominable killings or mourn the loss of lives. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did term the violence ‘absolutely condemnable’ during her US visit in October, but she hastened to add that this case was being singled out because the BJP was in power in UP — she even claimed that such incidents were happening in other parts of India also but were not being highlighted. Days after the Lakhimpur Kheri outrage, PM Modi had chosen to bemoan ‘selective interpretation’ of human rights by vested interests.

With the Supreme Court keeping a watchful eye on the investigation, the SIT has managed to get to the bottom of the matter. The onus is now on the Centre to remove Ajay Mishra for the sake of probity and justice, notwithstanding political considerations in the poll-bound state. The longer he continues in office, the more it will be apparent that the government is shielding him and condoning the cold-blooded murders.