Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is reportedly extremely 'unhappy' with the way the Gurgaon incident is being handled by Haryana chief minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda. |
He suggested that the Rapid Action Force (RAF) be deployed in Gurgaon rather than the Haryana Police. |
|
His suggestions have not been enthusiastically received by the Haryana chief minister, however, and the government spent the entire day ducking opposition fire over the issue. |
|
According to sources in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Singh spoke to Hooda not once but twice on the issue. |
|
Last night, right after the lathicharge on demonstarting All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) workers, the PM called up Hooda and asked that a judicial enquiry be set up on the matter, which was not carried forward by the Haryana chief minister. |
|
After this morning's walkout by the Left and other UPA allies the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party along with the opposition NDA, over an 'insipid' statement delivered by home minister Shivraj Patil on the incident, the PM felt that the matter was to be taken up more seriously. |
|
He again called Hooda and told him to remove the Haryana Police from the scene, and deploy para-military forces like the Rapid Action Force (RAF). |
|
"He felt that the Haryana police had mishandled the crowd and the pressure created by the Left by the embarassing comments made to the home minister really irked the PM who did not like the anti-worker image that was being projected for the entire Congress party," said a senior member of the PMO. |
|
The whole day in fact not just the PM but the entire Congress groped in the dark over the over how to react to the incident. |
|
Congress MP from Haryana, Jaiprakash tried to blame the violence on mischevious 'BJP-RSS members in the crowd who provoked the police' only to be embarassingly told CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta that the crowd was made up by workers. "Your report is absolutely false,"said Dasgupta. |
|
The PM went into a huddle with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi as well as home minister Shivraj Patil, however, the matter has become an embarassing flash point between the government and the Left. |
|
|
|