NEW DELHI, June 17 (UNI) The BJP today urged President A P J Abdul Kalam to seek a report from the Uttar Pradesh government on the removal of Jan Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay's statue in the state.
BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told newspersons that the party would hold demonstrations against the statue's removal in Rampur district of the state from June 21 to June 27.
The Mulayam Singh Yadav government was held captive by the certain people having a Taliban mindset and the BJP's agitation was against these anti-democratic and anti-social elements who had destroyed the statue in the intervening night of June 12 and 13, he said.
Naqvi said BJP workers from three districts of Uttar Pradesh would reach Rampur every day and court arrest during the first phase of the agitation, commencing from June 21.
The workers will be addressed by state-level leaders and at least one national level leader till the statute was re-installed.
The party would announce its future course of agitation depending upon the government's response, the BJP leader said.
He said the petition submitted to the President contained details of the the gang which had destroyed the statue and also information on the involvement of Uttar Pradesh Minister Mohd Azam Khan, who was also former Babri Masjid Action Committee Chairman.
It was Taliban mentality which had pushed the peaceful people of Rampur into such proble and the BJP would fight this mindset effectively, he said.
Several BJP leaders, including state party President Kesri Nath Tripathi, Leader of Opposition in Assembly Lalji Tandon, former State BJP President Vinay Katiyar and Naqvi, had courted arrest on June 15, protesting the removal of the statue.
