Revealed: Congress leaders plotted to 'expose' SP government over mosque demolition... so it suspended scapegoat Durga

PUBLISHED: 22:59 GMT, 8 August 2013 | UPDATED: 00:18 GMT, 9 August 2013
Durga Sakthi Nagpal is a victim of vote-bank politics involving the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress. 
The office of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) was opened around July 27 midnight and Nagpal's suspension letter typed and faxed to the office of the district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar. 
There was good reason for the alacrity with which the state government acted. It feared that senior Congress leaders would gather in Kadalpur village on July 28 to rake up the demolition of a semi-finished boundary wall of an under-construction mosque. 
The Congress has tried to capitalise post-demolition, with statements from the very top of the party designed to project the suspended IAS officer as a person being punished for cracking down on the sand mafia. What really transpired in the immediate aftermath of the razing of the mosque wall is revealed here. 
Revealed: Congress leaders plotted to 'expose' SP government over mosque demolition... so they suspended scapegoat Durga  

Exposé that wasn't 

If sources in the government are to be believed, at least a dozen Congress leaders from Delhi and Lucknow were expected to reach the village the day after the wall came down to "expose the SP government". 
"It is true that top SP leaders were in touch with some officer of Gautam Budh Nagar and wanted to know which Congress leaders could be in the village the next day. Some officers in the administration and police, as well as intelligence personnel, had informed SP leaders that some Congress leaders had held a meeting with the villagers within three hours of the demolition of the wall on July 27 and promised they would call their senior party leaders from Delhi and Lucknow on July 28 to start a movement for the construction of a mosque there," an officer in the state government said on condition of anonymity. 
"A section of officers also feared a replay of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's act of May 11, 2011, when he had sneaked into Bhatta, Greater Noida, while prohibitory orders were in force, embarrassing the then Mayawati government," the officer added. 
Congress spokesperson Dhirendra Singh, who had criticised the demolition of the mosque's wall, is the same person who gave Rahul Gandhi a ride to trouble-torn Bhatta-Parsaul in May 2011, breaching all barriers put up by the then BSP government
Congress spokesperson Dhirendra Singh, who had criticised the demolition of the mosque's wall, is the same person who gave Rahul Gandhi a ride to trouble-torn Bhatta-Parsaul in May 2011, breaching all barriers put up by the then BSP government
There was good reason for this apprehension. Thakur Dhirendra Singh, spokesperson for the UP Congress Committee and better known as the man on whose motorcycle Rahul rode pillion on May 11, 2011, to Bhatta, which had been hit by violent protests against the then BSP government's land acquisition policy, reached the village soon after the demolition of the wall. 
Singh confirmed to Mail Today over the telephone that he had rushed to the village after the wall was razed. However, he denied there was any programme involving a visit by senior Congress leaders to Kadalpur. 
But a letter sent by him to his party bosses on the same day (July 27) indicates that the Congress, which is gearing up for the 2014 Lok Sabha election, was set to attempt to hijack the minority vote bank from the SP by taking up this issue.
"Members of the administration and police forced away the people who were offering namaz in village Kadalpur, in Dhankaur block of Gautam Budh Nagar, and destroyed the mosque," he wrote. 
"Sacrificing the mosque in this holy month of Ramzan is a big attack on the religious sentiments of villagers," he stated. 
"I was in Delhi when my people informed me about the incident. Since I contest elections from Jewar, and Kadalpur comes under the same Assembly constituency, I went there and held a meeting with the villagers, 90 per cent of whom are poor Muslims. Then I prepared a report about the ground reality and sent it to all my seniors in the AICC and UPCC. I have also come to know that the local administration reported to their seniors in Lucknow that the Congress could expose the SP on this issue on July 28. I believe this was why the state government acted in haste and made Durga a scapegoat. The fact remains that there was no plan by senior Congress leaders to visit the spot," Singh said.

Details 

When asked what the Congress could use to expose the SP government, Singh, a resident of neighbouring Rabupura, said: "Narendra Singh Bhati, chairman of UP Agro with the status of state minister, had laid the foundation stone on the gram sabha land on June 15 and gave Rs 51,000 for the construction of the mosque. But the state government dithered over the issue of giving permission for it till July 27, when it was finally demolished. 
"Everything was pre-planned. The whole idea was to raze it in the month of Ramzan to first galvanise them and then give permission for its construction and provide financial assistance to woo the minority community. But, fearing that it would boomerang if the Congress leaders staged a protest there, the government hurriedly suspended the SDM." 
When the wall of the mosque was demolished, Gautam Budh Nagar MP Surendra Nagar of the SP reached the village on July 28 and announced a donation of Rs 1 lakh for the mosque, ignoring the fact that it was planned on encroached government land for which permission was still required.

SP leader warns Akhilesh against punishing 'honest' officers

By Piyush Srivastava in Lucknow
Criticism of IAS officer Durga Sakthi Nagpal's suspension got a little personal for the SP-led Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday. 
Addressing an event related to the SP's pet laptop distribution scheme in Agra, party general secretary Ramjilal Suman said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav risks dispiriting young IAS officers if he punishes them for their honesty.
On the dais, he turned to Akhilesh's uncle PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav - the chief guest at the event - and said: "Tell your nephew that young IAS officers are honest. He should encourage young officers. If he fails to understand this, then the young officers will soon adopt the style of working of older officers. This will not be good for people." 
"Tell your nephew," Suman continued, "that those officers who are really dishonest get plum postings under any party's government. The government must identify bad bureaucrats instead of punishing those who are honest." 
Meanwhile, UP Agro chief Narinder Bhati - who caught Akhilesh on the wrong foot with his "suspension in 41-minute claim", arrived in Lucknow on Thursday to convince him about the merit of his decision. The meeting is likely on Friday.