I was targetted for being Muslim: Ansari

Lucknow, Mar 28 (UNI) In a new twist on the removal of senior Uttar Pradesh bureaucrat Anis Ansari for holding a fashion show at his official bungalow, the officer has charged the communal and casteist forces with targetting him, as he was a minority.

Replying to a show cause notice issued to him by the government on March 20, Mr Ansari in a six-page reply claimed it was a handiwork of a section of media and some vested people, who acted on caste and communal lines and conspired to throw him out of the office.

He has clearly mentioned that these casteist and communal people do not like good muslims to occupy important government post or to be considered for such posts in future also.

''As in August next, Chief Secretary Prashant Mishra is retiring, his name is being touted for the vacant post, so they are targetting me for being a minority, he said.

''They also want to malign my image before Chief Minister Mayawati, so that I lose any offered favour,'' he said Mr Ansari said the ladies monthy tea party with a Victorian theme was organised to celebrate ''spring and the oncoming summer'', in which girls from the families of IAS officers had walked the ramp.

Taking cognisance of media reports and other sources about a fashion show being organised by Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC) Anis Ansari's wife Asma Ansari Husain, a fashion designer, at the former's official residence on March 19, Mayawati immediately ordered his removal from the post of APC on the same night for violation of rules.

Besides issuing a show cause notice with a week's deadline, The CM had also appointed chief secretary P K Mittal on his place. APC is next to the Chief Secretary.

UNI MB/ATI ST MIR VC2202