Congress leadership behind Rita Bahuguna's remark: Mayawati

Lucknow, July 16 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday said the Congress high command is behind Uttar Pradesh Congress unit chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's objectionable remarks on her.

Addressing a press conference, Mayawati said: "The comments by Joshi are unpardonable. It is wrong to blame BSP for the attack on her house."

"The Congress is behind the arson and not the BSP", she added.

Condemning Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi for her silence on the incident, she said: "It is shameful that Sonia Gandhi has not taken any action against Joshi yet."

The BSP chief also denied indulgence of her party's men in any kind of violence.

Earlier, police arrested Joshi and a Moradabad court sent her to 14-day judicial remand for making remarks on Wednesday against Mayawati in an issue related to the rape and murder of some Dalit girls in Uttar Pradesh.

Joshi was arrested in Ghaziabad en route to New Delhi. She was charged under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Mayawati.

Joshi, however, has denied having said anything to offend Mayawati or Dalits.

"It was at a meeting in Moradabad that I had simply sought to draw the people's attention to the fact that Mayawati's dole of Rs.25,000 to every Dalit rape victim was quite ironical as the state police chief was spending lakhs on the helicopter ride that he undertakes to hand over that paltry amount to the victim," Joshi told media persons. (ANI)