UP Governor accused of doctoring observers report

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Uttar Pradesh Governor Romesh Bhandari got 'tailor-made' reports from the two observers he sent to record the proceedings of the state assembly on Tuesday, where a "well thought out conspiracy" led to large scale violence, highly-placed sources said.

The violence gave rise to the Opposition demand for the dismissal of the 29-day-old Kalyan Singh government.

Bhandari, the sources alleged, prevailed over the two observers to re-draft their original reports which were "too objective to suit the governor's game plan to oust the Kalyan Singh government, so that he could sit on UP's power pedestal once again." They alleged that at least one of the observers was offered something specific in return for the favour; the other was allegedly told to follow Bhandari's diktat, they claimed.

They pointed out that Bhandari had handpicked these two observers -- one of whom was a subordinate, his additional legal advisor, and the other was a well-known advocate of the high court and a close friend.

But despite this, both Satish Chandra Misra and P K Dube, the governor's additional legal adviser, are believed to have submitted a fair and objective report on what happened in the state assembly. The governor was allegedly irked that the report mentioned Congress leader Pramod Tiwari as the man who instigated the violence.

The sources said Bhandari called in a stenographer to take fresh dictation from the observers in his presence, taking care to maintain ambiguity on the most pertinent question: Who actually sparked the violence.

Special emphasis was laid on the attack by BJP members who had retaliated only after keeping their peace for the first few minutes, during which they could be seen protecting themselves from the attacks by the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party members.

More than that, the governor was understood to have laid much emphasis on describing the plainclothes policemen as "outsiders". Bhandari's report to the Centre reportedly aroused suspicion about what he termed as "the presence of some outsiders inside the assembly". He allegedly expressed doubts over the manner in which the lobby division was conducted by Speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi since "he he allowed outsiders to remain inside the assembly during that time."

That was the only "technical point" he could find against the BJP -- after a prolonged brainstorming session with the observers and intermittent telephonic sessions with "some persons" in Delhi, the sources said, adding that Bhandari had made a neat job of making it seem that the BJP alone was to blame for the violence that broke out in the state assembly on Tuesday.

Raj Bhavan has stressed the fact that lawyer Misra was BJP leader Lalji Tandon's counsel in the writ petition moved by the latter against re-imposition of President's rule. What was not mentioned was that Misra was also the counsel for Bhandari's daughter in a petition moved before the high court against allegations of out-of-turn allotment of lucrative plots in her name in the prestigious NOIDA area.

Misra also caused a flutter when he appeared as the counsel on the governor's behalf on Friday in the writ petition Kalyan Singh filed before the high court in Lucknow.