Sack Prajapati now

Wherever UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav may be on the campaign trail, he should see it as his first duty to eject Gayatri Prajapati, the absconding state minister facing a gangrape charge, from his council of ministers. This is long overdue. The minister had been sacked by the CM late last year, but then had to be taken back due to pressure from his father, former SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. This did raise questions about Akhilesh’s commitment to fighting criminals. But the fact that he stopped his father from inducting the well-known Ansari brothers, facing many charges of serious crime, into the SP, and his regularly articulated desire to combat criminalisation in politics, came to the rescue of the young CM’s reputation.

Now the younger Yadav has the chance to do the right thing. UP governor Ram Naik has rightly asked: Why is Mr Prajapati still a minister? A governor is not entitled to tell a CM how to run his government. But Mr Naik has taken advantage of Article 167(b) of the Constitution, which permits him to ask the CM a question, to raise the issue of the minister who appears to be a criminal through and through. Mr Naik should be asked, however, whether he has the constitutional right to publicise his communications with the CM. Since Mr Naik is an old BJP and RSS hand, there is likely to be speculation if his query to the CM was timed to help the BJP in the final stages of the UP election campaign.