With the clock ticking towards Mayawati’s Mahapardafash rally on April 14 to expose Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, his party made a fresh bid to corner the Chief Minister today by handing over the second tape, containing ‘‘startling evidences’’ against her, to Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri.A delegation led by Opposition leader Mohammed Azam Khan presented the 20-minute CD to the Governor and demanded that Mayawati be arrested under POTA for trying to start a civil war through her provocative remarks on Hindu gods. In the CD, Mayawati has been shown as telling her supporters that there was a need to motivate Dalits to contribute to the party fund instead of wasting money on offerings to stone idols. ‘‘Pathar ki devi ko charawa aata hain, jise baad me kutta kha jata hain. Jo devta kutte se apni raksha nahin kar sakta, woh tumhara bhagya kya badlega? (The offerings to a deity are eaten up by a dog. A god who cannot protect himself from a dog, how can he change your destiny?)’’ the tape shows Mayawati as saying.‘‘Such statements may lead to a civil war. She should be dismissed first and then arrested under POTA. We make this demand to the NDA government at the Centre,’’ Azam Khan told reporters soon after handing over the tape to the Governor. The SP had earlier submitted another CD to Shastri on March 3, showing Mayawati asking BSP MPs and MLAs to contribute to the party fund from the Sansad and Vidhayak Nidhi they get every year.‘‘Bhai sara mat khao. BSP ne MP, MLA banaya hain, kuch paise party fund me bhi do (Don’t gulp down the entire amount. The BSP has made you MLAs and MPs, so contribute to the party fund also),’’ the first tape shows Mayawati as saying.Rubbishing the SP charges, Mayawati said the Opposition cannot cut into her popularity even if they came up with thousand such tapes. ‘‘They (the SP) are showing doctored CDs to harm my image but nothing is going to affect my popularity,’’ she said in a press statement today.Interestingly, the BJP has come out in an open defence of Mayawati on the issue despite the fact that her utterances against Hindu deities may cost the party its image.
