AGRA: The Agra railway station turned a veritable cockpit for the BJP and Congress workers to settle political scores on Jan.2. Thousands of workers of both parties have been gathering at the station looking for their targets. On Saturday night it was the tum of Union Civil Aviation Minister Madhavrao Scindia.

Scindia who along with other members of his family was returning to Delhi from Gwalior by the Shatabdi Express, was manhandled and abused by 50odd BJP workers who forced their way into his compartment. Agitated over the attack on a group of local BJP leaders by Youth Congress supporters earlier in the day, the party men allegedly threatened to kill the minister.

Resisted by Scindia’s son and his personal security guard, the BJP. workers smashed the window panes of the compartment and made filthy remarks about the family members of the minister. Soon after the mob dispersed an extremely shaken Scindia deplored the way the BJP men wanted to retaliate the Youth Congress attack on their leaders. : The police arrested five BJP men including a corporate, Yogendra Upadhyay. The other four are, Yogendra Panidu, Chailendra Gulati, Om Prakash and Raghavendra. All of them, however, have been released on bail.

Strongly reacting to the incident the minister said in Delhi on Sunday that the incident only bared the “fascist face” of the BJP. He said that the attack on him had been preplanned and masterminded to physically liquidate him.

Though officially the BJP did not react, sources in the party termed the incident as a retaliation of the attack on party MP Bhagwan Shankar Rawal and other functionanes on their return to Agra after meeting jailed senior party leaders L.K.Advani and M.M.Joshi at Mata Tila. Agitated over this incident, about 1000 BJP workers gathered at the station to provide secunty cover to their leaders in anticipation of further trouble. The news of Scindia’s presence in the train came as a provocation to the incensed workers, the sources said.

Condemning the incident Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Divijay Singh said, “The BJP has been taken over by rank fundamentalists and anti-socials who do not believe in rule of law. Violence and vandalism has become their political strategy and fundamentalism and fascism their strategy.”

Article extracted from this publication >>  January 8, 1993