Junior home minister Ajay Mishra Teni met his boss and Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday as the Opposition and farmer organisations intensified their demand for his sacking.
The protesting farmers have alleged that Teni’s son Ashis Mishra ran over and killed farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh. The minister himself has been accused of delivering a provocative speech against the farmers.
Teni, who had been camping in his constituency of Lakhimpur Kheri since the incident on Sunday, arrived in Delhi on Wednesday and called on Shah.
Asked by reporters whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi had summoned him to Delhi, Teni said: “Nobody has asked me to reach Delhi. I have some personal work here.”
BJP sources played down the meeting and ruled out the possibility of his resignation.
The BJP sources said Teni was not involved in the incident. “A junior minister meeting his senior is a normal affair.… Why should he resign? How is he involved in the incident?” a BJP leader asked, terming the Opposition’s demand “totally unfair”.
On the minister’s son, this leader said the law would take its course if it was established that he was in the car that mowed down the farmers.
An FIR has been lodged against Ashis but so far the police haven’t arrested him.
Teni has claimed that neither he nor his son was present at the place of violence and ruled out any pressure on him to step down. The minister has said the vehicle shown in the video ploughing through the farmers is his but denied he or his son was in the car.
“Why would I resign? There is no pressure on us,” he had told reporters on Tuesday.
BJP insiders underlined that in the past seven years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had never buckled under Opposition pressure to sack any minister.
“In the Modi government, a minister will not resign just because the Opposition wants it. Action will be taken only if a probe shows the minister is guilty,” another BJP leader said.
The BJP leadership has so far not spoken out on the horrific incident, and party spokespersons have focused on slamming the Opposition.
The lone BJP leader to have taken a strong stand over the incident has been Varun Gandhi, MP from Pilibhit. He has sympathised with the protesting farmers and called for the arrest of the culprits and a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe.