AVOID PREMATURE CRITICISM OF NEW NORTH INDIAN STATE CHIEF, SAYS REGIONAL PARTY LEADER

NATURAL WITH HINDI SPEECH

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SOURCE: ANI

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Avoid premature criticism of new north Indian state chief, says regional party leader.

Leader of India's regional Samajwadi Party, Mohan Singh, urges the media to show restraint as they criticize the new state chief of northern Uttar Pradesh state, Akhilesh Yadav, and asks them to give him and his administration some time before arriving at any conclusion.

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NEW DELHI, INDIA (APRIL 02, 2012) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI-NO ACCESS BBC)

1. (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) LEADER OF INDIA'S REGIONAL SAMAJWADI PARTY, MOHAN SINGH, SAYING: "The chairman of the Press Council of India had appealed to you in Lucknow not to hurry in issuing comments on Akhilesh Yadav's activities. When you continue to do so in spite of that, it causes me a lot of pain. What is the rush? If you do not allow someone to work even for a few days, when even the officials are the same ones as the one during the previous regime, then such comments are premature."

2. (SOUNDBITE) (Hindi) LEADER OF INDIA'S REGIONAL SAMAJWADI PARTY, MOHAN SINGH, SAYING: "The government's responsibility towards the Indian Parliament is only in the Lok Sabha (lower house). To have a government where the Prime Minister is not the leader of the Lok Sabha, and sits in the Rajya Sabha (upper house), is very strange and not good."

3. SINGH LEAVING

STORY: Leader of the regional Samajwadi Party, Mohan Singh, urged the media to show restraint as they lashed at the new state chief of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav and blamed him for the worsening of the law and order situation in the province.

Singh said in New Delhi on Monday (April 02) that he was pained by the adverse reports on Yadav's government in the media and added that the state chief must be given time to settle down.

He urged the media to refrain from drawing conclusions too early about Yadav and his administration.

"The chairman of the Press Council of India had appealed to you in Lucknow not to hurry in issuing comments on Akhilesh Yadav's activities. When you continue to do so in spite of that, it causes me a lot of pain. What is the rush? If you do not allow someone to work even for a few days, when even the officials are the same ones as the one during the previous regime, then such comments are premature," Singh said.

Press Council of India chairman, Justice Markandey Katju, had appealed to mediapersons to give Yadav time to deliver on his promises.

Yadav's Samajwadi Party had swept to power in early March, winning 224 out of 403 seats voted for in seven phases of polling across India's most populous state.

Since his victory, Yadav's regime has come under fire as activists of the Samajwadi Party have been accused of taking the law into their own hands.

Most infamously, a 12-year-old boy had been accidentally killed during celebratory firing in the state's Sambhal region.

Mohan Singh was also critical of the federal government and said that he disapproved of a federal government whose Prime Minister was not a member of the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament), whose representatives are elected by the people.

"The government's responsibility towards the Indian Parliament is only in the Lok Sabha (lower house). To have a government where the Prime Minister is not the leader of the Lok Sabha, and sits in the Rajya Sabha (upper house), is very strange and not good," Singh said.

He cited the example of former Prime Ministers, Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao (1991-1996), Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda (1996-1997) and Inder Kumar Gujral (1997-1998), who in spite of not being Lok Sabha members, contested elections and became members of the Lower House once they were appointed to the top federal post.

India's current Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is a member of the Rajya Sabha representing the northeastern state of Assam. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee officiates as the leader of the current Lok Sabha.