Akhilesh Yadav: The man in a muddle, with Muzaffarnagar Communal Riots
At no point did Akhilesh seem to think that the situation would get out of hand in a manner that the Army would have to be called in for the first time in over a decade to control a communal flare-up in Uttar Pradesh. It was a severe indictment of his administration, for this was not a riot that came like a bolt from the blue. It had been festering for a while, and Akhilesh as well as his officers were well aware of this.
His Director General of Police had just returned from the area a day before and told him matters were under control. Prior to that, a Senior Additional Director General of Police had been sent from Lucknow and deployed there specifically to handle the situation. Akhilesh was confident that the worst was over in Muzaffarnagar—an assessment that would prove to be terribly wrong as the day wore on. Rajendra Chaudhary, the lone Jat minister in Akhilesh's cabinet, kept wondering if the situation had really worsened. Because this area of riots were considered a stronghold of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Ajit Singh.
Uttar Pradesh has a population of nearly 200 million with socioeconomic indicators worse than many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.The state has a long history of sectarian violence. Sushilkumar Shinde, the India's home minister, said that 451 incidents had been reported to date this year in Uttar Pradesh, compared with 410 throughout 2012. Many are now nervous that rival political groups will seek to exploit communal tensions to build support in advance of general elections scheduled for next spring. .
However, it is said that the communities in Muzaffarnagar involved in the weekend violence did not have a history of tension. The immediate cause of the weekend's violence appears to be the killings in Kawai village of three Jat men following an incident involving the sexual harassment of a Hindu teenage girl. According to one account, the brothers of the girl killed her persecutor but were then killed themselves by members of his sister's tormentors belonging to Muslim community. Sexual harassment of women is widespread in rural villages in Uttar Pradesh and often leads to feuds and violence. Politicians had extinguished any chance of a return to normal. Just three days after,, on Friday, after Friday prayers, a meeting was called by religious leaders and politicians in Muzaffarnagar, around 125 kilometres north east of Delhi. with an audience of about 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, local leaders from the Congress and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP ttaking the stage. Rioting began in earnest on Saturday night after a meeting of thousands of farmers called .or justice following the deaths. Officials said some leaders of all the political parties had given hate speeches.
When asked why they didn't intervene to have the meeting cancelled, local officials claimed they had been misled. Kaushal Raj, the District Magistrate of Muzaffarnagar, said that religious leaders had said the meeting would focus on collecting a petition demanding justice in the Kawal case, but that the gathering was then hijacked by the politicians - Qader Rana and Jameel Ahmed of the BSP, and Saeed-uz-zaman of the Congress. On Saturday evening, at a mahapanchayat, BJP leaders from the area addressed thousands of farmers with allegedly incendiary speeches, charges they have denied. On their way home, farmers were attacked and killed. Since then, 36 people have died.
Uttar Pradesh is seen as a bellwether state, sending 80 representatives to the lower house of parliament, almost a seventh of the total.The SP won state elections in 2012 and will hope to garner sufficient national seats in Uttar Pradesh in the coming general elections to negotiate from a position of strength when a coalition government is formed.Samajwadi party (SP), in power in the state since 2012, may be hoping communal tensions will consolidate its own support, particularly among Uttar Pradesh's large Muslim population
No comments:
Post a Comment