Akhilesh blames BJP, says it used social media to fuel Muzaffarnagar riots

mangaloretoday.com

Lucknow, Sept 18 (NDTV): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, whose government failed to prevent the worst Hindu-Muslim riots in the state in over a decade, today reiterated that the violence was fuelled by the BJP in Muzaffarnagar.

"What happened in Muzaffarnagar is a well-thought out strategy," the young chief minister said in the state legislature today. "One political party has tried to draw political mileage," he alleged. "The BJP says it wants to make a Gujarat out of Uttar Pradesh," he said, referencing 2002’s riots in Gujarat in which hundreds of Muslims were killed, an attack that has tainted the BJP’s choice for prime minister, Narendra Modi.

 

The BJP has denied that it exploited the communal tension in Muzaffarnagar and has said the government is trying to pass the buck for a massive failure.

Arrest warrants have been issued for a group of politicians from the BSP, the Congress and the BJP for delivering incendiary speeches. No one has been arrested so far.

The savage springboard for the violence was the alleged stalking of a young Hindu girl by a Muslim boy. Her brothers killed him on August 27; within an hour, they had been murdered by a mob. Though local officials ordered a ban on public meetings, politicians and senior bureaucrats took the stage at different gatherings, instigating angry Muslim and Hindu audiences. 

The riots erupted with vicious force on September 7 when thousands of Hindu farmers who had attended a big rally were attacked on their way home. In the next 48 hours, nearly 50 people were killed. Thousands abandoned their villages where their community was in a minority. 40,000 people in the district are now in refugee camps.

And though Mr Yadav’s Samajwadi Party has been blaming the BJP, one of its own leaders - Rashid Siddique - addressed a meeting of largely Muslim residents, despite the ban ordered by the government.