Suresh Rana, the newly appointed vice-president of BJP’s State unit, said the party would not give up issues such as “forced exodus” of Hindus from Kairana, “cow slaughter” in Dadri and re-investigation of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
Talking to The Hindu , Mr. Rana said the Samajwadi Party government “exhibited deep bias against general public by its one-sided action in favour of a particular community” in issues of governance and law and order in the State.
The BJP MLA from Thana Bhawan, an accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots, said the riot cases needed “revised scrutiny because the SP government got them investigated in a completely partial manner to ensure that the real culprits go scot-free”.
“The manner in which the riots happened, the role of senior SP Ministers was suspect. One of the senior Ministers of the Akhilesh Yadav government had instigated the riots. Our government will ensure that he is held accountable and arrested. We will consider scrutiny of those cases to make sure that the persons who sparked the riots are in jail,” said Mr. Rana.
Citing an instance of what he termed “involvement of SP machinery” in the riots, he said: “Sachin and Gaurav, two youths from Kawal village, were brutally murdered (in 2013). While the police arrested the accused, they were let off shortly. Later, in a sting video, a senior police officer accepted that there was pressure on them to let go of the accused. We will ensure that those who ordered their release are brought to book,” he added.
Mr. Rana was booked under the National Security Act (NSA) in 2013 for allegedly delivering hate speeches at separate public meetings on August 31 and September 7, when Muzaffarnagar was witnessing the worst of communal clashes in recent times. The Allahabad High Court later revoked the NSA against the MLA.
The BJP MLA rejected the allegation of any kind of involvement in the violence.
“I must clarify that when I contested elections in 2012, I had no cases against me. In 2013, the U.P. government booked me under the National Security Act for delivering hate speeches. That is the only criminal case against me. I don't need to say that it was a case of political vendetta,” he said.
Mr. Rana said that issues like “forced exodus of Hindus” from Kairana and “cow slaughter” in Dadri were important and the BJP would continue to raise them “with or without elections”.
He claimed that the 2017 State polls would be a direct contest between the SP and the BJP and the BSP would not be in the picture.
