Accusing the ruling Samajwadi Party and BJP of spreading communal tension and violence for the sake of polarising their vote banks, Civil Aviation Minister, Ajit Singh on Tuesday said strict action on ground was required to ensure that violence does not spread to other states.
Expressing serious concern over the communal incidents in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RLD) president said it must be ensured that the violence does not spread to other States otherwise it will become unmanageable.
“Now the main concern is to check spread of violence to other places, as if it's not controlled now then it may spread to other states. If it spreads to other states, then situation would become unmanageable. So, some strict action should be taken now,” he added.
Coming down heavily on Samajwadi Party and BJP, Mr. Singh said the Akhilesh Yadav Government was responsible for what happened in Muzzaffarnagar incidents where innocent people lost their lives. The State government did not take timely action to prevent this violence.
“Since the day this government has come, there have been 100 incidents of communal violence and in 27, either people lost their lives or got grievously injured,” Mr. Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi.
Mr. Singh said the UP Government was behind the communal tension in the area and stated that at the peak of communal frenzy when the Babri Masjid was demolished, there was not communal tension in Faizabad but now the town has witnessed fight between two communities. Hinting at collusion between BJP and SP, he said everybody knows that Ayodhya and Ram Temple is not an issue either for Hindus or Muslims any more as they are waiting for the court's verdict.
The Aviation Minister wondered why the UP government deployed 8,000 policemen to stop Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s ‘84 Kosi Yatra but did nothing to contain the brewing tension in Muzaffarnagar though they had prior information about it. “The government also tried to make the suspension of IAS officer (Durga Sakthi Nagpal) a communal issue while it was a case of action against sand mafia. They (SP) know that they can't win polls on development issue and now they want to contest elections on communal lines,” he added.
Relating the run up to the incident, he said tension started with harassment of a village girl and was fuelled by an online video clip and inflammatory messages by political leaders. “The people were agitated and they had no belief that police would take action. The political leaders started to take advantage of the situation by issuing inflammatory speeches. And those speeches were like non-bailable offence but police allowed them to continue. When we tried to go there to restore peace and harmony, they didn't allow us,” he said.
