A United States report stating that >Uttar Pradesh saw the highest number of deaths in communal violence in India last year has raised the political temperature in the state, with opposition political parties charging the ruling Samajwadi Party government with complete failure of law and order in the State.
The Akhilesh Yadav government has also been accused of sullying the image of India’s most populous state across the globe which may have severe impact on its investment environment and tourism industry.
Stating that last year’s Muzaffarnagar riots led to 65 deaths while an estimated 40,000-50,000 people were displaced, the US State Department’s “International Religious Freedom Report” for 2013 has said that “Uttar Pradesh…experienced the highest number of deaths in communal unrest for the second consecutive year…”
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Opposition parties have said that it reflected complete failure on the part of the Chief Minister to run the state. Criticizing Mr. Yadav for the “dubious distinction”, BJP’s state unit spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said frequent communal riots in UP have now become headlines in the international forum. “The entire country is suffering due to lapses of the UP government as the country has earned a bad name in the international arena and tourists have stopped coming here,” he noted.
The Congress too has said the state government has consistently failed to take lessons from its failures and was trying to cover up its laxity in governance. Riots in Muzaffarnagar and now in Saharanpur have proven time and again that the government’s incompetence to rule had led to escalation of small issues into big riots, said UP Congress spokesperson Amarnath Agarwal. “The law and order situation has deteriorated day by day and the US reports would certainly have an adverse impact on tourism,” he added.