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In comments that could stoke a controversy, Congress leader Rashid Alvi on Thursday said that communal riots in Muzaffarnagar have left Gujarat far behind.
Alvi, who was detained by the Uttar Pradesh Police after he visited a camp in Loni in riot-hit area of Muzaffarnagar, said he was forcibly taken to a police station and after an hour's detention taken to the UP-Delhi border and left there.
"I have visited Gujarat also. But, Muzaffarnagar has left Gujarat behind," he said, pointing towards the problems of Muslims in the area.
Alvi claimed that tales of people lodged in various relief camps in Uttar Pradesh point to their big sufferings.
Alvi, a former Rajya Sabha MP of Congress from Andhra Pradesh, hails from Uttar Pradesh and is a known detractor of the Samajwadi Party.
He was snubbed by the party in June 2012 after he had dubbed Mulayam Singh Yadav as the "biggest agent of BJP". At the time Alvi was spokesperson of the Congress party, a post which he had to forego some months back in the AICC reshuffle.
Last week also, Alvi had launched a scathing attack on the SP chief asking him to "disclose" "what had transpired" in his meeting with VHP chief Ashok Singhal last month, a few days before the Hindutva group attempted to take out its '84-Kosi Yatra' which was banned by the Akhilesh government.
Alvi had also accused Yadav of strengthening the hands of BJP.
"Mulayam Singh Yadav is strengthening the hands of BJP. The communal riots that have happened in western UP have now proved right what I said one year back. Mulayam Singh and BJP are together and this is amply proved by the incidents that have taken place now," Alvi had said.