'Even if Akhilesh Yadav opens up the entire state treasury for us we will not vote for the Samajwadi Party... ''...I don't want to return to my village, my head will be chopped off. They want me to press the button on the lotus.' Caught between an aggressive BSP cornering Dalit votes and the BJP cornering other Hindu votes, the Muslims of Muzaffarnagar have nowhere to go, no one to turn to. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt presents the grim situation on the ground in western Uttar Pradesh.
While conditions have improved over the last decade in western UP, there are still unfulfilled needs.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government on a plea seeking transfer of probe into Muzaffarnagar clashes from state police to any independent agency.
The Supreme Court slammed the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday for not counselling students who were allegedly instructed by their school teacher to slap a Muslim boy for not doing his homework.
Uttar Pradesh on Monday was on the edge struggling to contain communal flare-up as the death toll in Muzaffarnagar rose to 31 and violence spread to neighbouring Shamli and other districts even as curfew remained in force and army staged flag marches for the second consecutive day.
Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Assembly Sangeet Som, accused of uploading a fake video that played a role in provoking communal tension in Muzaffarnagar and making inflammatory speeches, was arrested on Saturday.
Union minister Sanjeev Baliyan and BJP MLA Suresh on Friday surrendered in a court in Muzaffarnagar after a warrant was issued against them.
The SP president and the RLD chief announced the tie-up on social media for the general elections later this year.
The BJP, which romped to power in 2019 on the back of an unequivocal mandate from UP, winning 62 of its 80 seats, was cut to size this time and had to be content with only 33 seats.
The apex court was hearing a PIL filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, seeking speedy investigation in the student slapping case.
The Centre on Tuesday said there is no link between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and Muslim youth, who were victims of Muzaffarnagar riots, but agreed with Delhi police's statement that two suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives had met two persons in the area.
The Manmohan Singh government has agreed to provide 2,800 additional paramilitary personnel to contain the unabated tension that continues to prevail in and around the riot-torn Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh where 32 persons were killed in the 48-hour-long communal violence that broke out on Saturday.
Factories, shops closed for four days; list of dead now 38.
With normalcy returning to riot-hit areas of the district, curfew was relaxed for seven hours on Thursday.
The Uttar Pradesh government has sanctioned an additional amount of Rs 3.28 crore for providing relief to riot victims, district authorities said in Muzaffarnagar on Friday.
As many as 37 ministers have been dropped from the government in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third term and these include seven with cabinet rank -- prominent among them being Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur and Narayan Rane.
Uttar Pradesh government has informed the Supreme Court that over 41,000 persons, out of 50,955 who had taken shelter in 58 relief camps in riots-hit Muzaffarnagar area, have gone back to their native places.
The Supreme Court on Monday imposed an interim stay on directives passed by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments that eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route must display names of owners.
With tension running high in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar, the Centre on Monday offered to provide additional paramilitary forces to Uttar Pradesh to assist the local administration in dealing with the situation.
With the situation showing improvement, curfew was relaxed for five hours on Wednesday in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar while Baghpat witnessed a communal clash leaving a constable injured.
Curfew remained in force in riot-hit areas of Muzaffarnagar on Tuesday with the army patrolling troubled places as the death toll in the clashes in the district and adjoining towns rose to 38.
A fresh bailable warrant has been issued by a court in Muzaffarnagar against Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan and Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Assembly Suresh Rana in connection with a case of violating prohibitory orders and inciting communal tension during the riots in 2013.
Majority of these constituencies are in Uttar Pradesh and the party that is on the third slot even as the counting is still underway on several seats is the Bahujan Samaj Party, a party neither with the National Democratic Alliance nor the opposition INDIA bloc.
Attempting damage control, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday described the last year's riots in Muzzafarnagar as "unfortunate" and said his government took immediate steps to check them and there was no delay in calling the army.
Alleging that communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar and neighbouring areas was a political conspiracy, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said it was an attempt to defame and destabilise his government.
With the recovery of more bodies, the death toll in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas touched 47 while the curfew was eased in the city for the fourth consecutive day.
The Samajwadi Party on Sunday backed the withdrawal of case against accused in Muzaffarnagar riots, saying it was "trying to give justice to the victims".
There is a possibility of an outbreak of epidemics in relief camps, where thousands of riot-hit victims have taken shelter following last month's communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, a team of doctors said after a survey of the areas.
A controversy has been sparked with the Bharatiya Janata Party deciding to felicitate its MLAs Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana, accused of inciting communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, at Narendra Modi's rally in Agra on Thursday.
Hounded by biting cold and urgings by senior district officials, as many as 483 riot-hit families camping in Loi village on Tuesday left for "safer places".
Amid a raging controversy over Rahul Gandhi's statement that Pakistani intelligence agencies had contacted Muslim youths in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar as part of their sinister designs, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday denied having any such input from intelligence bureau.
A local court on Wednesday issued arrest warrants against 16 politicians of the the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, besides senior community leaders for allegedly inciting violence through inflammatory speeches in Muzaffarnagar.
'The BJP is racing against its opponents by putting a chain on their legs.'
The BSP has not entered into any alliances and has also been keen to shed the tag of being a 'B-team' of the BJP.
A young Dalit woman was allegedly thrown into a hot cauldron of a jaggery-making unit for protesting against molestation in the Budaun district, police said on Sunday.
A school teacher was arrested on Thursday for inciting communal hatred after she allegedly ordered a Muslim student to slap a Hindu classmate for not answering a question, the police said.
Stoking controversy, Bharatiya Janata Party Lok Sabha candidate and one of the members of Legislative Assembly booked in Muzaffarnagar riots cases Hukum Singh said on Thursday he would oppose riot refugees from voting in his constituency Kairana as they were living "illegally" on government land.
Agitated over arrest of its MLA for his alleged role in Muzaffarnagar riots, Bahujan Samaj Party on Sunday lashed out at the ruling Samajwadi Party, accusing it of adopting a "pick and choose" approach by targeting political rivals and protecting its own leaders.
The communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas claimed 49 lives and displaced over 40,000 people.
The Uttar Pradesh police are busy trying to cover up the gang rape of a helpless seven-year-old girl in a village of Muzaffarnagar district.
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