Lucknow: A war of words erupted between the BJP, Samajwadi Party and others after a report commissioned by the Akhilesh Yadav government into the recent Saharanpur riots on Sunday pointed the finger of blame at a BJP MP, besides noting “administrative lapses” by local officials. The BJP dismissed the report as “politically motivated” and an attempt by UP’s Samajwadi government to hide its “failures”.
The five-member committee headed by senior SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav, questioned the BJP’s role in the clashes. It accused the party’s local MP, Raghav Lakhanpal, of inciting clashes and provoking rioters who torched shops and damaged public property, highly-placed sources said. It also pointed to some laxity by the administration, and recommended stern action against the officials responsible for allowing clashes to take place in order to send out a clear signal to the bureaucracy. “The administration became active only after the violence began and could have taken prompt steps to prevent this,” the report says.
“The administration should not have allowed any construction at the disputed site or members of opposite community to assemble. When Ramzan was on, adequate steps should have been taken,” the report says.
Trashing allegations, Mr Lakhanpal said the report reflected the “low-level politics” of the SP, that was trying to “appease” one community ahead of Assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh. “It is politically motivated. I have been praised for my efforts to end to the violence and restore peace. The government should have thanked me instead of levelling false allegations,” the MP said in Saharanpur.
The five-member committee also included Shivakant Ojha (minister for technical education), Arvind Singh Gope (minister for rural development) and SP leaders Ashu Malik and Haji Ikram Qureshi, who is also its district president in Saharanpur.
Dismissing the report, UP BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said while one hand it blamed administrative failure, on the other it pointed to an individual (BJP MP). “When there is an administrative failure, how come the BJP is held responsible? What else do you expect from the SP, which has been blaming the BJP repeatedly to conceal its own failures,” he said.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh said he would not comment as it was a “report of a political party” and he had not seen it.
BSP supremo Mayawati, meanwhile, targeted both the SP and BJP, alleging the two parties were “hand in glove” in fanning communal violence in the state. She said the “actual facts” were buried and the report had little meaning.
“The BJP and SP are hand in glove. The report has not put forth the actual facts. It has little meaning. We do not accept the report,” Ms Mayawati said.
Violence had erupted in Saharanpur’s Kutubshahr area on July 26 when members of two communities clashed for several hours over a land dispute. The violence had claimed three lives and left over 35 people injured.
