Blaming the Samajwadi Party government in up for the orchestrated-massacre, some residents of Muzaffarnagar claim that since Akhilesh Yadav’s party has no stakes in the communally-sensitive district, it is making desperate efforts to make inroads here.
With a population of over 10 lakh, Muzaffarnagar has 49 per cent Hindus and 47 per cent Muslims. But despite this similar demographic denomination, Muslims here were dominated by the financially-strong Jats and Gujjars. Many Muslims here work as casual labourers for Jats, who are mostly land owners.
The Muslim voters here have never showed confidence in the Samajwadi Party.
The two Lok Sabha seats — Muzaffarnagar city and Kairana — of the district were bagged by the Bahaujan Samaj Party, and only two of the six assembly seats here are with the Samajwadi Party. Three assembly seats are with the BSP, one with the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the remaining two with the SP.
Political analysts and opposition parties believe that since the SP does not have strong presence in the district, it has been trying to orchestrate riots so that Muslims would go back to it. In fact, they allege the UP chief minister is, in a way, trying to present himself as a sympathiser of Muslims.
Insiders claim that after the incident of August 27, which triggered the riots, Akhilesh asked the police machinery to go soft on Muslims. He even transferred the district magistrate and the superintendent of police on charges of dereliction of duty to please the minority community, they claim.
Insiders say that after the incident of eve-teasing of a girl in Kawal village on 27 August, which was the trigger point of the riots, the local police arrested 11 persons from the girl’s family for killing a Muslim boy. However, in retaliation to the murder, two brothers of the girl, who belonged to the Hindu community, were murdered. And according to the villagers, no action has been taken against the killers of two Jat boys.
“It seems to be a desperate attempt by the Akhilesh Yadav’s government to push Muslim voters of the area in his favour,” Sayeed Muzammil Husain, a local journalist, told dna.
