‘Mulayam wanted communal riots’

In an interview to The Indian Express here Friday,the RLD chief dismissed Mulayam’s assurance of justice to victims saying,“Can you expect justice in Gujarat unless Modi is arrested?”

Ajit Singh said,“What happened during the Gujarat riots? Police was not sent despite people seeking help. A similar thing has happened here. Just like Nero was fiddling when Rome was burning,Mulayam was in an air-conditioned five-star hotel criticising Azam Khan when Muzaffarnagar was burning.”

He said the DGP was in the area when inflammatory speeches were being made at the mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar,but he left without doing anything. “I am told that there were some 100-150 armed youth controlling the dais. Even (BJP leader) Hukum Singh has publicly stated this. They surrounded the dais and they did not allow anything but speeches on Modi. Anti-social elements took control. That is why you hear of live cartridges being recovered.”

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When asked if he meant there was an organised attempt to stoke communal tension,Ajit Singh said,“It was organised,yes… It is a Jat area.. they are bound to be there in the panchayat. They were angry as well…the anger should have been against the administration,but got deflected against the Muslims. The administration was a mute spectator. I do not blame the administration. The blame lies with the political executive under whose directives they work.”

Lashing out at Amit Shah,the Modi loyalist who is in charge of UP affairs,the RLD leader said,“It is not about Amit Shah as a person. It is his reputation that Amit Shah means Modi. Modi is a good administrator; Amit Shah is a good ‘organiser’.”

Ajit Singh said the Samajwadi Party had got “unexpected seats” in the last Assembly elections which had made Mulayam “ambitious” about becoming Prime Minister. “There is nothing wrong in that wish but the administration in the last one-and-a-half years has been a total flop show in UP. Mulayam has understood that he cannot go to polls on the issue of development,” said Ajit Singh,before adding that perhaps that is the reason “why he (Mulayam)… decided on religious polarisation.”

He cited three incidents to prove his point. “The VHP is on the fringes of state politics. Temple-mosque is no more an election issue in UP. Hindus and Muslims have agreed to accept whatever courts decide. Why did Mulayam deploy 8,000 policemen against VHP yatra? Before that,he talked to VHP leaders for over two hours. There was no clamour for parikrama. He (Mulayam) tried to fuel it. In Noida,the issue was sand mafia against whom the young IAS officer was cracking down. The CM himself tried to convert it into a Hindu-Muslim issue.”

Maintaining that RLD supporters including Jats will all come back to the party,he ruled out any alliance with BJP in the next election: “Advani’s own alliance has been ruled out,why doubt me? We are with the Congress and will remain with them.”

Just as Nero was fiddling when Rome was burning,Mulayam was in an air-conditioned five-star hotel criticising Azam Khan when Muzaffarnagar was burning…

The blame (for muzaffarnagar) lies with the political executive under whose directives they (administration) work