A cruel abdication

After failing to avert or control the conflict,the state failed again,and again,to reassure fearful riot victims,who are still huddled in relief camps or with relatives and friends,unwilling to return home. It has been tardy and inefficient in providing compensation,medical facilities,sanitation or even warm clothing and blankets to those in the camps,and the victims have been left to the charity of religious organisations. Young children,including newborn babies,have died because of exposure to the cold,there have been reports of sexual violence. The situation in these camps has been observed and recorded by the media,and by fact-finding teams,which clearly counter the administrations justifications. But the SP government,instead of listening to,and attempting to address,the plight of the camps,first said that these stories were trumped up or exaggerated,and then,incredibly,suggested that the riot victims were part of a Congress-BJP conspiracy designed to show up the government. Now it has chosen to disband the camps and stop official assistance,to make the problem go away.

Yadavs statement was prompted by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhis visit to the districts,which he called secular tourism. But it is the SPs instrumental invocation of minority welfare that stands exposed by the squalor and misery in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli. For a man whose prime ministerial ambitions are transparent,Yadav and his party have been disastrous even at political messaging. Their concern for Muslims was writ large in their manifesto,but their actions have stayed at the level of meaningless gesture. Just like it made a sloppy case for dropping terror cases against Muslims in the interest of communal harmony,without putting in the work to counter flaws in the investigation or even submitting affidavits to the courts,it has addressed the post-riot situation with striking insincerity. By denying the pain of thousands of riot-affected citizens,Yadav has only undermined his own claim of leadership.

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