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With less than a year to go for the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BJP have started playing the blame-game over the Dadri incident. This region is susceptible to communal violence, with the Muzaffarnagar riots forming the backdrop of riots ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.
The SP has suddenly started making public proclamations about the involvement of the BJP in the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq by a mob at Bisara village, Dadri, Western UP on September 28 last year.
At a youth convention of the SP earlier this week, party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav claimed that the BJP men “were involved”.
“The BJP had promised to remove discrimination. What discrimination have they removed? A father was killed while his son was posted at the border. I had earlier spoken of three names that were involved in the killing. Those are associated with the BJP. If the PM calls, I will give all names,” Mulayam was reported to have said at the youth convention of the SP.
The BJP promptly hit back with the party’s young face from UP, Shrikant Sharma, terming Yadav’s claims as an attempt to “cover-up” the failures of the UP government.
“The statement was made to deflect the attention of people from the real problems. The law and order has worsened under the SP government of four years,” Shrikant Sharma said at a press conference.
Sharma said the report submitted by the State administration to the Centre on the Dadri case does not talk about any “conspiracy” or “beef”. He wondered whether the report was wrong or the claim made by Yadav was incorrect. “Their (the State government) report to the Central government on the matter did not mention words like ‘conspiracy’ or ‘beef’. So, how can they give such statements now? It shows their fear of losing power,” he said.
‘Fear of loss’Meanwhile, in Lucknow, State BJP spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak dared Yadav to name the persons he alleged were behind the lynching and take action against them.
“Yadav said that he knows the names. Then why did he not disclose the names or take action against the guilty,” he said. Pathak also alleged that Yadav was blaming the BJP just to create doubt in the mind of the minority community, as he was scared of his shifting votebank.
“Yadav is very well aware that minorities are tilting towards the BJP due to welfare and development works being done by the Centre within a short span,” he said.
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