New Delhi:
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has told NDTV that he had got no specific warning from the Centre on the tension in Muzaffarnagar. In an exclusive interview with NDTV's Group Editor Barkha Dutt, he said that Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had called him up before the riots, but the warning he gave was generic. Mr Shinde had earlier said that he had warned the UP government in advance.
Communal clashes that broke out in this western UP town earlier this month have left nearly 50 people dead and close to 40,000 homeless.
Here are some highlights of what Akhilesh Yadav told NDTV:
- My government took speedy action
- The army was called in without factoring in political considerations
- The BJP tried to give the incident a communal colour
- The BJP exaggerated the incident for political mileage. It has used it for political gains
- Police misjudged the turnout at the farmers' mahapanchayat
- Home Minister never gave me any specific input on tension in Muzaffarnagar. The warning he gave was generic
- Samajwadi Party can never do communal politics
- It is easy to instigate but difficult to explain these days
- It is very difficult to be secular these days and easy to be communal
- Azam Khan is a senior minister. He never asked police to go slow on acting against miscreants
- The Samajwadi Party stands to lose the most due to riots
- If SP leaders are found guilty, they will be punished
- If found guilty, action will be taken against the district magistrate who shared stage with politicians at a meeting (where allegedly provocative speeches were made)
- UP doesn't know who Jairam Ramesh is, don't want to comment on his remarks
- There's a good relationship between the SP and the Congress
- I regret the violence in Muzaffarnagar, but in case of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal's suspension, the matter was blown out of proportion by media. My government did what it should have done
- I stay as far away as possible from media, choose to focus on my work