By Stuti Mohindra.
Failure of Uttar Pradesh government chief Akilesh Yadav to curb rioting civilians in Muzaffarnagar has led to large scale mindless violence which later spread to rural areas. Muzaffarnagar is an important part of this state as it is a pointer to what the future holds for the largest state of our country. It has been alleged that based on intelligence reports the union home minister had warned the Uttar Pradesh government of likelihood of communal riots but inspite of that the government failed to act and curb the political parties who tried to create communal problems. Social media is being blamed for circulating fake video of a Pakistani mob beating two men to death. It was mistaken for lynching of two young boys by a mob in Kawal village.
But the fact remains that in these times where Youtube , Facebook etc are easily accessible; preventive measures could have been taken much earlier. Muzzaffarnagar is an economically prosperous region of Uttar Pradesh and it is common knowledge that guns are easily available here and in fact it has been established that during riots shots were fired from licensed weapons. The government must act swiftly to curb this gun hub from prospering any further. In fact the Uttar Pradesh governor B.L. Joshi has termed the situation in Muzzaffarnagar as grim and one that requires immediate and serious action. This region is already well known for revenge killings and inter-communal clashes that in this case have spiraled into riots.
Akilesh Yadav might proclaim that these riots are politically motivated and were meant to destabilize his government but sporadic violence for over a month in Muzzafarnagar is nothing but a failure of the ruling party which allowed free run for the BJP MLAs who were able to polarise people on communal lines. A young chief minister at the age of 38, Yadav was touted to be the face of change in this one of the most lawless state of India but these hopes were dashed soon and voters lament the fall of the Mayawati government under whose regime not a single riot took place during her previous tenure of five years. To prove his mettle Yadav must act quickly and firmly and impose discipline with an iron hand otherwise his indecisiveness will lead to a crumbling state where illiteracy and poverty already rule the roost.
