Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 11, 2013
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/edit/officers-spill-the-beans.html

Azam Khan must answer for Muzaffarnagar riots

 Mr Azam Khan, a senior Minister in the Uttar Pradesh Government, stands accused, not by the Opposition, but by senior serving police officers of his own regime, for having played a damagingly partisan role during the riots that engulfed Muzaffarnagar last month. It's not an allegation that he can dismiss with the contempt that he has shown until now, nor can he hide behind the bluff and bluster which he has so far used in his defence. The four officers have told the Allahabad High Court that they were suspended on orders from Mr Khan. What is even more shocking is their claim that Mr Khan was furious because the police had arrested seven Muslims in connection with the murder of two brothers in Kawal village. As the ‘Muslim face' of the Samajwadi Party in the State, Mr Khan has been going around conducting himself in sectarian ways that does not behove a person who is mandated to follow the law of the land which does not discriminate against anyone on the basis of caste and religion. He has behaved more as a Minister for one community rather than of the State. If what the four police officers have alleged is indeed true, then Mr Khan will have to bear the responsibility for the outbreak of the terrible riots which left more than 50 people dead and scores others injured. Worse, the incident has shattered communal harmony in the region and left behind a deeply divided society. The police officers' claim that the Hindu community was enraged with the release of the seven accused, and that the anger resulted in the eruption of violence, has to be taken seriously. This is what bipartisan observers have been saying for long.

 While there cannot be any justification for the violence, in which both communities have suffered, one cannot simply wish away the trigger for the terrible incident. The police were compelled to release the seven members of the minority community on the orders of political higher-ups. The needle of suspicion has been pointing at Mr Khan ever since the violence broke out, and the statements of the four police officers seem to have strengthened this suspicion. It is amazing that, while Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav have been busy accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party and various other opponents for the Muzaffarnagar riots, they have chosen to gloss over the alleged role of their senior party leader and Minister. It's vote-bank politics, after all.