Senior Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry said here on Tuesday that the violence in Muzaffarnagar was a replica of the “Gujarat model”. He accused the Akhilesh Yadav government of conniving with the BJP in their strategy to capture power through “the politics over deadbodies”.
Addressing a press conference here at the UPCC headquarters, Mr Mistry said that a government that cannot protect the life and property of its people, especially those belonging to the minority communities, had no right remain in power.
He condemned the state government’s failure to check violence even though communal tension had been simmering in the area.
“I had earlier expressed the fear that the BJP would try and foment communal trouble in UP in order to polarise votes like they did in Gujarat. Under the Gujarat model, they first communalise any incident that takes place between two individuals and then pit one community against the other. The violence is allowed to simmer for 2 or 3 days for proper polarisation before the administration steps in,” he said.
The leader said that in the Gujarat model, processions of deadbodies are also taken out to whip up passions. “I pray to God that this does not happen in UP,” he said. He said that the BJP had perfected this strategy much before the Godhra riots took place. He also expressed the fear of such incidents being repeated in other places in UP in the near future and added that urban centres with high population density were a target for such misadventures.