It is over 100 days since riots in western Uttar Pradesh claimed 60 lives, left scores injured and thousands displaced. The communal conflagration has died down but the simmering embers continue to singe the Samajwadi Party government headed by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
The sharpest thorn in the young chief minister’s side at the moment is the continued existence of relief camps where thousands of displaced have taken shelter after refusing to go back home. The deplorable condition and biting cold at the camps have claimed lives of the old, ailing and children, much to the chagrin of the badly-affected Muslim community. When the riots broke out in September, the number of displaced was pegged at 60,000, mostly Muslims forced to flee their homes in the aftermath of the violence. Small tent townships emerged in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts where riot victims took shelter. From Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the Chief Minister to senior leaders like Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, all visited the displaced and urged them to return home, but the failure of the UP government to instil a sense of safety and security in their minds proved the biggest deterrent.
In the last four months, more than four dozen children have died in the biting cold, exposing the abysmal failure of the Samajwadi Party government in providing adequate relief to riot victims. The NHRC team that visited the camps in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli denounced the state government for its failure to provide basic amenities to the victims.
A cornered Samajwadi Party is aware that the riots and the camp crisis will be a major issue before the 2014 parliamentary elections. If senior minister Mohammad Azam Khan is sulking over the “victimisation” of Muslims by his own government, two Muslim leaders holding ministers of state rank—Abid Ali and Tauqir Raza—resigned in protest against the Samajwadi Party’s failure to protect the “qaum” (community). Other Muslim leaders of the party may not have resigned or protested in public, but are expressing their indignation in private and admit erosion of faith of the community towards the ruling party. Muslims being a large vote bank and 2014 elections drawing close, most political parties want to exploit the issue and beat the Samajwadi Party with the riot stick.
Meanwhile, the government’s failure has been amplified by the bizarre statements of its leaders and officials. Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav said those living in the camps were “supporters of the Congress and BJP staying in the camps for political mileage.”
The chief minister was embarrassed again when principal secretary (Home) Anil Kumar Gupta, reacting to the rising number of deaths in the relief camps, claimed: “Thand se koi nahi marta, agar thand se koi marta to log Siberia mein na rahte” (The deaths in the relief camps were not due to cold. Had cold been the cause of death, people would not have been living in Siberia).”
A stunned Akhilesh asked the bureaucrat to mind his language but failed to initiate action against Gupta. Chief secretary Javed Usmani also criticised the riot victims by saying that they were encroaching on government land and should vacate it.
Now in order to get rid of the camp issue the UP government has asked the administration in the two districts to forcibly remove the camps and send the victims home. The process of eviction has started. But the question is will it assuage the hurt of the community in general and how will Akhilesh defend his failure, particularly on the riot issue.