A US report claiming that Uttar Pradesh had recorded the highest number of deaths in communal clashes in 2013, has given the opposition parties a hammer to beat the Akhilesh Yadav Government saying the mis-rule of Samajwadi Party Government has given a bad name to Uttar Pradesh.
“The US report has exposed the lies of State Government. The BJP has been saying for last two years that law and order situation in the state has gone from bad to worse. And now an internal US report confirms our apprehension,” BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said in a statement here on Wednesday.
US State Department, in its annual Congressional-mandated 'International Religious Freedom Report' for 2013, which was released by Secretary of State John Kerry recently, said Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India, experienced the highest number of deaths in communal unrest for the second consecutive year, including the 65 killed in Hindu-Muslim communal violence in Muzaffarnagar.
A media news from Washington quoting the report said "In India, in the clashes in Muzaffarnagar district in UP during late August and mid-September 65 people died, 68 people were injured, and an estimated 40,000-50,000 displaced. According to the report the world had witnessed the largest displacement of religious communities in recent memory during that period.
Pathak said that the communal riots of UP are now grabbing the headlines in the international forum. The country feels ashamed that Uttar Pradesh has brought such a bad name but for samajwadis it could a ' big' achievement for the Akhilesh Yadav government. Congress spokesman Amarnath Agarwal said that UP government is yet to learn lesson from previous lapses. The administration failure led to communal clashes in Saharanpur but the Chief Minister calls it caste clash.
RlD general secretary Anil Dubey said that law and order situation has deteriorated with every passing day and the US reports would certainly have an adverse impact on country's tourism.