Riots In India

[utepian]

Can someone ping Kaleem Kawaja on this report. Fling it on his face will be more like it.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Mulayam says Mau a blot, MLA backing him calls the shots
AMAN SHARMA & AMIT SHARMA

MLA Mukhtar Ansari in MauNEW DELHI/MAU, OCTober 17 <b>Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav today admitted in Lucknow that the communal violence in Mau had tarnished the image</b> of his two-year-old government as ‘‘rioting and arson continued unabated for 48 hours.’’

<b>The reason: His administration failed to control the rioters and it was Mukhtar Ansari, an Independent MLA who supports the Mulayam government, who ‘‘took charge’’ when Mau burnt. As a minor dispute blew up into a riot, Ansari, the local MLA, roamed the streets in an open Gypsy. The curfew was on, officials and police watched.</b>

One of the five senior Mau administration officials suspended on Sunday told The Indian Express:<b> ‘‘Ansari had clear instructions to us: ‘Don’t fire at the rioters... I will calm them.’ In an open Gypsy with his henchmen, he was going up and down the Mau streets for all of Friday and Saturday. No official dared to defy him... and paid the price,’’</b> the officer said. <b>Ansari has 36 criminal cases against him and a conviction under TADA.</b>

Uttar Pradesh DGP Yashpal Singh said the police had initiated a probe into his role. <b>‘‘It was difficult to control the riots with the MLA out on the streets like this.’’ </b>Preliminary investigation reveals that a small incident on Thursday evening sparked off the riots. ‘‘Around 7.20 pm at Roza time, some Muslims objected to a loudspeaker being used for a Bharat Milap. The Ram Lila committee cancelled the show but the news spread like wildfire with clashes breaking out. By 10 pm on Thursday, curfew was in place but the required force of PAC and RAF could arrive only by 4 am,’’ said ADG Babulal Yadav.

<b>That night and the next morning, MLA Ansari was all over Mau town.</b> ‘‘It’s my constituency, why should I leave?’’ Ansari said. ‘‘Shooting at public is not the only alternative... I am their elected representative and was trying to calm them. I took over and hit the streets as the District Magistrate and SP were totally useless.,’’ Ansari said.

While Mau remained peaceful today, reports of efforts to whip up communal passions came in from Bahraich, Ghazipur and Ballia. <b>People burnt Ansari’s effigy and shouted slogans against him. ‘‘I am being framed by vested interests. My image could be that of a mafia but I had never been known as a communal man,’’</b> Ansari told The Indian Express.
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story....t_id=80279<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->