Lucknow:
Under fire for his government's decision to seek legal opinion as to whether it could withdraw cases against Muslim leaders for making hate speeches in the run-up to the Muzaffarnagar riots, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said that seeking opinion did not mean the cases would be withdrawn.
When asked why the need was felt to seek an opinion, Mr Yadav was evasive, saying that it was not a political decision, but an administrative one.
A number of Muslim leaders, including MPs and MLAs, have been booked for making inciteful speeches at a public meeting in Muzaffarnagar on August 30, a week before the region erupted in communal violence.
Mr Yadav also defended the government's failure to check the crisis in refugee camps, home to about 4,000 families who fled the violence. He said that certain vested interests were preventing the refugees from returning to their homes. But he made an assurance that no force would be used to evict the refugees. He was not able to explain, though, why one of the camps in Loi village was forcibly shut down.
The Chief Minister, also criticised for hosting a lavish, Bollywood-style festival at his native village of Saifai even as refugees huddled in the cold, said the event was an annual affair which provided jobs to the locals.