Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav visited Muzaffarnagar today, a week after the communal violence started there which has claimed at least 48 lives and displaced more than 40,000 people. He was shown black flags at a village. His government has faced considerable flak over a series of riots in the state during his 18-month tenure so far.
Here are the latest developments:
Akhilesh Yadav visited Kawwal first, the worst-hit Muslim-dominated village during the riots. There he met Salim, father of Shahnawaz, who was killed by Jat men from the neighbouring Malikpura village on August 27 for allegedly harassing women.
Waving black flags, the Kawwal villagers shouted slogans against the "failure" of the administration in controlling the violence. The villagers also alleged that the Chief Minister did not receive a memorandum from them and only met the 'outsiders'.
"I went to both the villages and met the families of Shahnawaz as well as Sachin and Gaurav. There is grief and we understand that... I appeal for calm," the 40-year-old Chief Minister later told reporters.
"We will give government jobs to those who have lost members of their family. We will also rebuild homes that have been burnt down," Mr Yadav promised after the visit.
Muzaffarnagar Senior Superintendent of Police Subhash Dubey has been suspended for failing to control the violence.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also expected to visit Muzaffarnagar on Monday. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Sonia Gandhi may also accompany him.
The political fallout of the violence has begun to show. Sompal Shastri, former union minister and Samajwadi Party candidate from Baghpat, has refused to contest the 2014 elections, saying he has lost the moral right to do so. Mr Shastri has defeated Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh in the past.
A report by Uttar Pradesh Governor BL Joshi, sent to the Centre, has blamed the Akhilesh government for failing to check the riots, sources have said.
But the 40-year-old chief minister's father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, has refuted all charges against the state government. The Samajwadi Party chief, in fact, shifted the blame to the locals, saying mistrust between communities was the reason for the deadly violence in Muzaffarnagar and elsewhere.
Four BJP state legislators, one from the Congress and two from the regional Bharatiya Kisan Union have been booked for stirring communal hatred largely through inflammatory speeches made at the mahapanchayat. Bharatendra Singh, one of the BJP MLAs, was on Saturday traced to his mother's house in Dehradun. The police, though, failed to arrest him after it couldn't produce an arrest warrant.
