Police slackness an indictment of UP government: Opposition

The opposition parties Wednesday demanded to know from the Akhilesh Yadav government who was behind inaction during the Muzaffarnagar violence after the state police chief admitted police failure.

With the admission of state Director General of Police (DGP) Devraj Nagar that police failed to contain communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar district, the Akhilesh Yadav government Wednesday came under opposition fire.

Political leaders wanted to know who was behind the police inaction.

Devraj Nagar Tuesday, during a visit to Muzaffarnagar, admitted of police failure in containing the riots that killed 48 and left more than 43,000 displaced and homeless.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the "confessional statement" of the state police chief was both serious and alarming as it cast fresh doubts on the police inaction and possible political interference.

"The statement of Nagar appears to be in line with a recent sting operation of a television channel in which middle-rung and junior police officials spoke of being told by a powerful minister not to act against miscreants behind the riots," Vijay Bahadur Pathak, state BJP spokesman, told IANS.

Pathak said there is a studied silence on the DGP's statement so far and he hoped some action would take place after the state government takes cognizance of it.

Pradeep Mathur, leader of the Congress Legislature Party in the state assembly, told IANS that the government needed to take action on senior officials too for their slackness in controlling riots in Muzaffarnagar.

"From day one, we have been of the view that the riots were a result of complete administrative failure of the state machinery and I feel that the government rather than just acting against junior police officials should act against senior officials too and that the buck has to stop somewhere," he added.

On way to Muzaffarnagar on a fact-finding mission, along with Congress general secretary in-charge of partgy affairs in UP Madhusudan Mistry, Mathur said, the government will have to act sternly.

Leader of Opposition in the state assembly and senior Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Swamy Prasad Maurya said the government has been yet again fully exposed by the statement of the state DGP.

"The government is in the dock again and the people need to know why did the police not act and failed to protect the life and property of the people," he said.

"There cannot be two parameters for the riots. Police failure is also failure of the SP (Samajwadi Party) government," he added.