‘Kawal ka bawal’: In Khatauli, Yogi slams SP for Muzaffarnagar riots
LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday recalled the killing of two Hindu youths in Muzaffarnagar’s Kawal village to slam the then Samajwadi Party (SP) government, whose negligence and partisan approach, he said, led to the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
“Kawal ka bawaal, ye Samajwadi Party ka kalank hai (the problem of Kawal is a curse for the Samajwadi Party),” Adityanath said while campaigning in Khatauli for Rajkumari Saini, wife of former BJP lawmaker Vikram Saini, whose disqualification following his conviction in the Muzaffarnagar riots case led to the by-poll on the seat.
The Kawal incident is widely believed to have triggered the Muzaffarnagar riots that left about 63 people dead and displaced more than 40,000 persons, dividing the Jat-Muslim chemistry, reorienting political equations in the volatile west UP. Adityanath defended Vikram Saini, the former Khatauli lawmaker, who he said remained unfazed despite his disqualification.
“Kawal Ka Bawal was a conspiracy of the then SP-Lok Dal government to inflict cruelty on the two youths and the people here. Who can forget the manner in which innocent Sachin and Gaurav became victims of a barbaric murder. And, all must be well aware of the fate of the lieutenants of those who were responsible for such cruelty,” Adityanath said to applause at the public meeting.
The BJP candidate is up against SP backed RLD candidate Madan Bhaiya.
“I have come to say that Vikram Saini didn’t lose his membership of the UP assembly for his own sake.
Rather, he did that for the sake of his people and their honour and I was watching he remained unfazed despite losing his membership as he felt all that he did was for a cause,” he added.
“That is why the BJP has fielded his wife Rajkumari Saini who stood by her husband firmly in that period,” he added.
Alleging that the SP-RLD regime in 2012-2017 had to a “Talibani rule”, Adityanath said: “Back then, farmers could not visit their lands as their tubewell connections were cut, machines stolen and their throats slit. Girls could not go to school and women to markets because of safety concerns. People were forced to flee Kairana.”
Urging people to not allow “professional criminals” of Samajwadi Party to win, he also lashed out at the RLD, claiming that the party which earlier stood for farmers’ interests and never supported criminals during late Chaudhary Charan Singh’s time also became SP’s “partner in crime”.
Yogi said: “Muzaffarnagar is a land of religion and stands for peace. But when peace was threatened and religious beliefs were undermined, it revolted. Kanwar Yatra which could not take place during SP’s rule is now being carried out with much fanfare. It would be even grander.”