The Queen of Congress must take account of the fact that while Uttar Pradesh is being ruled by an ally of UPA, Maharashtra has Congress government.
After Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and party leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi took the opportunity to slam the central government over repeated incidence of communal clashes in Uttar Pradesh.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was visiting Jammu and Kashmir and inaugurating multiple projects there to boost the confidence of people there, Sonia addressed party meeting of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Congress president said that about 600 communal incidents had occurred in UP and an equal number in Maharashtra after the new dispensation took over at the centre.
Perhaps she was referring to the report published by Indian Express where it had claimed that “over 600 communal incidents took place in Uttar Pradesh after Lok Sabha elections were held” and that “a third of all communal incidents recorded by police occurred in — or on the fringes of — 12 assembly constituencies that are scheduled to go to polls over the next few months”.
“During the last 11 weeks after the BJP-led government came to power, there has been an increase in communal violence. When UPA-I and UPA-II were in power, hardly any such incidents had occurred,” she said.
She also added Maharashtra to the list of places where communal violence is “being orchestrated” by the current BJP government.
Well, it seems that the Congress high command has forgotten all about Muzaffarnagar and the response of her central government (UPAII) over the issue.
The then central government under the leadership of ex-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and secret hand of Sonia Gandhi had lambasted current state government of Akhilesh Yadav for not maintaining law and order situation in the state saying it was a state matter. However, they had visited the riot areas and refugee camps offering help to the victims.
The UPAII, despite the state government’s failure to curb such repeated incidents, did not recommend president’s rule in the state. Now the Narendra Modi-led central government is extending every help to the Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh but Madamji chooses to read selectively.
Also, the favourite media of Congress party – The Times of India – recently reported that “Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s charge in Lok Sabha that incidents of communal violence had increased since the NDA regime took over is not quite backed by data maintained by the home ministry. A comparison of monthly average of communal incidents reported from across the country in the last couple of years and during May-June 2014, after the Modi government assumed office, shows that incidents per month fell to 56.5 during May-June 2014 from 68.6 in 2013. The 2012 average, though, was better at 55.7 incidents per month.”
In addition to all this, the Queen of Congress must take account of the fact that while Uttar Pradesh is being ruled by an ally of UPA, Maharashtra has Congress government. If she is so much concerned about the law and order situation of the states, she must reign in her own men.
After all, in her own words, law and order situation is a state matter.
