Intelligence Bureau warns of recurrence of communal flare-up in UP

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh under the watch of the Samajwadi Party government and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has seen eight major riots with more than 15 fatalities, six because of police firing in Dasna, Ghaziabad. The situation remains volatile and there is an Intelligence Bureau report, forwarded to the state government, that such flare ups might recur.

While the advisory has pointed to threat to the law and order situation in the state, the Centre has refrained from publicly putting the Akhilesh Yadav government on the mat.

This is a very different situation than in January 2005, when after the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal, the UPA threatened the then government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav with the imposition of President's Rule. It was only Left parties, long time friends of the senior Yadav, who stood between the Centre and the state at that time. Left parties were outside supporters of the UPA government in 2005.

As a crucial outside supporter of the UPA-II at the Centre, the yardsticks seem to have been relaxed. Minority affairs minister K Rahman Khan told ET that the Centre had "no option but to wait for the communal violence bill to get cleared." "As you know, law and order is a state subject, the Centre cannot interfere. We are concerned about the matter, but the only remedy as I see it is for the home ministry at the Centre to expedite the passage of the Communal Violence bill," he said.

The bill on communal violence, which deals with issues of speedy justice to victims, widening the definition of communal violence, compensation and punishment, has been hanging fire for the last two years because opposition-led states opposed the NAC draft of the bill during a meeting of the National Development Council in 2011 and the government doesn't want any challenge to its numbers, especially while facing its first Parliament session after the exit of the Trinamool Congress from the government.