Lucknow, 12 Aug: The decision by the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government to submit a 40-year-old report on the Moradabad sectarian riots in the state Assembly on Tuesday has sparked criticism from the Opposition, who has questioned the timing and motivation behind the action.
Riots erupted in Moradabad in August 1980, during the tenure of then-chief minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh’s Congress government.
The single-member Commission established to investigate the riots, led by retired Allahabad High Court judge Justice M P Saxena, presented its findings in November 1983. However, its contents were not made public until the monsoon session of the Assembly.
?This report is based on false facts and has been drafted to protect the police and administration.
The investigation clears the state police, the Police Arms Constabulary (PAC), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and the BJP, but charges former IUML state president Shamim Ahmed and a local politician Hamid Hussain of instigating the riots. It is a “clean chit” for ordinary Muslims. Shamim Ahmed died 20 years ago.
The IUML has stated that the report is “not factual” and that it would petition the President for a new judicial investigation into the 1980 riots. It also sought reparations and government employment for the children of those murdered in the riots.
“This report was written to protect the police and government and is based on fake information. They were the true perpetrators,” the IUML claimed in a memorandum to be handed to the President on August 13.
Previously, the IUML addressed similar memorandums to the President. Kausar Hayat Khan, national joint secretary of the IUML, claimed that the incident in Moradabad was “a direct action of the police and administration against Muslims.” He called the charges levelled against the IUML head “false.”
“The culprit in the matter was the then-Congress government.” The party organised a nationwide push to demoralise Muslims. Following the riots, the Congress took no effective steps to demonstrate that there was any effort to provide justice to Muslim victims,” Khan remarked.
Khan stated that the report was submitted in the Assembly by the Adityanath-led BJP administration in order to earn “political gains” in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“Through this report, the Yogi government has attempted to send a message that the Muslim League, which according to the report was allegedly involved in the riots, is part of the Opposition INDIA bloc,” Khan added.
The stalling of the report, according to UP Congress spokesperson Surendra Rajput, is intended to cause “polarisation” ahead of the 2024 elections. “The UP government has tabled an old report to divide society between Hindus and Muslims ahead of the 2024 elections,” Rajput remarked.
“Instead of looking back in time, the BJP administration should give a report on its inadequacies in providing public welfare,” he added.
In UP politics, the IUML has been a minor participant. The party ran for only one seat in the 2022 Assembly elections, Agra South, and received only 130 votes. In 1974, it won one Assembly seat, Firozabad, out of 54. It then received some support in Muslim-majority constituencies such as Rampur, Saharanpur, and Kanpur.
According to Khan, the IUML would not run for office in UP in 2024, but will assist other INDIA constituents in the state.
