Muzaffarnagar riots report: Are SP, BJP in cahoots, asks Congress

Following the Justice Vishnu Sahai Commission's report absolving the Akhilesh Yadav-Government of direct responsibility in 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, the Congress Party on Monday asked if the Samajwadi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party are 'in cahoots' to absolve each other.

"The state government can't absolve itself from the responsibility. After all those horrendous incidences took place on the watch of the state government. The BJP and its serving central ministers are clearly complicit, so is it a kind of Tweedledum and Tweedledee between the Samajwadi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party in order to absolve each other," Congress leader Manish Tewari told ANI.

"Are they in cahoots with each other? These are the questions which will be raised once the report is studied in detail," he said.

The Justice Vishnu Sahai Commission has blamed the "negligence" of the local administration, the "failure" of the intelligence agencies and exaggerated reporting in the social and print media for the communal riots that left over 60 persons dead and 60,000 homeless in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining districts.

The commission was constituted to probe the reasons for the riots and the administrative lapses in controlling the violence.

The 775-page report was tabled in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Sunday.

Though the former Allahabad High Court judge identified 14 causes for the violence, he has not indicted any SP leader or senior official or police officer.

The commission said no further action would be taken against BJP MLA Sangeet Som, who had uploaded on YouTube a provocative fake video that was shot in Pakistan, until the investigation was completed.

No penal action would be taken against the then BSP MP for an inflammatory speech.