Badaun (UP): A three-member BJP team led by MP Maneka Gandhi was on Sunday prevented from going to communal violence-hit Bareilly city by Uttar Pradesh authorities here.
Lashing out at the UP government, Maneka, who was stopped in Ghaziabad but later allowed to proceed to Badaun with police escort, 250 km from Bareilly, accused it of "engineering the riots" and taking "one sided action to
appease a particular community".
"Whatever had happened in Bareilly may lead to similar incidents at other places in the state," she said.
Another member of the team, Gorakhpur MP Yogi Aditynath was forced to get to down from Gorakhpur-Bareilly Express train in Barabanki, near Lucknow, at 3 am.
He was taken to a state guest house and later sent back. Meerut MP Rajendra Agarwal was stopped in Rampur district which shares its border with Bareilly.
Accusing the police of harassing her on the directions of the state government, Maneka said she was stopped in Ghaziabad, "there was a written order for not allowing me to enter Bareilly... no reason was given".
"Only when I said that I would raise the issue before the Lok Sabha Speaker, we were allowed to reach here," she told reporters. "There are ten police jeeps to prevent me (from entering Bareilly)."
She claimed that tension between two communities was not the reason behind communal riots in Bareilly. "Poor law and order situation in UP is responsible for communal riots."
Referring to cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, she alleged that while the person responsible for incting clashes was released, the district magistrate and SSP, who were working honestly and diligently, were removed without delay.
"Khan, who flared the riots, was released and no action was taken against those, who defied curfew and staged demonstrations at several places," the BJP MP alleged.
Maneka alleged that while those, who torched shops and houses were released, her supporters were still in jail for burning an effigy.
"Why members of a particular community came out with weapons on Holi. Such things do not happen without cause, people were provoked to do so," she alleged.
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