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Log inAmid Modi’s Centrist Shift, an Aide With a Turbulent Past Rises
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Amid Modi’s Centrist Shift, an Aide With a Turbulent Past Rises
by confuzzled dude Sat Jul 05, 2014 10:47 pm
MUZAFFARNAGAR, India — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new junior minister for agriculture, Sanjeev Balyan, is a first-time officeholder famous for precisely one thing: After two Hindu men were killed in an altercation with Muslims in his district last summer, he rallied crowds of angry young men from his caste, urging them to protect their own kind.
At the time, the police listed Dr. Balyan, a veterinarian, as one of 14 politicians who addressed a crowd that was armed with bamboo clubs and sticks. Their report summarizes the politicians’ message in blunt terms. “Wherever we will find people belonging to the Muslim community, by killing them, we will get our revenge,” the report says.
A week later, mobs of armed Hindu men descended on local villages, leaving around 60 people, mostly Muslims, dead and prompting tens of thousands of Muslims to flee their homes. Dr. Balyan, who had been jailed before the violence, was charged with incitement.
...
They set fire to the mosque and Muslims scattered, some taking shelter on their roofs and others plunging into sugarcane fields. As Muslims fled the village, “We saw body parts lying about,” said Mohammad Shahid, 29. Eight men and one woman were killed in that one village, residents said, listing out the names.
Indramani Tripathi, a top civil official in Muzaffarnagar, said, “I have never seen anything like it, and I hope and pray I never see such a situation again.”
None of the village’s Muslims have returned to their homes. Though Hindus from Qutba occasionally pass through the new Muslim settlement, they do not stop, and the two groups regard each other with cold distrust, braced for new violence. Mohammad Jafar Siddiqui, 32, grimaced when asked about Dr. Balyan’s new post. “For his role in shedding the blood of innocents,” he said, “he was rewarded with a ministership.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/world/asia/amid-modis-centrist-shift-an-aide-with-a-turbulent-past-rises.html?_r=0
At the time, the police listed Dr. Balyan, a veterinarian, as one of 14 politicians who addressed a crowd that was armed with bamboo clubs and sticks. Their report summarizes the politicians’ message in blunt terms. “Wherever we will find people belonging to the Muslim community, by killing them, we will get our revenge,” the report says.
A week later, mobs of armed Hindu men descended on local villages, leaving around 60 people, mostly Muslims, dead and prompting tens of thousands of Muslims to flee their homes. Dr. Balyan, who had been jailed before the violence, was charged with incitement.
...
They set fire to the mosque and Muslims scattered, some taking shelter on their roofs and others plunging into sugarcane fields. As Muslims fled the village, “We saw body parts lying about,” said Mohammad Shahid, 29. Eight men and one woman were killed in that one village, residents said, listing out the names.
Indramani Tripathi, a top civil official in Muzaffarnagar, said, “I have never seen anything like it, and I hope and pray I never see such a situation again.”
None of the village’s Muslims have returned to their homes. Though Hindus from Qutba occasionally pass through the new Muslim settlement, they do not stop, and the two groups regard each other with cold distrust, braced for new violence. Mohammad Jafar Siddiqui, 32, grimaced when asked about Dr. Balyan’s new post. “For his role in shedding the blood of innocents,” he said, “he was rewarded with a ministership.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/world/asia/amid-modis-centrist-shift-an-aide-with-a-turbulent-past-rises.html?_r=0
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Join date : 2011-05-08
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