Violence was also reported in neighbouring Nagina and Ferozepur Jhirka towns, and spilled over to Gurugram, where a cleric was killed in a late-night attack on a mosque.
Speaking to ThePrint a day after the purported video of the Nuh CID inspector surfaced, Vij said he asked additional chief secretary (ACS, Home Department) T.V.S.N. Prasad to conduct a thorough probe into what information the CID inspector had purportedly shared, with whom and what action was taken by the person who received this information.
“The question is not only whether he (the CID inspector) shared inputs or not. It is also important whether his inputs said what eventually happened in Nuh on 31 July. I have told the ACS (Home) to probe whether the CID inspector knew that the Yatra will be attacked with firearms. If he actually shared these inputs what did the person who received the input do while acting upon the information and what preventive action did he or she take? All these aspects will be looked into in the inquiry,” said the Haryana minister.
The state home minister added he had first received information of the Nuh violence from the organisers of Braj Mandal Yatra, who also sought police help to rescue people trapped in the temple. It was then that he talked to senior police officers and sent additional force to Nuh.
ThePrint also reached Prasad over phone and WhatsApp messages for comment on the video but received no response till the time of publication of this report. The article will be updated once a response is received.
The purported video of the CID inspector’s claims has meanwhile given ammunition to opposition parties to train their guns at the Khattar government.
While Congress leader and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda alleged the “BJP-JJP government’s lackadaisical attitude” had created “circumstances where the social fabric of the society has been affected”, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MP Abhay Singh Chautala questioned the government’s right to remain in power and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) tagged the Khattar government as “directionless”.
Also read: Nuh violence got India’s attention, but Mewat wasn’t always communal
‘Lackadaisical attitude’, ‘directionless govt’
“It has now been proved that the state government had the inputs that the situation in Nuh was volatile before the Yatra by the Vishva Hindu Parishad. It is the first duty of any government to maintain law and order in the state and provide safety and security to its people. However, the BJP-JJP government failed in this completely,” Hooda alleged Monday.
The senior Congress leader further said that had the government taken the inputs provided to it seriously, the loss of life and property of people could have been saved.
“Mewat [area of which Nuh is a part] in Haryana is an area that has always been seen as an example across the country for its communal harmony. But the BJP-JJP government’s lackadaisical attitude has created circumstances where the social fabric of the society has been affected,” claimed the former Haryana CM.
Similar allegations were voiced by INLD’s Ellenabad MLA, Chautala, who said the BJP-JJP government didn’t have the right to remain in power after causing such a huge loss to the lives and properties of people owing to its “criminal negligence”.
Echoing Hooda, Chautala said Nuh district had always been known for its peace and communal harmony, but alleged the Khattar government had inflicted a huge injury on the people of that district by its actions and inactions.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s state campaign head, Ashok Tanwar, meanwhile branded the BJP-JJP government in Haryana as being completely directionless.
“How this government functions can be gauged from the fact that its home minister doesn’t get any inputs from the CID. The Nuh CID inspector’s video in which he said he had given prior inputs to the government on the possibility of communal tension during the Yatra once again proves that the government is unable to provide governance and maintain law and order in the state,” Tanwar claimed.
He further alleged that even after the incident, the government was persecuting poor residents of Nuh by demolishing their houses and shops, a reference to demolitions of alleged illegal constructions by the government.
“We are thankful to the Punjab and Haryana High Court for providing relief to poor people by staying the demolitions,” the AAP leader added.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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