आजम को हाईकोर्ट का नोटिस, मुजफ्फरनगर में फिर तनाव

मुजफ्फरनगर: यूपी के मुज़फ्फरनगर के नई मंडी इलाके में बुधवार देर शाम दूकान से घर लौट रहे एक सैलून चलाने वाले की बाइक सवार कुछ लोगों ने गोली मारकर हत्या कर दी.

इलाके में घटना के बाद से तनाव है और अलग से पुलिस फोर्स तैनात की गई है. हाल ही में मुजफ्फरनगर में हुई हिंसा में 62 लोगों की मौत हुई और हजारों लोग बेघर हो गए.

जस्टिस सिरियक जोसफ की अध्यक्षता में राष्ट्रीय मानवाधिकार आयोग की एक टीम आज दंगा प्रभावित मुज़फ्फरनगर और शामली का दौरा करेगी. ये टीम राज्य सरकार के राहत और पुनर्वास के कामों का भी जायजा लेगी.

आजम को हाईकोर्ट का नोटिस

मुजफ्फऱनगर दंगा केस में इलाहाबाद हाईकोर्ट ने यूपी के शहरी विकास मंत्री आजम खान को नोटिस जारी कर तीन हफ्ते में जवाब मांगा है. दंगों में लापरवाही बरतने के आऱोप में निलंबित पुलिस वालों की अर्जी पर आजम के खिलाफ नोटिस जारी हुआ है.

इलाहाबाद हाईकोर्ट ने मुजफ्फरनगर जिले में उस थाने के प्रभारी के निलंबन पर रोक लगा दी है जहां से दो युवकों की हत्या के सात आरोपियों की रिहाई के बाद सांप्रदायिक हिंसा भड़की थी.

इसके साथ ही हाईकोर्ट ने इन आरोपियों की रिहाई के लिए कथित तौर पर दबाव बनाने के मामले में उत्तर प्रदेश के कैबिनेट मंत्री आजम खान को नोटिस जारी किया.

न्यायमूर्ति सुधीर अग्रवाल ने फुगाना के थाना प्रभारी ओम वीर सिंह सिरोही के निलंबन पर रोग लगा दी और खान से कहा कि वह नोटिस मिलने के 10 दिनों के भीतर अपना हलफनामा दायर करें. राज्य सरकार से दो सप्ताह के भीतर जवाब देने के लिए कहा गया है.

याचिकाकर्ता का कहना था कि दो युवकों की हत्या के मामले में बीते 28 अगस्त को सात आरोपियों को गिरफ्तार करके फुगाना थाने में लाया गया था, ‘लेकिन आजम खान के दबाव के कारण उन्हें तत्काल रिहा कर दिया गया.’

Third front candidate will be next Prime Minister: Mulayam Singh

New Delhi: Samajwadi Pary chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today said a third front will come into power after the elections next year, as neither the Congress nor the BJP would win enough seats to form a government.

"The third front's candidate will be the next Prime Minister of the country," Mr Yadav said today, speaking to the media, once again raising the possibility of a third front, a grouping of non-Congress and non-BJP parties that been seen as a failed experiment even by its own leaders.

 Mr Yadav said he was working with CPI-M leader Prakash Karat to put together a third front, but said it was not possible before the elections due by May.

"The third front formation is not possible now, as differences can crop up among parties on ticket distribution and seat sharing," admitted the Samajwadi Party chief, who had met Mr Karat recently.

All political parties of the proposed alliance would contest polls on their own strength, he said, and then get together after the election.

Mulayam Singh said he had been invited to a meeting on October 30 to discuss a joint fight against 'communal forces', but refused to reveal names of other parties who would participate.

The BJP dismissed Mulayam Singh's comments as old hat.

"These third and fourth front talks are like expired poll chocolates, it is raised every time during elections," said BJP's Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. He added that these fronts 'are full of Prime Ministerial candidates."

The Samajwadi Party, which rules India's largest state Uttar Pradesh, props up the minority Manmohan Singh government.

Akhilesh Yadav: Govt decisions on ordinance for convicted MPs with eye on elections

Lucknow: As the ruling Congress backtracked on a controversial ordinance to protected convicted lawmakers, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav slammed what it called decisions taken with an eye on elections due in May.

"The manner in which the ordinance was brought and is now being hurriedly withdrawn, shows that decisions are being taken keeping elections in mind. Because of the elections all ruling political parties are in a hurry," said Mr Yadav, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The ordinance, which seeks to circumvent a Supreme Court order disqualifying convicted lawmakers by allowing them to stay on while a high court hears their appeal, is expected to be formally abandoned at a cabinet meeting this evening.

While Akhilesh Yadav was circumspect in his response to the government's retreat, a leader of his Samajwadi party warned that withdrawing the ordinance would be 'dangerous for democracy" and said the PM must decide whether his own position was higher than that of his party.

"If the ordinance is taken back, it will prove that in this country an individual is bigger, not the government," said Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Aggarwal, in an apparent reference to Rahul Gandhi, whose public denouncement of the ordinance as 'nonsense' set off a chain of events leading up to the expected withdrawal of the controversial measure.

"We support the ordinance because one can appeal to higher courts," said Mr Aggarwal, "why should leaders lose their seat only on the lower court's judgement?"

The SP leader questioned why the government was ignoring its own allies, "just because Rahul Gandhi had decided."

The Samajwadi Party, whose 22 MPs prop up Manmohan Singh's minority government, has been a capricious ally in recent times, criticizing the government on a range of issues while coming to its aid during voting on crucial measures in Parliament.

Akhilesh Yadav has said that the party will take a formal stand on the ordinance controversy in a meeting of its parliamentary board headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav.