Moradabad Temple row: At ground zero, unease over political heat

27, Jul 2014

Source URL: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/moradabad-temple-row-at-ground-zero-unease-over-political-heat/

Written by Aniruddha Ghosal | Moradabad | July 27, 2014 10:50 am
BJP MLAs Lokendra (Noorpur) and Suresh Rana (Shamli) reached the Kanth police station where their FIR was received.
A heavy deployment of policemen along the national highways and other routes leading to Moradabad prevented political leaders, from both the BJP and the Congress, from holding their rallies over the July 4 violence in the Kanth area of Moradabad.
The violence had taken place after the police had prevented a mahapanchayat to take place over the removal of loudspeaker from a local temple by the district administration.
On Saturday, the BJP had planned to carry a “protest rally” while the Congress had planned to counter it with a “peace march”. However, with political temperature rising and communal harmony frayed, those sitting inside the temple, which is at the heart of the controversy, said such “politics” had convoluted the issue.