Kasganj clash: Another UP official deletes Facebook post

MEERUT: Close on the heels of Bareilly DM Raghvendra Vikram Singh questioning the “trend” of raising anti-Pakistan slogans in Muslim localities by some people, another senior district official in neighbouring Saharanpur triggered a row with her Facebook post on Kasganj clashes.
Rashme Varun, deputy director (statistics) of Saharanpur, removed her Facebook post on Saturday after it drew flak.
One person, Chandan Gupta, was killed and two others were injured after clashes broke out between two groups in Kasganj district following an unauthorised bike rally organised to mark the Republic Day.
Last week, deputy director Rashme Varun took to the Facebook and alleged that Kasganj-like Tiranga rally was also taken out before the Dalit-Thakur clashes in Saharanpur.
“Toh yeh thi Kasganj ki Tiranga rally. Koi nayi baat nahin hai yeh. Ambedkar Jayanti par Saharanpur mein bhi aisi hi rally nikali gayi thi. Jisme se Ambedkar gayab they, ya ye kahiye bhagwa rang mein vileen ho gaye they. Kasganj mein bhi yahi hua. Jo ladka maara gaya use kisi dusre teesre samudaaye ne nahi maara, use kesari, safed aur hare rang ki aad lekar bhagwa ne khud maara (So, this was Kasganj’s tiranga rally. It is not a new thing. On Ambedkar Jayanti, in Saharanpur, a similar rally was taken out on Dudhli Road in which Ambedkar was missing, or should I say that he got immersed in saffron colour. This is what happened in Kasganj also. The boy was killed not by any second or third community, but by saffron, in the guise of tricolor),” read the Facebook post of Varun.
She took down the post after scathing attacks.
“It was an unintentional mistake to have used the word ‘bhagwa’. But what I meant was that when firing takes place in a crowd, anyone can get hit by it and die. Initially, my post was hardly seen by four or five persons, it was only after a local daily published it that the matter became big. Since so many people got offended, it was better to take down the post,” Varun told TOI.
After the clashes, in a stinging post on his Facebook page, Bareilly DM had asked why it has become a “trend” for some to first “enter Muslim localities by force, raise anti-Pakistan slogans and then create ruckus.” His post drew severe criticism on social media.