Azam Khan hits back at Opposition over foreign tour issue

, Jan 13: With a 17-member delegation including UP ministers on a foreign tour drawing the ire of the Opposition and media at a time when Muzaffarnagar riot victims are suffering,

leader

today hit back saying that he was being targeted because he belonged to a minority community.

Khan castigated the media for being pawns at the hands of BJP and Narendra Modi alleging that "anti-Muslim media" is not able to digest a Muslim minister leading such a delegation and so is levelling baseless charges, according to a statement issued here.

He claimed that the aim of the BJP was to weaken him, the minority community and Samajwadi Party. Khan said that media had not indulged in such criticism even when crores of Rupees were spent on the Commonwealth Games and alleged that electronic media had run paid news for increasing their TRPs.

Eight ministers in Akhilesh Yadav Cabinet, who are part of a 17-member government delegation that also included some legislators, yesterday embarked on the 20-day-long tour of the UK, Turkey, Netherlands, Greece and the UAE to study Parliamentary techniques in those countries.

Both BJP and Congress had criticised the UP government for sponsoring the tour instead of utilising the same amount for relief and rehabilitation of the Muzaffarnagar riot victims.

PTI