Discussions in western Uttar Pradesh (UP) veer around the extent to which the BJP’s campaign propaganda will go to polarize a fractured electorate; affected by factors around caste and community. The forthcoming state elections are key to the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)’s credibility at the centre, dogged as it is by accusations of authoritarian and majoritarian functioning.
 
Any discussion of bahujan, pichda and ati-pichda politics foregrounds issues of deprivation, denials, structural –both social and economic. The moment, however, that the politics of “othering” pre-dominates, and the Hindu-Muslim divide surfaces in the discourse, perceptions shift that even impact on equations and therefore, votes. Then, the BJP and RSS feels, it is sure to play the winning card.
 
So which card will the saffron party finally throw into the ring?
 
Mid-July this year, after the party’s National Executive Meet at the historic city of Allahabad, the clarion call was sounded by the party president Amit Shah (disproved within days) of the ‘Hindu exodus from Kairana’. ‘Do you want such an exodus’ Shah had demanded, little aware that within days these false claims by the BJP MP Hukum Singh would stand discredited.
 
Shopping for poll planks that do the trick for the party that was humiliated in Bihar and Delhi before that, are other undercurrents can be felt around the districts of western and Uttar Pradesh. Hindu-Muslim or multiple caste assertion and affirmation?
 
Within this, hovers the ghost of triple talaq and Uniform Civil Code deviously collapsed into a bait for the misogynist sections among the minorities by a central government dominated by the RSS. Doubts and questions are being raised and a counter progressive questioning within mosques and localities, led by women and progressive Muslim males and the clergy is slowly beginning, also in Uttar Pradesh.
 
Today, three months after Shah’s controversial remarks on Hukum Singh’s claims, key BJP campaigners, Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah appear to be re-positioning the ‘Kairana exodus’ card.The Indian Express reported today that ‘as the BJP’s Parivartan Yatra rolled into communally sensitive western Uttar Pradesh, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh raised the pitch Monday, saying the “self-respect of mothers and sisters is being looted” in the region. He said if the BJP is voted to power in the state, it will act against “those using muscle power to terrorise people… hum dekhenge ki usne kitna ma ka doodh piya hai”. The video can be heard here.
 
Though silent on the Kairana exodus, the veiled threat was to criminals, and by extension, if the I’s were dotted and ts crossed, to Muslims. Last week, on October 27, Amit Shah’s controversial speech had harked back to the Kalyan Singh’s rule in Uttar Pradesh. He had also condemned the law and order situation in UP associating the same only with leaders with Muslim names—the underlying message, that all criminals are Muslims.

 
Kairana Background
A visit by a team of Hindu seers within days visited Kairana to probe allegations by BJP MP Hukum Singh that 346 Hindu families had fled the small town due to persecution. Swami Chakrapani, one of the five seers who visited Kairana, slammed BJP for playing the "communal card". Swami Chakrapani, president of Akhil Bharatiya Sant Mahasabha, told TOI that Hindus and Muslims alike had been worried about rising crime there.
 
On September 21, the NHRC released the findings of their investigations in Kairana. The investigation was conducted based on a complaint on the alleged “exodus” of Hindu families from the town because of increasing crime. The NHRC report has claimed that the allegations are “serious” and that several Hindu families “migrated” from Kairana because of the “increase in crime” and “deterioration” of the law-and-order situation after victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots settled there. This ‘report’ of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was roundly condemned by activists and even the National Minorities Commission.

There was countrywide condemnation of this report.

A fact-finding team from the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) that visited Kairana on Monday has questioned the recent report of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) which claimed that there had been an “exodus” of Hindu families from the area out of fear of some Muslims, reports the Times of India."We met some local families and spoke to the local administration. We found that there was no evidence to suggest there had been an exodus of any kind. I don't wish to comment on the NHRC report too much, but some of the findings seem baseless," the NCM team, led by member-in-charge for Uttar Pradesh Farida Abdullah Khan told the Times of India.
 
Last month, an NHRC report had validated the allegation made earlier by the BJP MP from the area, Hukum Singh that 250 Hindu families were forced to move out of Kairana in Shamli district of UP out of fear. "At least 24 witnesses stated that the youths of the specific majority community (Muslims in this case) in Kairana town pass lewd/taunting remarks against the females of the specific minority community in town," the report stated. From mid July through September, the party pushed this card even pushing the National Human Rights Commission to file a report that was condemned for its unprofessionalism.

The post The Myth of the Kairana Exodus: On and Off the BJP’s Poll Plank in UP appeared first on SabrangIndia.

(R-L) Shaukat Ali, Riyaaz Ali, Harsh Mander, Farah Naqvi and Akram Chaudhury at the press conference in Delhi

New Delhi: Expressing their anger and dismay at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report on Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, civil society activists and people displaced by the Muzaffarnagar riots demanded that the “partisan and prejudiced” report be recalled.

On September 21, the NHRC released the findings of their investigations in Kairana. The investigation was conducted based on a complaint on the alleged “exodus” of Hindu families from the town because of increasing crime. The NHRC report has claimed that the allegations are “serious” and that several Hindu families “migrated” from Kairana because of the “increase in crime” and “deterioration” of the law-and-order situation after victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots settled there.

The issue was first brought up by BJP MP Hukum Singh, who said 346 Hindu families had left because of people from “one particular community”. This claim was denied by the state government and the list of families provided by him was found by several media investigations to be false .

The matter was also raised at the national executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in July.

Activist Farah Naqvi, who has been working with people displaced by the Muzaffarnagar riots since 2013, said at a press conference organised in Delhi that the report was nothing more that “communal rumour-mongering”.

The report said that “at least 24 witnesses stated that the youths of the specific majority community (Muslims) in Kairana town pass lewd/taunting remarks against the females of the specific minority community in Kairana town. Due to this, females of the specific minority community (Hindus) in Kairana town avoid going outside frequently. However, they could not gather courage to report the matter to the police for the legal action.
”

It adds: “In 2013, the post-rehabilitation scenario resulting in resettlement of about 25/30 thousand members of Muslims Community in Kairana Town from district Muzaffarnagar, UP, the demography of Kairana town has changed in favour of the Muslim Community becoming the more dominating and majority community. Most of the witnesses examined and victims feel that the rehabilitation in 2013 has permanently changed the social situation in Kairana town and has led to further deterioration of law and order situation.”

“This report has provided no evidence for its claims at all,” Naqvi said. “While a declining law and order is a problem for all of us, how can they communalise criminality and blame it on a particular religion? This is not what we expect from our national human rights body. There are no facts, only ‘feelings’ they have gathered from a few people.”

“And who did they speak to?” she asked. “They did not approach any of the displaced persons and speak to them. Who are these 24 witnesses?”

Two riot victims who are now settled in Kairana, brothers Shaukat Ali and Rayeez Ali, also addressed the press conference. “Our village is two km from Shamli town. During the riots, we didn’t want to leave our home. But the mob entered our house and stabbed our father. He died. We were also badly beaten, but we managed to run away with our family,” Shaukat said.

“Two days later, after we had left the village, we were told that our father’s body has emerged in a pond. We went to the police in Shamli town, they said they didn’t have time that day. The next day when they finally went, the body had been removed,” he added.

“We spent two years in a relief camp,” Rayeez said. “And are now rebuilding our life in Kairana. That is our home now. Par kuch log badnam kar rahe hain (But some people are giving us a bad name). If there is really so much ‘crime’, where are the FIRs? We have been through all this and the NHRC has not been to see us once. Now they have come out with this report, it is very disappointing.”

“If you speak only to certain groups in a communally-charged area, they are bound to say things against another community,” activist Harsh Mander of Aman Biradri and the Centre for Equity Studies said. “What the NHRC should have done is provide facts – police cases, FIRs.”

Akram Chaudhury, an activist with Afkar India in Shamli who lives in Kairana, did some digging on the NHRC’s facts. The NHRC report has claimed that 25,000-30,000 Muslims have moved to Kairana town after the Muzaffarnagar riots. Chaudhury, after conducting a door-to-door survey in resettlement areas both last year and again after the NHRC numbers were announced, said it is not more than 2,000 people.

He has filed a complaint with the NHRC, asking that they recall the prejudiced report and issue a public statement about it.

“The number they have given, 25,000-30,000, is the total of displaced people there were in all camps after the riots. They definitely didn’t all go to Kairana, they are scattered across UP. Where did the NHRC get this number?” Mander said.

“And even if they were all there,” Naqvi added, “which is not the case, why would that be a problem? They are citizens of India who were displaced from there homes. Where should they go?”

The activists also raised questions on the changes in the NHRC and the loss of an institution.”The NHRC is the highest statutory body on human rights in the country,” said Madhavi Kuckreja of Sadbhavna Trust, an NGO working in UP. “Where do we take our concerns now? Which body will deal with the human rights insecurities that exist?”

“The NHRC used to be a trusted organisation that did excellent work,” Mander said, referring to the body’s efforts after the 2002 Gujarat riots. “But in the last few years they have been passive and quiet – and now they are speaking on the other side!”

Captain Praveen Davar, member of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), came to the event in his personal capacity. After hearing what the activists and riot victims had to say, he said that he would bring the matter up with the commission. He also asked the activists to file a formal complaint with the NCM.

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