In UP’s Kairana, an exodus that wasn’t

Shahira Naim

The Kairana episode is a good example to illustrate the distinction between the Hindutva and Hindu.

The saffron Hindutva family led by the BJP and its frontal organisations raised the issue of the mass exodus of Hindus from Kairana and Kandhla in Shamli districts, even comparing it to the exodus of Hindus from Kashmir.

Led by Kairana MP Hukum Singh, the Hindu exodus theory received wide media attention when it was highlighted by BJP national president Amit Shah at the BJP national executive in Allahabad. As BJP leader repeated it, Home Minister Rajnath Singh sought a report from the Akhilesh Yadav government. MP Yogi Aditaynath alleged the exodus was the result of “pseudo-secularism” policy of appeasement of the SP government. 

Sardana (Meerut) MLA Sangeet Som, an accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots, even took out a Nirbhay padyatra from Meerut to Kairana demanding the return of the migrant Hindus. The yatra was stopped by the state government. However, Som has served a 15-day ultimatum to the state government to ensure that “people who’ve been forced to migrate from Kairana are brought back within that time.

The well orchestrated tirade blamed the alleged harassment of criminals belonging to the Muslim community for the exodus. The rising Hindutva hysteria over Kairana is a political move aimed at disturbing the communal harmony of the state ahead of the 2017 assembly elections.

The BJP expects it to result in religious polarisation for specific electoral purposes much on the lines of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots bringing in a bouquet of 72 of the 80 seats in UP for the party in 2014 general elections. 

Despite being seriously countered by a section of the media, Shamli district administration reports and many parties, including the SP, BSP and the Congress, the BJP outburst continues.

BJP state president Keshav Prasad Maurya has even declared to step up the campaign by identifying similar list of Hindu migrants leaving due to the alleged harassment of Muslims in the rest of UP, especially the Muslim-dominated districts of western UP.

The media throwing up facts contrary to the Hindu exodus theory refuses to cut ice with the Hindutva brigade. A door-to-door verification by the district administration established that only three out of the 346 people had moved following threats.

It has now emerged that besides the bogus list, the BJP leaders had extensively used a fake photograph claiming “yeh makaan bikau hai (This house is for sale)” to support their argument that Hindus were forced to sell their homes to leave the village. 

The photo that went viral is of the house of businessman Gaurav Jain of Kandhla. He has written a letter to Shamli district magistrate Sujeet Kumar to take action against those who defaced his house.

This Ghaziabad-based businessman has filed a complaint alleging that his family had unnecessarily been dragged into the “exodus” controversy by unidentified people who had even put up his house “on sale.”

Contrary to the claims of the Hindutva brigade is the conclusion drawn by a five-member team of Hindu religious saints led by Acharya Pramod Krishnan. Terming the exodus theory a “dangerous conspiracy” aimed at polarising Hindus votes in poll-bound UP, the 13-page report of the team of Hindu seers is demanding strict action against the guilty.