Kairana: Another Secular Blunder of BJP

Kairana, a city in Shamli district of UP, was almost unknown to everyone in the country except to the people who are fond of music from Kirana gharana. Hukum Singh, BJP MP from Kairana, issued a list of 346 Hindus family claiming that these families have been forced to leave Kairana due to growing terror and deteriorating law and order condition in Kairana. However, he also claimed that only Hindus families have been forced to leave and there is a religious angle involved in this. Similar the incidents of changing demographics in some districts of West Bengal, Assam, and Kerala due to the exponential rise in Muslim population coupled with increase in crime against the Hindus, this incident came as no surprise. The events which unfolded after this revelation were no different from the previous issues concerning the persecution of Hindus.

Indian media, mostly secular, declared it immediately that BJP was giving communal colour to a law and order issue and there is no religious angle involved as they have always done in history when Hindus faced persecution by Muslims. Indian Express and Times of India started to build a counter narrative by saying that Muslim families have also migrated from Kairana and people have been doing so for better future prospects as well as worsening law and order conditions. Indian media has successfully shunned many such issues by building such counter narrative which has little to do with the truth to sabotage the real issue. However, when there is an incident of petty theft in a church in Delhi, the same media is quick to give the religious angle and blaming the entire community of Hindus for a petty theft. At any scale, exodus of 346 families is a severe issue and any sane media would have waited for the official investigation report to declare what’s the truth. The state government of UP which is famous for their secularism also followed the same rhetoric that BJP is playing the politics of communalism to score brownie points for the assembly election of 2017.

The most surprising part or rather unfortunate part about this entire saga was lukewarm response from BJP and inactivity of home minister. People’s perception regarding BJP is that it works in the interest of Hindus and it was expected that BJP will hold the ground. However, the hypocrisy of BJP became evident after the couple of days only. Hukum Singh issued a new list of families and reversed his stance to claim that it’s about crime only which has nothing to do with Hindu-Muslim issue. It was apparent that either BJP top leadership coerced him to change his stance or he was lying in the beginning itself. The issue of such gravity needed a prompt action from Home Ministry even if it was in the form of forming an investigation committee or visit of Rajnath Singh. But no activity by home ministry was observed. To show that BJP does care about Hindus, it formed an investigation committee of BJP MPs to probe into the matter as if they’re still in opposition without any access of government machinery or BJP MPs are better in conducting investigation as compared to the government machinery. In reality, it was a hog wash only to show the fake concern and care.

BJP leaders either succumbed to the narrative of media or showed its real face as their leaders started talking about the issue. Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said today, “Kairana migration would not be a main issue in UP polls. It is a law and order problem. The party would contest the election on the development plank.” Another BJP MP from Mujaffarnagar and Union minister, Sanjeev Balyan said today, “You all must have seen that there is a law and order issue in the state. It’s better to look at from that angle. As per my information, it is not only Hindus, there has been some migration of Muslims also.” Interesting thing is that he said all these without visiting Kairana. Rajnath Singh played another defensive stroke to say that the state government will look into it to take the action needed. It’s clear now that this is the official stance of BJP is that it’s a law and order problem. There is no difference between the secular narrative and narrative of BJP now as both of them claiming almost the same thing.

To cure a problem, correct diagnosis of that problem is essential. To cure cancer, form of cancer must be known. What BJP is doing is that it’s neglecting the cause and focusing on effect only. It’s almost unanimous that 90% of families which have migrated from Kairana are Hindus. Official report from any credible source other than DM of Shamli is yet to come. Then why is BJP adamant to undermine an issue which is directly concerned with Hindus? When all the criminals are Muslims, their most of the crimes are directed towards Hindus, the only thing which it indicates is that there is religious angle involved in this. The crimes are religiously motivated. The issue which had the potential to disrupt UP election, BJP simply let it go away by subscribing to the secular narrative. This incident is the testimony of BJP’s concern for Hindu issues. When Venkaiah is in self congratulatory mode for sending two Muslims into Rajyasabha to prove its secular credentials, this issue is languishing. Wrong identification of any problem is similar to denying the problem altogether. When the narrative change is needed, BJP is continuing with the secular narrative to fool Hindus.

If BJP continues the same approach towards such kind of Hindus, then Hindus must look for alternative options. If there is no alternative then alternative ought to be built. In similar way, BJP will also say that persecution of Hindus in West Bengal, Kerala, and Assam are law and order issues only. And it will appear like a law and order issue indeed because nobody is mentioning the source of this deteriorating law and order. The devlopment rhetoric of BJP will remain a rhetoric only if it keeps compromising with the internal securities. When the interest of elites differ from the interests of majority people, a society collapses. Unfortunately, same thing is happening with Hindus. BJP gets votes on the name of Hindutva, the elites of BJP forget the interest of people, indulge themselves in Nehruvian style of secularism and leave the issues related to Hindus. This continues in loop and Hindus are still trying to extract some meaning out of it.