Now, Hukum brings out list of ‘Hindu exodus’ from Kandhala
Undaunted by his criticism for raising the issue of Hindu families’ exodus from Kairana, BJP MP Hukum Singh on Tuesday released a list of 63 families of neighbouring Kandhala town, alleging that they migrated to other places in the past three years because of fear “aroused from growing population of Muslims.”
Kandhala, 12 km from Kairana, is another Muslimdominated town of Shamli district.
Hukum said there were at least three occasions when thousands of Muslims came out on the streets over some issue and attacked trains, set police stations on fire, damaged vehicles and jammed roads, which compelled other communities to look for safer places for their children and families.
The new list includes shopkeepers, farmers, professionals and others – all Hindus.
“There were more than 100 families but I released a list of only those who contacted me and narrated their reason for migration,” said Hukum, who claimed that not a single town in western UP was worth of living as those living there felt unsafe.
He declared that soon he would release a list of families who have been migrated from different towns because of growing fear due to dominance of a particular community and their acts of terrorising people.
He said teams sent for verification of my list on Kairana exodus were terrorizing people and directing them to give statements to defy my claims
“The entire government machinery was being misused to twist the matter to prove me wrong,” he said and challenged the outcome of the verification drive, which claims that none of the families had migrated due to fear.
“I stand by the list I released,” he said, clarifying that party
MEERUT:
workers had prepared the list after door-to-door visits and collecting inputs about the migrated families.
He asked whether the SP and other officials ever contacted migrated families to bring them back, and advised the police and administration to work for instilling sense of security among people instead of pleasing their political bosses.
KAIRANA: Senior BJP leader and MP from Kairana Hukum Singh has created a political storm by raising the issue of Hindus exodus from Muslimdominated Kairana town in district Shamli of Western UP. He compared it with the exodus of Pandits from Kashmir and said the law and order had deteriorated to its lowest point in the town with criminals ruling the roost. Hukum spoke to Hindustan Times on the issue. Following are excerpts of the interview.
What is the issue and how and when it came to your knowledge.
Kairana is a town which has experienced a drastic change in ratio of population in the past few decades. It is now dominated by Muslims and, for past few years, people approached me with complaints of deteriorating law and order and frequent demands of extortion money by different criminal gangs. When they refused to fulfill their demands, the criminals killed a few people in broad daylight and the police did nothing to nail the criminals. As a result many families migrated from here, especially in the past three years in search of a safe place.
You released a list of 346 families which migrated from here in the past few years and your rivals are criticising you for not mentioning the names of Muslims who also have moved out.
My party workers prepared the list on the basis of door-todoor survey . I came to know about the family of Naushad, who migrated from here after receiving a ransom demand of Rs 10 lakh from a gang. He refused to pay the money and opted to go away, leaving his house of worth Rs 2 crore behind. If there were other Muslims who left because out of fear, I am ready to release their list too.
Rivals say that you have raised the issue for extracting political benefit in view of the assembly elections in 2017.
They may think in their own way, but how they can ignore the naked fact of exodus. Moreover, I am in politics for over 40 years, elected MLA seven times, remained minister for 12 years and now an MP only because of politics. Doing politics is not a sin. Those who are saying such things don’t know that I have been raising the issue since 2013 and my misinformed opponents, only to get themselves highlighted in the media, are misleading the people.
Questions have been raised on the credibility of your list after verification by district authorities, who claim that people have moved out in search of jobs and other reasons. Besides, a few families mentioned in the list, still live in Kairana.
That is what officials are doing on the direction of the state government. They have been adopting everything possible ploy to prove my list and claims wrong. Teams of civil officials and police are visiting door-to-door for spot verification and mounting pressure on people to issue statements to prove the list wrong. They are even planting fake persons before the media. I still stand by my list and challenge the their verification. They are government’s employee and will say what the government wants.
What is your demand?
It’s not a communal issue but a serious law and order problem. The state government should ensure infusing a sense of security among the people and direct their officials to nail the criminals. SP and other officials should work to instil confidence among people, instead of pleasing their political bosses by trying to contradict my list through the so-called verification drive.
Is there any political patronage to criminals? Who are behind them?
Yes, they can’t be so fearless without having political patronage. Police have been acting as puppets, therefore, they not able to take effective actions against the criminals. The local leaders of the ruling party and the family of MLA Naved Hasan are giving patronage to the criminals.