Kairana: Is the real issue being buried beneath ‘communal’ bogey?

New Delhi: The shocking exodus of hundreds of families from Kairana town in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh has once again put the focus back on a region that has remained divided ever since the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013.
While there is no denying that people of a particular community – Hindus – indeed have left Kairana, the political debate over the issue now centers around the reason for the exodus.
BJP MP from Kairana, Hukum Singh, who had released a list of people who have left the town insists that the issue is not communal but one of law and order.
On the allegations that he is communalising the issue, Singh said, “The word Hindu has not been mentioned in the list; it contains names of people.”
To the allegations that the list has names of people who left the town years back or of people long dead, Singh said that he accepts that there may be some discrepancies in the list as it has been prepared by local BJP workers and is “not official”.
However, his political opponents have accused him of trying to create a communal divide ahead of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
The ruling Samajwadi Party – which has been under fire over the law and order situation in the state – dismissed the entire issue as a political conspiracy cooked up by the BJP.
Party leaders insist that those who have left have done so only with the intent of migrating to other places in search of livelihood. And that the migration has taken place not suddenly but over a decade or more.
The BJP has rubbished the suggestion and blamed the SP of patronising criminals who are terrorising Hindus of the town.