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Yogi to meet Kairana residents who returned after ‘exodus’, SP slams CM
Shamli superintendent of police Sukirti Madhav Mishra confirmed all of it but said the precise number of people attending the meeting the CM is not known.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) has called Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s proposed meeting on Monday in Shamli district with a group of people who had left Kairana town in 2016 and later returned “an attempt to communalise the atmosphere in western UP ahead of 2022 assembly elections”.
The CM is supposed to lay the foundation stones of a Provincial Armed Constabulary battalion camp and other projects in Kairana and address a public meeting there apart from meeting the group of people.
Shamli superintendent of police Sukirti Madhav Mishra confirmed all of it but said the precise number of people attending the meeting the CM is not known.
Alleging that the Yogi Adityanath government did nothing for the development of Kairana, SP leader Sudhir Pawar, who belongs to Shamli district, said, “They are now playing the exodus card again to polarise voters based on religion to get political mileage.”
Pawar claimed that the then Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament, Hukum Singh, had raised the issue of exodus but had later admitted that there was no Hindu vs Muslim angle. The UP government then was run by the SP with Akhilesh Yadav as chief minister.
The SP leader further claimed that the then Union minister of state for home, Hansraj Aheer, had said in Parliament that no such issue existed in western UP. He said that during his recent visit to Kairana, SP president Akhilesh Yadav announced to set up a university for girls and an industrial zone there. “Instead of talking about issues of real development, they are raising an issue which never existed,” Pawar alleged.
Hukum Singh had in June 2016 claimed that close to 350 Hindus had left Kairana over alleged threats and extortion by criminal elements belonging to a particular community. Later, Kairana police had claimed that a spot verification of 150 addresses of the list revealed several reasons for the migration, including better business and job prospects.
The then ruling Samajwadi Party government had sent a delegation under Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam to verify the charges. Later, the BJP had also sent a delegation of their MPs and leaders to enquire about the issue.
HT spoke with Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam on this over the phone. “People had least grievances against one other. They wanted stern action against criminals,” Krishnam said while expressing dismay that the then government didn’t initiate any action on the recommendations of his delegation’s report.
The trader community of Kairana, too, had at that time claimed that the reign of terror unleashed by dreaded criminal Mukim Kala and his gang was one of the major reasons for many traders relocating.
Kala struck terror in Kairana by killing two businessmen in August 2014 after they refused to pay him extortion money. Before that incident, another businessman was shot dead in broad daylight allegedly by members of another gang run by one Furkan. Later, Kala was arrested and lodged in Chitrakoot jail where he was allegedly shot dead in May this year by another inmate when a gang war broke out inside the jail.
BJP’s western UP president Mohit Beniwal accused Samajwadi Party of ‘ appeasement and said that is why they see everything from that point of view. He said, “Kairana and Kandhla were known for extortion, fear and reign of terror which compelled many traders and peace loving people to left the town during rule of Samajwadi party. The situation has turned in past four and a half year rule of Yogi government and improvement in law and order situation has helped people to return and carry on their trades and businesses in a fearless atmosphere.”
