The stodgy locks on the doors of empty Hindu homes in Kairana town in Western Uttar Pradesh are finally being opened, after the Adityanath government took over in lucknow on March 19. Two of the Hindu families, among several who had fled town earlier from Muslim-dominated Kairana following threats and extortion by local criminals, have returned to town.
“It’s a symbolic process which has just begun. Two families have returned and I see it as a positive development that will pave the way for others to return. More Hindu families want to come back home now because they are confident that there will be lasting peace in their hometown now. They are those and who had fled the town due to reign of terror let loose by goons patronized by the previous Samajwadi party government,” Hukum Singh, BJP MP, said. His daughter Mriganka Singh, who contested as BJP candidate from the Kairana assembly seat, lost the election in March 2017.
Hukum Singh, BJP MP from Kairana in June 2016, created a stir in UP politics by alleging at the time that Kairana had become the “new Kashmir” and that 345 Hindu families had fled town following threats to their life and property by local criminals from the Muslim community.
later, the National Human Rights Commission had validated the charge levelled by the BJP MP in September 2016. The human rights panel had confirmed that 250 Hindu families had fled the town during the last several years. The then Samajwadi Party government had vehemently denied the charges and had deputed two Hindu religious leaders Acharya Chakrapani of Hindu Mahasabha and Acharya Pramod Krishna on a fact-finding mission. The two leaders in their report to the Samajwadi Party led state government had rubbished the charges levelled by the BJP MP.
“I have resumed my sanitary goods business in the town after borrowing money from my friends and relatives. I feel secure now and the whole town has heaved a sigh of relief after the change of government in lucknow. But the district administration needs to do more for strengthening the atmosphere of security so that more people can regain confidence and return to their homes’’, said Manish Kansal, hometown boy who returned to Kairana in the last week of March.
Manish said the recent arrest of the dreaded criminal Furkan by the police — he had threatened a local businessman for ‘rangdari’ of Rs 2 lakh after the BJP government took over in lucknow — has added to the sense of security of the Hindu community in Kairana town.
Rahul Garg, who had moved home to the neighbouring Saharanpur district, said, “I had a shop for building materials. Now, I am preparing to set up a textile and garment business in Kairana. I appeal the district administration to do more to instil confidence and sense of security in Hindu community so that more people could return to the town.” This is one case, it seems, where two swallows are set to make a bright summer in the once petrified Kairana.