Apparently to counteract what the BJP has been alleging about forced migration of Hindus fleeing Kairana in Uttar Pradesh under pressure from the Muslim community people there, Samajwadi Party of Dehradun district president Furkan Ahmad Qureshi claimed on Wednesday that members of the Muslim community in some areas of Dehradun district had shifted out of their localities fearing for their safety.
Averring that at least 33 families had left their villages for safer places elsewhere in the country so far, he lambasted the Congress for doing nothing to check such forcible migration of Muslim families.
“That the Congress boast of being the true champion of the cause of the Muslim community is a sham has been proved by what has been happening to the hapless Muslim community people in some parts of Dehradun district,” he said while addressing the media persons in the Capital.
He said that there were around 60 Muslim families in Miyawala area where Hindu is the dominant community. “Around 33 families in Miyawala have shifted out of their localities in fear for their safely over the past one year. The few left living there are living under the shadow of a fear of eviction,” he said. Quizzed whether they were migrating to other places for jobs as has been happening across the State, the district SP chief denied while averring that it had nothing to do with the normal process of migration for jobs. “Things are grim there. But the Congress government is supinely acquiescing the development. They fear Hindu backlash in case they step in to stop the process.
This is also a part of the Congress’s vote bank politics. The more insecure the Muslims are the heavier is their turnout in the election booths for them. This is a dangerous game. It must stop in no time and the state government should take measures to restore confidence in the scared minds of the Muslim people so as to ensure that those who have left return and those who are still living there live in peace and security,” the SP leader said.
Claiming that none except the Samajwadi Party addresses the problems the minority community faces, he said that they would not sit idle if the government keeps on indulging the anti-social elements, out to disturb the communal amity. “I attempted to reach these places to hear out their grievances several times. But the administration stopped me. But I am not one to give in to such communal posturing. I would again try to reach out to them,” Qureshi said.