By Haider Abbas
BJP strode to power, by politicizing the issue of Hindu Brahmin ‘exodus’ from Kashmir, during all these years and latest around the so-called ‘exodus’ of Hindus in 2016, (that wasn’t) from Kandhla , UP, towards which again the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on his visit to Saharanpur, UP on December 2, referred ( without naming), in a sheer replica of the rhetoric once attuned by his party MP Hukum Singh ( now deceased). Hukum Singh had then furnished a list of Hindus to have left Kandhla (out of fear of Muslims), whereas, the fact is that the list had names who were ‘staying’ and also of those long dead. Falsehood is what BJP thrives on. But, what comes stark on the face is when UP BJP CM Ajay Singh Bisht, own hometown Gorakhpur, is confronted by a Hindu Brahmin, extolling to leave Gorakhpur so as to ‘save-his-life’ while the best champion of the purported Hindu rights looks-the-other way!
The issue is of Mahendra Nath Shukla, an Upper Caste Hindu Brahmin, from Gorakhpur, whose son was brutally killed a few days back, and now the bereaved father is getting-threats, which is making him to contemplate a forced-exodus, as UP CM police, according to Shukla ‘is of no use’. This comes all the while as AS Bisht portrays as to how ‘law-and-order’ has been put to order in UP (sic). The irony, however, is that whenever AS Bisht is questioned on ‘law-and-order’, he answers in terms of Ram Temple construction and on unemployment, of course, the pat reply is Hindu-Muslim permutations.
The hapless father, while talking to media, which of course has not found even an iota of reference of BJP centric media, may be found saying that he has put a notice on his house, the like of which ironically was shown on probably every media house in 2016, that out of fear of criminals he is selling his house, for the constant ‘death-threats’ he is facing! Shukla has accuses, Avdhesh Sahani, to have entered his house, on June 14, with the intention to steal, was caught by house-inmates and beaten and left, and a few days later, his son Ankur Shukla lay dead. Imagine, if a Hindu might have accused a Muslim criminal-a beeline of bulldozers were to have been sent and the whole family/locality was to have been ‘brought-to-senses’. Criminals are criminals but the saga of one-eyed-approach’ of AS Bisht government towards annihilating Muslim criminals is a constant story of the last five years.
How power drenched is AS Bisht, despite facing the hardest anti-incumbency wave, came out into open yet another time, when on November 29, BJP Minister of State Vibhrat Chand Kaushik , tried to show ‘some-proximity’ on stage in Gorakhpur, and was scolded instead and asked to sit back, as it was not the appropriate time! The video is now viral on social-media but no-where on mainstream media, as understood, while Kaushik is putting-up a sorry figure.
How pathetic is AS Bisht towards what may be called a very-well-known face in Gorakhpur, that too in whole public gaze, is something to ponder as to how his conduct must have been towards his other cabinet mates? As Kaushik has been Secretary and President of Student Union of Gorakhpur University, and is right now Vice Chairman of UP State Youth Welfare Council apart from been long associated with ‘teachers-community issues’. He is no doubt one of the most influential faces of BJP in the Gorakhpur region. Perhaps, the apathy of AS Bisht who was made to ‘walk-on-tarmac’ while BJP PM Modi Narendra Modi sat in this car, is a culture of BJP, where the sub-ordinate is forced to ‘gulp-the-cup-of-ignominy’ made gets downsized in public glare!
Meanwhile, the doom, the leaking of UPTET paper in UP, on November 28, must have brought to the toiling 2.1 million students, just cannot be assuaged as it will have deadly far-wrecking effects on the careers of student statewide, while AS Bisht had announced ‘with fanfare’ that those guilty of leaking the paper would be put under Gangster Act, and Anup Rai Prasad was soon caught as the kingpin on December 1, but now the whole BJP government has gone into a muted-mode, as Anup Rai Prasad has turned out to be the real-brother of BJP MLA Rashmi Verma from Bihar! The whole issue now is the affair of BJP in-house establishment! Can we now expect a Gangster Act action, or would it be shelved as the culprits do not happen to be Muslims! Or else BJP was to have branded it as a new ‘Pariksha-Jehad’ conceived by Muslims to usurp India of its future.
In yet another feature of our Indian society, it has occurred that around 6 lakh Indians have renounced their Indian passport and sought citizenship abroad, since 2017, according to the report of published in IndiaToday on November 30. This flies in the face of PM Modi who ridiculed the past governments, for their in-efficacy, to have forced Indians not-to-have-confidence in being Indian, but what now?
The news assumes significance as Modi and his party has taken-to the citizenship baton, aimed at Muslims, who are to be forced to produce-their documents for ‘their citizenship’ to continue or else are to be pushed-into concentration-camps, which is what is the essence of CAA/NRC/NPR, and this whip is still to crack on every Muslim inside the country, whereas, the fact is that India has scaled worst on the Global Hunger Index with 101/116 rank worldwide in 2021. Last year it was on rank number 94.
So much so as to how Modi government has fared in the last eight years!
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The writer is a former UP State Information Commissioner and a political analyst.
Bjp thrives on hate and falsehood
False!