Blame game starts over exodus from UP’s Kairana town

Amid reports of an exodus of over 364 families from the Muslim-majority town Kairana in Shamli district of western Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party has slammed the UP government for its failure to tackle the ''deteriorating'' law and order situation in the state.

Targeting the Samajwadi party government, Union minister Maneka Gandhi said ''there will be a time when people will wish to leave UP. There is neither development nor safety here".

With polls to the state Assembly scheduled to be held early next year, the issue also resonated at the BJP's ongoing national executive meet in Allahabad on Sunday, with party president Amit Shah training his guns at the Akhilesh Yadav-led government for failing to maintain law and order in the region.

''The incident at Kairana where a large number of people are migrating is very unfortunate. The Mathura violence was also very unfortunate. The SP government has been unable to control the situation,'' Shah said.

Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party leader Tariq Anwar on Sunday cited television reports and said that the residents of the area have left due to lack of jobs.

A nine-member BJP team will visit Kairana on 15 June to investigate the issue.

Meanwhile, the UP government has already ordered a probe into the alleged migration after BJP MLA from Kairana Hukum Singh presented a list of 346 families from the Muslim-majority town, who he claimed had to leave their homes after attacks and extortion attempts.

Singh said, "The mass Hindu exodus in Uttar Pradesh's Kairana is not limited to the town and another list with more names will be released in the next few days.

"The local people have come to me ever since I made the list public, telling me the number is too small," he added.

The Congress and the ruling Samajwadi Party have charged the BJP with giving a communal colour to the issue with an eye on the Assembly election in the state.

"The people are indeed fed up with crime, but there is no religious angle to it," said Congress legislator from Shamli, Pankaj Malik.

"If the administration feels I am communalising the issue, let the police come out with a name of Muslim families leaving Kairana," Singh hit back. "I would suggest that chief minister Akhilesh Yadav ask the union home minister to send a central team to probe this matter, if he is so sure.''