Modis welcome party

By parading riot-accused MLAs in UP,BJP confirms it uses hate for the Hindu vote.

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Modis welcome party

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By parading riot-accused MLAs in UP,BJP confirms it uses hate for the Hindu vote.

The BJP professes that it opposed a bill in Parliament to temper a Supreme Court judgment disqualifying convicted legislators,and it will probably pass off its felicitation of MLAs charged for crimes including hate speech by arguing that they have not yet been convicted. It makes little difference. Because the honouring of Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana at Narendra Modis Agra rally is more than a display of hypocrisy. It is an affront more serious than doing different from what one preaches. By parading two MLAs charged in connection with communal violence in nearby Muzaffarnagar,never mind that they left the stage before Modis arrival,the BJP has validated suspicions about its interest in keeping tensions simmering,and its stake in a communally polarised campaign. This is irresponsible politics that calls into question its electoral mobilisation under the blanket call for development.

The spectacle tells the incriminating story. Before Modis arrival,on stage to receive the MLAs from the Shamli-Meerut belt also seized by communal tension after the Jat mahapanchayat of September 7,which heralded days of violence and forced displacement was the whos who of the BJPs Uttar Pradesh unit. Kalraj Mishra,Lalji Tandon,Vinay Katiyar,Rameshwar Chaurasia,Kalyan Singh and Modis man on the ground,Amit Shah. The MLAs are charged under various sections of the IPC,including those related to promoting communal enmity. Som is also booked under the Information Technology Act on charges of misrepresenting a video uploaded on a social networking site. These men,charged with promoting trouble,were honoured for ensuring the safety of Hindus.

The violence in Muzaffarnagar is the most serious communal trouble to have visited Uttar Pradesh since the post-Babri riots. On the ground,it poses unique challenges of how to return safely displaced persons,an overwhelming number of whom are Muslim,to their abandoned homes. In fact,the sobering realisation is that return may not be possible,at least for the time being. For the Samajwadi Party,itself under a cloud for fishing in divisive waters,the felicitation should be a warning to put its administration on alert. All is not right in Uttar Pradesh.