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Journalism of Courage
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 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.
