On December 2012 Akhilesh government launched a scheme which was named ‘Humari Beti, Uska Kal’. Under this the government gave 30,000 Rs to 10th pass girls for further studies or marriage. Indeed for some reason beyond any logical comprehension this scheme was exclusively available for girls of Muslim Community.
Furthermore, in April 2013, SP government issued orders to withdraw cases against terror accused in another blatant and shameful attempt of minority appeasement. Gorkahpur serial blast accused Tariq Qasmi as well as five Bangladeshi citizens who were arrested with explosives were benefited by this order of SP government. Even before it Samajwadi government had also tried to free Varanasi Sankatmochan blast accused but had to fall back after High Courts stern rebuttal.
The prodigal son Akhilesh seemed to have been following only his father’s footsteps who is widely known for ordering shooting of Karsevaks in Ayodhya in 1990 which as per official records killed 16 unarmed citizens.
It is because of this reason that not many were surprised when Mulayam Singh Yadav said that ‘I will live for Muslims and die for them also’ on 16 January, 2017 while addressing SP workers at party quarters in Lucknow.
However it wasn’t just the father-son duo who kept flames of minority appeasement burning bright during five years of Samajwadi rule. During Muzaffarnagar riots Senior Samajwadi Minister Azam Khan was allegedly found to have directed police to go easy on miscreants. It wasn’t coincidental that from a state having 80% Hindu population, Azam Khan was chosen by Akhilesh Yadav to head Kumbh Mela Organization committee, held in Allahabad in 2013. He stepped down after a stampede that killed 36 people during the congregation.
These are just few examples of what pseudo-seculars had turned Uttar Pradesh into in last few years.
Police Stations of Uttar Pradesh had turned into Yadav Mahasabha Units. Memorandums from Chief Ministers office made sure that law and order authorities made utmost selective discretion while working on any complain. People from particular castes and religions were completely out of bounds from tied hands of state police. On the other hand use of brutal force on majority population was often encouraged and rewarded. Not many have forgotten how a Hindu sheer was brutally beaten in Varanasi while staging a sit-in for Ganesh Visarjan in 2015.
SP’s love for overt minority appeasement isn’t new. When Mulayam was UP CM in 2004 he had ordered all schools in Uttar Pradesh to give break for Friday namaaz. The decision was withdrawn after much criticism.
Probably the performance of SP despite such frivolous background of minority conciliation was the reason why BSP in these elections also decided to go down the same path. However this year the public of Uttar Pradesh had made up its mind to get rid of majority oppressions for once and for all. Champions of minority appeasement are today reduced to a state of existential crisis. BSP’s experiment of 100 Muslim candidates badly backfired and ensured one of its worst state-election performances in over two decades.
People of Uttar Pradesh outright rejected the minority appeasement politics of both SP and BSP and made sure the state witnesses a complete turnaround in terms of religious neutrality.
Recursive pseudo-liberal manifestation of secularism had pushed majority population to a suffocating corner in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Absolving, reformative and self-sacrificing attributes of India’s majority religion has never allowed it to become a vote bank herd. These traits for long started having adverse impacts in terms of political backlashes and partial treatment of majority population. However with arrival of ‘enough is enough’ moment for large number of electorates, certain misconceptions have changed for good.
Social cohesion cannot be and will never be achieved by tormenting the majority on the name of uplifting the minority. No matter what some of our political parties and their leaders think but appeasement is not a synonym of equality. If Uttar Pradesh today is being witness to an unprecedented saffron upsurge it is because erstwhile ruling politicians have made this big color-divide through their continuous anti-majority policies.
While moving between SP-BSP combination of devil and the deep sea, Uttar Pradesh has already lived through its worst days. Blue and green-red has severely destroyed cultural fabrics of the State. Only a saffron paste can now heal these wounds!