Back in 2014, I had an unfortunate tryst with the CBI. The case in question was that of my uncle, who had been robbed of all his money and other possessions when he was about to board a bus for someplace else. Almost murdering him, the men escaped during the night, leaving no immediate trail for the police to act upon. Given the money robbed belonged to the business my uncle was running, each employee was questioned. A month later, when even the sharpest officers in the city were starting to give up, the culprits were held because of their own stupidity. Apparently, the entire operation had been planned by a man my uncle heavily trusted, was looking to work with in the future, and was an employee in his business. Alongside, he was also a migrant from Bangladesh.
When I first came across the news from Mahagun society in Noida of a maid stealing money, and then playing the victim card, I wasn’t shocked or perplexed, for I had lived the entire scenario for a month. Gain trust, steal, and then blame your employers, this tactic employed by the maid wasn’t uncommon, for we often read about it in the newspapers, given how a particular section of the society likes to project itself as the victims.
As the Syrian conflict tells us, it is difficult to be a migrant. However, it is harder is to be a migrant and search for a livelihood in a nation alien to yours. For many Bangladeshi refugees, the journey from their own country to India was made easy, thanks to the generosity of the current West Bengal CM. In India, most of them were able to find jobs, much like the maid in Mahagun society. Even though menial in nature, these jobs were enough to sustain their livelihood, and yet, it wasn’t good enough for them.
The population of Noida, and of cities similar to Noida, comprises of the mango people, the real Aam-Aadmi (not to be confused with the fake coughing one with a muffler and a cap). These are people who work from 9-6, are often found stuck in traffic and EMIs, have to fight it out hard to break even at the end of the month, and often, want nothing more than a decent life. They are not concerned about Brexit, or how GST will help the GDP, for they usually don’t have the time to understand it. The residents of Mahagun society were no different, and the family in question here could be anyone’s, your or mine. Imagine one morning you wake up to the noise of goons, outside your door, threatening your life, your wife’s dignity, and your child’s life, only because you made the mistake of trusting a migrant looking to make her ends meet.
If the residents of Mahagun society are to be believed, the presence of the private guards is what saved their society from the thousand odd rioters that had gathered. Stone-pelting, rioting, and continuous threats from these goons metaphorically held the society at gun-point, forcing them to call a meeting, where they collectively agreed to no longer employ any Bangladeshi migrants, most of them living in the vicinity of their society in shanties built on illegally occupied land. Had the residents not acted in time, the family in question could have been slaughtered, because a Muslim maid can’t be held accountable if she steals. However, what the goons conveniently forgot is that they were no longer living in an Uttar Pradesh governed by SP, and Yogi Adityanath is no Akhilesh Yadav.
Less than a week after the incident, the shanties housing the same migrants who rioted outside the Mahagun society were routed, and for good. Leftist Newspapers carried out opinionated pieces about how the demolition was about class-bias and not legalities. Turns out, one of these entities uses images of burning Twin Towers from 9/11 to showcase environmental pollution (so much for credibility). However, they were not alone, for all liberal mouthpieces made the demolition of the shanties more about Muslims being targeted than anything else. For them, the maid was beaten up, locked inside the house, and was not at fault, and thus the demolition was another act of Hindu dictatorship in the most populous state of India under Yogi Adityanath.
This is not about generalization or blaming a specific community. However, why is that every time a terrorist attack occurs, or a Muslim is held accountable for theft or murder, appeasement comes into play? From Haj travelers who are given all the facilities to Kanwar Yatra travelers who manage without any extravagant grants and were recently attacked, our nation has grown hollow in the name of secularism.
Thus, the demolition of these shanties belonging to the Bangladeshi Goons who rioted outside Mahagun society was no act of vengeance by Yogi Adityanath, but that of warning.
If one wants peace, they’ll have peace, opportunities, and a livelihood too, but if they want to pick up stones and riot, justice will be served, in a manner that is both swift and necessary. This is UP, not Kashmir.
Liberals are all teary-eyed about people losing their homes in the demolition, not being able to run tea-shops, or having their children exposed to the harsh weather. Are the residents of Mahagun society responsible for this hapless situation of their migrants? Apparently, not. Is Yogi Adityanath responsible for the distress that the migrants driven out of their shanties now suffer? Definitely, not.
The residents of Mahagun society, like my uncle, did what any kind-hearted mango Indian would do. They helped a migrant, a financially weakened person in need. However, when such kindness is answered with robbery, an attempt to murder, or the presence of thousand odd goons looking to attack a residential place like a rampaging river, there is no room left for any appeasement or secularism. If Yogi Adityanath can take a stand against real-estate developers for not helping people with their homes on time, he shouldn’t be singled out for acting against a group of self-proclaimed ‘peaceful and victimized’ goons looking to act against the civil order.
What happened in Mahagun society could happen in your society, sector, or colony tomorrow. Even if one assumes that the maid was forgiven and let go, there was no assurance of it not happening ever again in some other home of Mahagun society or with any person looking to run his business.
The maid, when she stole the money from that house in Mahagun society, was a criminal, and should have been singled out, as the employers had requested to the police. However, when those thousand odd migrants gathered to threat a family, they all became criminals, and given the scheme of things, the demolished shanties were as good as a parking ticket.
The pressing question, however, remains that how many more incidents like the one in Mahagun society are we going to witness before the government in power starts acting against illegal Bangladeshi migrants?