On 3rd February 2018, Shri Hukum Singh, Member of Parliament from the Kairana Constituency in Uttar Pradesh breathed his last. A member of the Bharatiya Janta Party, he was 79 and is survived by his five daughters. He had been suffering from breathing problems and had been in the JP Hospital, Noida for over a month. Shri Hukum Singh was a law graduate from Allahabad University and had cleared PCS (J) exams in 1963. However, he found his calling in the Army which he joined as a Commissioned Officer after 1962 Indo-China war.
In the 1965 Pakistan war, he was posted in the Poonch and Rajouri sectors in Kashmir as a Captain. He then took voluntary retirement and started practicing Law in Muzaffarnagar in 1969. He entered active politics in 1971, was a seven-time MLA from UP and had been state minister under both BJP and Congress governments. Shri Singh had entered the Lok Sabha for the first time in 2014.
The son of a farmer, he understood and concerned himself with important issues pertaining to farmers, education and infrastructure. He had been an active parliamentarian, participated in more debates than the national average and put forward significant questions in the Parliament to bring attention towards problems affecting the people of his constituency. His demise has been condoled by the BJP top brass and the Chief Minister of UP, Shri Yogi Adityanath is on his way to attend the last rites of the now silent titan of the West UP.
Shri Hukum Singh had gathered much traction in the media when he became the first BJP leader to raise an alarm over the exodus of over 250 Hindu families from Kairana due to the continued harassment by the law-less elements belonging to the Muslim Community. Needless to say, his words were met with vehement denials, senseless rebuttals, and vile abuses. A major chunk of the national media and almost the entire opposition was in a complete denial of the exodus.
Like Ostriches with their head buried in the sand, they pretended that all was ok and ok they made us believe till a report of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) (available on its website) all but validated what Shri Hukum Singh had initially said.
The report prepared by NHRC found that over 250 Hindu families had indeed left the town due to fear of the members of a particular community. Several witnesses stated that the youths of the specific majority community (Muslims in this case) in Kairana town pass lewd/taunting remarks against the females of the specific minority community in town due to which, females of the specific minority community (Hindus) in Kairana town had to avoid going outside frequently. The fact-finding team confirmed the terror of the infamous Mukim Kala gang in the region. Moreover, the victims were intimidated and could not approach the law enforcement bodies for any action. The panel had also sought a report from UP chief secretary and DGP on the action they have taken on the findings and recommendations of its probe team – which were submitted to the state government for action.
The issue of Kairana is important because it brings to fore the very idea of parallel civilizations clashing in the 21st century. The demography in Kairana was altered by the resettlement of several Muslim Families from surrounding areas after the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. What happened in Kairana has been happening for quite some time now in the West Bengal and Assam. However, it is not a phenomenon unique to India. This is happening in Germany, in France, in Belgium, and in the United Kingdom.
Countries which allowed refugees to come from abroad in search of a better and safer life. However, the refugees brought along with the same dogmas and regressive ideology which had made their lives in their former states difficult. Migration and globalization are not wrong. It is not wrong to open your borders and lands for weary refugees. But it is wrong to turn a blind eye towards the radicalization and the lawlessness that these refugees may perpetrate. To solve a problem, we must first recognize that it exists. Political Correctness can destroy a state, a nation, and our whole world if we don’t start to decry it. Shri Hukum Singh was one of the rarest breeds of politically incorrect politicians that we need right now. With his death, his tribe has further shrunk.