Hindu migration reported in UP's Kairana, BJP vows 'action' after probe

Allahabad: Political temperature over reports of migration of Hindus from Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh is all set to rise in the run-up to the next year's Assembly polls with BJP today terming it as "not good" for democracy and promising "proper action" after probe by a party team into the "very sensitive matter".

A day after BJP chief Amit Shah expressed serious concern over "migration" from Kairana area in Shamli district, which had witnessed communal riots in 2013, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said his party has taken up the issue with all seriousness.

"Party President has set up a committee, which will go there and study the situation. Such a migration is not good for democracy. The party is sensitive about it and proper steps will be taken after the report comes," Gadkari told reporters on the second day of BJP National Executive meeting here.

The seven-member committee consist of four MPs and three leaders from Uttar Pradesh.

Gadkari, a former BJP President, parried a question about the Samajwadi Party government's assertion that many Hindus had migrated from Kairana long back and some of them are now already dead, saying the BJP President has already reacted to this matter.

"The party is sensitive on this issue and will take proper action," was his repeated refrain.

Shah, in his address to the National Executive yesterday had said, "The migration happening in Kairana due to violence is a matter of serious concern. There is an atmosphere of violence. The lack of development and the lack of governance in the largest state of India, that is Uttar Pradesh, is becoming a matter of serious concern."

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who had briefed media about Shah's speech, faced a barrage of questions on whether the saffron party was attempting at "communal polarisation" with Shah raking up issues like migration of Hindus from Kairana.

Rejecting the contention, he had insisted that BJP's "foremost commitment" is to the development of UP but the SP government's "law and order failures" be in Mathura or Kairana were a matter of deep concern. "We don't speak about communalism but about national interest."