Picking up the issue of an alleged exodus of Hindus from Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana before 2017, an issue that has been repeatedly debunked, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday, 22 January, began his door-to-door election campaign in western Uttar Pradesh, claiming an improvement in law and order in the state.
What’s more, in photos and videos posted on Shah’s Twitter handle, Shah along with other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders can be seen violating COVID guidelines and even the Election Commission's five-person limit on door-to-door campaigning given the third wave.
While Omicron has reached the community transmission stage, India on Sunday, reported 3,33,533 new COVID cases and a positivity rate of 17.78 percent.
Visuals show Shah and others, neither wearing face masks, nor maintaining social distancing. Shah can be seen greeting the public and even feeding sweets to children.
'Hindu Exodus' & Improved Security Claims
With slogans of 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' in the background, Shah can be seen distributing pamphlets and asking people to re-elect the BJP.
This was Shah’s first political programme in UP after the Assembly poll dates were announced.
BJP leaders have alleged that a large number of Hindus were forced to migrate from the area in view of threats during the Samajwadi Party (SP) rule.
There was an added claim that after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath came to power, the supposed migrants returned to their houses.
The then BJP lawmaker from the area, Hukum Singh, who had first made the exodus claim, had retracted his statements in an interview to NDTV in 2016.
Shah paid a visit to families whose members were allegedly forced to migrate and said in a tweet, “The people who were forced to leave their homes in Kairana due to the hooliganism and appeasement of the SP government, returned to their homes after the BJP government came to power.”
(With inputs from PTI and NDTV.)
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