The victims of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots have demanded an apology from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for its report on the alleged “exodus” of Hindu families from Kairana town in Uttar Pradesh. They have also demanded immediate withdrawal of the report.
“The NHRC had never bothered to talk to us once in these three years. Now, it has produced a report in which it is painting us as criminals,” said Shauqat Ali who had fled his village in 2013 when his family was attacked and settled in Kairana.
Citing 24 unnamed witnesses, the report, released on September 21, 2016, stated: “Youths of the specific majority community [Muslims] in Kairana town pass lewd/taunting remarks against the females of the minority community...”
At a media interaction in New Delhi, activist Farah Naqvi said: “How can a body like the NHRC indulge in such communal stereotyping of the kind used to create tension and stoke riots? Its report is not based on facts. Instead of investigating the living conditions of the riot victims, it is branding them as criminals...” The report said the resettlement of 25,000-30,000 Muslims in 2013 had changed the demography of Kairana in favour of Muslims, leading to the “Muslim community becoming the more dominating and majority community.”
Human rights activist Harsh Mander contested these claims. He said Kairana had already been a Muslim-majority town, with 80 per cent of the residents being Muslims, as per the 2011 census. “For quite some time, the NHRC has been passive in the face of increasing communal atrocities. But this report suggests it has now become an active participant in spreading communal disharmony. It is setting a dangerous precedent of giving a communal colour to law and order problems. It ill befits a statutory body to produce such a report,” he said.
The Shami-based activist Akram Chaudhury of Afkar India said: “It is untrue that 25,000 Muslims have resettled in Kairana after the riots. Only 270 families, or at the most 2,000 Muslims, have moved here. How can the addition of 2,000 Muslims to an already Muslim majority of 80,000 change the demography?”
Pointing out that the NHRC had never used the word ‘exodus’ to refer to the 70,000 internally displaced persons of Muzaffarnagar, Ms. Naqvi said: “It is strange that the NHRC gives credence to rumour-mongering by calling the fictitious departure of 346 people an “exodus”. It must apologise to the Muzaffarnagar riot victims and withdraw this mischievous report.”
