LUCKNOW: The reported demographic shift in the communally sensitive Sambhal municipal area of western Uttar Pradesh, as mentioned in the judicial panel’s report on the November 2024 violence, has sparked a political storm in the state.
Right-wing outfits and the ruling BJP have attributed the change to the ‘appeasement politics’ pursued by previous regimes, including those led by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress.
It may be recalled that the three-member Judicial Commission, headed by Allahabad High Court Judge Justice (Retd) Devendra Kumar Arora and comprising retired IAS officer Amit Mohan and retired IPS officer Arvind Kumar Jain, had on Thursday submitted its 450-page report on the reasons behind the violence that rocked Sambhal city on November 24, 2024. The incident resulted in the loss of five lives and left scores injured, including police personnel.
The violence erupted following a local court order directing a survey of Shahi Jama Masjid while hearing petitions claiming that the mosque was built by demolishing the Harihar temple in 1529 during the reign of a Mughal ruler.
In its probe report, the Judicial Commission stated that the Hindu population in the district had declined from 45 per cent in 1947 to just 15 per cent at present, while the Muslim population had increased from 55 per cent to 85 per cent during the same period.
Following the submission of the report, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) staged a demonstration in the state capital on Friday and burnt an effigy of SP MP from Sambhal, Zia-ur-Rehman Burq, blaming him for engineering the violence in the town.
The BJP also joined the debate, alleging that the ‘appeasement politics’ pursued by successive governments in the past was responsible for the alleged ‘demographic change’ in Sambhal.
“Sambhal has a history of communal flare-ups… the Hindus had to leave the place as they did not feel safe there… as the then dispensations failed to provide them any protection,” a senior BJP leader said.
However, the Samajwadi Party rejected the allegations, claiming that the BJP government wanted to divert people’s attention from real issues and its failures by raising such matters.
Reacting to the contents of the report, UP Congress chief Ajai Rai said it was a confidential document, but its contents were out in the public domain for discussions. “It is a tactic of the ruling party to divert attention from the important issues to create a wedge in society,” he added.
Similarly, senior Muslim cleric Maulana Shabuddin Rizvi of Bareilly rejected the report, suggesting that Hindus might have left Sambhal in search of better prospects. “The Hindus may have shifted elsewhere to provide better education to their children and in search of employment,” he added.
Meanwhile, UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said the Opposition could not ignore the fact that demographic change was a “bitter truth”. He expressed confidence that the state government would come out with a policy to not only stop the exodus of a community but also bring back those who had left because of what he termed a “planned conspiracy against Hindus”.