Seven long months have passed since the communal riots took place in Muzaffarnagar when thousands had to runaway from their homes/villages and take shelter in the makeshift camps and in between had to brave a severe winter that took away lives of hundreds of kids and old persons among the victims. In addition to the loss of home and employment the victims had to battle on many other fronts, face insecurity, regular attack on women folk, scarcity of essentials and not the last one but the most dangerous one had to face the calamity of the changing weather.
Intermittent showers through Wednesday resulted in puddles across camps, breeding mosquitoes and flies. Toilets and sewers overflowed and cooking was near impossible. And the water seeped through tents, sending its occupants into a frenzy as they tried to keep themselves and their belongings dry.
After battling severe cold and disease for six months, now it is turn of fight with rain,which made the camps dangerous to live.
Gulshaad Choudhary, a coordinator of the camps, said,“The conditions at these camps worsens during rains. We were given a few blankets and solar lights by some organisations for the winter. But now everything has changed,and the state government and the political leaders too busy in fighting and campaigning for their election.”
Sarif Ahmed, 75, a resident of the Nurpur camp, has been complaining of cough for over three months but was prescribed just a cough syrup. “I have had this cough for the past three months along with severe chest congestion. This medicine hasn’t really helped me so far,” .
Gulshaad Choudhary said, “Doctors are supposed to visit all the relief camps and stay for an hour. But their irregular visits have made health care a major problem. Also,there is a limited supply of medicines from the government and most people get the same basic medicines for their ailments,” .
Tabassum, another survivor, said “We have been living in this condition where we do not have food to eat, clothes to wear and not even a toilet to relieve ourselves. No politician from our constituency has cared to come and listen to our problems. We would have voted for the candidate who would have worked to rehabilitate us. Since there is no one, our vote goes to no one,”.
INDIA HONEST is more worried to observe that though the so called secular parties including Congress or Samajwadi or BSP arguing, blaming and fighting for protection and care of the minorities on the election rallies or on media, but no one is doing any thing on real terms.
It may be genuinely assumed that this may have forced, the often blamed as communal leader, BJP's Narendra modi to hit out on the SP government on the issue of communal violence,asking the SP chief Mulayam Singh to explain as to why so many riots had taken place in UP. and he further alleged them for misleading the minority people under the veil of secularism to hide their failures.
The Supreme Court in its verdict has squarely blamed the state government led by Samajwadi party led by Mulayam and son Akhilesh Singh in their failure to work on the lead given by the Congress Home Minsister Shinde, that tension is growing in that area after the village incident and the subsequent Mahapanchayat.
Why the political leaders did not act on time ? Were they more interested in happening of riots than to stop it just to polarise one section of minorities in the name of protection ? It seems to be playing in that way only, that first create trouble then take sides.
After judging all this, the question grows loud "How long the minorities will be cheated and tortured by the so called Secular to fulfil their nasty vote bank politics" ? The people must learn lessons and punish the culprit politicians in this election.