“not a single meat shop should be seen in the area.”
Nandkishore Gurjar, referring to Muslim butchers in the town of Loni
By Akhlad Khan – Twitter: @BawaNaaved
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has returned to power in Uttar Pradesh state with a thumping majority. Meanwhile, Nandkishore Gurjar, who was re-elected a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Loni Assembly constituency of district Ghaziabad, has come into the limelight for his fanatic statements. This time Nandkishore Gurjar, referring to Muslim butchers, warned the officials. He has said that the officials of Loni should understand that not a single meat shop should be seen in the area. Ram Raj (Hindu doctrine) is needed in Loni, so eat milk and ghee (oil) and hold a penal meeting. Earlier, during the election campaign, Nandkishore Gurjar had come under controversies due to his statements.
In January, during an election campaign in Baheta Hajipur village of Loni, he had said that those who take Ali’s (Caliph Ali ibn Abi talib) name should go to Pakistan. He made a shocking claim that the Political Samajwadi Party (SP) has links with the resistance organization Hizbul Mujahideen. Gurjar had given a controversial statement that, ‘Those who take the name of Ali will have to leave Loni… After this election, there will be complete Ramrajya (Hindu state) in Loni.’ He further claimed that SP is a “Pakistani party”. When asked about his statement, he said that I have no remorse for my statement.
“THOSE WHO TAKE ALI’S (CALIPH ALI IBN ABI TALIB) NAME SHOULD GO TO PAKISTAN.”
Nandkishore Gurjar during an election campaign in Baheta Hajipur village in Loni, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh state
In March 2017, the BJP-led government under Adityanath came to power in Uttar Pradesh. According to meat traders in Loni, most of whom are Muslim, they’ve been at the receiving end of the administration ever since.
Leading the charge is Nand Kishor Gurjar, the BJP MLA from Ghaziabad’s Loni constituency, which covers western Uttar Pradesh although technically the area comes under the national capital region. Getting the mandated licence to run a meat shop has become so challenging that Jabir had to approach the high court twice – but to no avail.
On July 18, 2019, Brajesh Singh, the district president of the CPIM party, wrote a letter to the district magistrate and police commissioner of Ghaziabad, flagging Gurjar’s behaviour.
“Since July 15, 2019, at the behest of local MLA, police have been threatening hotel and dhaba (restaurant) owners thus, forcing them to shut down,” Singh wrote. The hotel and dhaba owners had promised not to serve meat during the annual Kanwar yatra (Hindu religious rally), Singh added, but the police were pressuring them to close their establishments entirely.
Similar Islamophobic incidents were reported on March 10, the day when the BJP Government swayed its flags in Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections attaining the majority of seats. As soon as the BJP government was formed, Ayush Tyagi, the district president of a Hindu Organization in Ghaziabad ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’, came out of his office addressing the workers. Tyagi announced to remove the loudspeakers from the mosques while making indecent remarks on Muslims. He threatened that either Muslim themselves remove the loudspeakers from their mosques, otherwise the people of Hindu Yuva Vahini will pull them down.
The matter at once hiked and a huge controversy erupted in the area, the police taking cognisance had filed a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
