Meerut: The citizens of Meerut’s Prahlad Nagar don’t understand what to make of the hullaballoo currently surrounding their small locality dotted employing antique houses and rotting drains. In an ultimate couple of weeks, some countrywide media have descended on the location after a neighborhood BJP leader alleged that 125 Hindu families had been forced to migrate because of incidents of robbery, ‘eve-teasing’ and bike stunts via anti-social elements of a “positive community,” purportedly relating to Muslims.
Bhavesh Mehta’s extensively-suggested criticism, lodged on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s NaMo app on eleven June, also said that Muslims are buying the houses at throwaway charges. Social media has been up in the palms too. Local citizens and police provide many reasons Hindu households have left or plan to go to Prahlad Nagar. None of them characterized Muslims as the antagonist.
Fear of ‘deserted temples’.
When ThePrint visited Bhavesh Mehta’s house, his spouse began teaching a Muslim female in the living room. For Mehta, his fears of Hindu migration are very actual. However, he persisted that the ‘Hindu-Muslim’ color hi,s grievance was the media’s. “I just complained approximately the growing ‘eve teasing’ and robbery in the place. I did now not supply it the color of Hindu-Muslim. It is given via the media. I am concerned that if Hindus sell their house like this, what will occur to 10 temples in this vicinity? I will not be capable of seeing the deserted temples,” said Mehta.
Approximately 12 temples and gurudwaras are within the place, claim nearby Hindu agencies. “There have been instances of air firing here. You cannot go and inform the students now not to journey motorcycles at excessive velocity, whether or not it’s a Hindu boy or a Muslim boy; it’s miles police’s activity,” stated Suresh, a shopkeeper in the place’s fundamental market. Jitendra Pawa, a neighborhood councilor associated with BJP, said he doesn’t realize who those anti-social elements are; however, they “are getting into in our locality.”
“We want the authorities to take strict actions in opposition to them. We need CCTV cameras to be installed in the entire Prahlad Nagar. Yogi (Adityanath) Ji has handled law and order very gracefully. It is simply the lower-stage officers who are not cooperating,” stated Pawa. “There is not any Hindu-Muslin attitude here.”
Why the migration
Prahlad Nagar’s citizens, a refugee colony of Hindus from Pakistan, say families who have moved out did so due to better possibilities elsewhere or to shifting to newer and higher settlements. “Some have gone to other towns for their jobs; a few left their houses because they shifted to new city colonies, and others sold their homes because they’re well off. Who might need to stay in this locality?” requested a 70-year-antique lady who didn’t desire to be diagnosed.
“People go away the old elderly parents at the back of. Similarly, vintage houses have become orphans like old parents.” But she agreed that Meerut is facing a dire scenario as away as women’s safety is concerned. “It has ended up hell for younger women—the whole of Meerut. You can’t step out of the doors of your house. They spare none,” she stated. Two Muslim women, her neighbors, who stood after her inside the old, dilapidated residence on one of Prahlad Nagar’s many dirty lanes, agreed wholeheartedly.
Anju, a forty-12 months-antique girl who lives on any other avenue, is selling a residence, and she does say that it’s out of worry for her daughters. “I am selling this house because I have grown-up daughters. There is lots of ‘eve teasing’ here. I want to move out to an excellent locality,” stated Anju. The predominant street, which goes thru Prahlad Nagar through Islamabad Mohalla — a Muslim-dominated locality after it — opens on Hapur Road. This street has become a headache for the locals. According to residents, the girls are “eve-teased” by outsiders, and bike stunts are a trend. There have even been debates approximately installing a gate wherein both localities converge.
