India - Slow ethnic cleansing: In 2015 BJP councillor locked out Muslim family's home, openly incited a mob against them, forced them to move out in Moradabad, UP

The Hindu

BJP councillor locks out Muslim family in Moradabad

Mohammad Ali

Meerut: June 19, 2015 03:12 IST

Parveen pressured to move away from Hindu neighbourbood. 

 

A Muslim family that had recently bought a house in a Hindu neighbourhood in the Katghar area of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, has decided to sell the property after the local BJP councillor locked them out of their own premises on Wednesday night. The councillor also tried to incite a mob against the family.
The incident comes just weeks after two youths in Mumbai were refused a job and a house respectively for being Muslim.
BJP councillor Vidyasharan Sharma, a Hindu hardliner, locked the house of Shahana Parveen with locks of his own and announced that he would not allow any Muslim family to stay in a Brahman neighbourhood of the city.
When Ms. Parveen and her family reached their house on Wednesday night, they saw an extra lock on the door. When she sought to ask her new neighbours, she saw the mob being egged on by the BJP leaders.
“When we tried asking from the neighbours what was going on, we saw Sharma with a mob. He told us that we being Muslims could not stay in a Hindu area. Now we have decided to sell the house and vacate it as soon as possible,” Ms Parveen told The Hindu on phone.
“We will soon shift to the nearby Muslim locality of Maqbara. We do not want to stay against people's wishes in their area,” said the distressed owner.
When the police reached the spot, Mr Sharma categorically told the policemen that “whatever be the case, Muslims can’t stay here. Brahmin families live in the locality and under no circumstances we will allow a Muslim family to live in between them.”
When The Hindu contacted Mr Sharma for his reaction, he denied however doing anything illegal.
In a video of the entire episode, widely circulated on Whatsapp, other social media platforms and also broadcast on local news channels, Mr Sharma is heard speaking about Muslims in a manner which is unlawful.
Ms Parveen bought the house from Shashi Prabha on June 11. Ms. Prabha, the previous owner told The Hindu that she had found it difficult to sell the house for last two years as the BJP councillor had warned her against selling the house to non-Hindus.
“We have been trying to sell the house but we were not getting any buyers. Sharma had warned us not to sell the house to any non-Hindus,” she said.

Though Ms Parveen has complained to the police against Mr Sharma, she has decided to sell and move as she does not want to live “with the threats”.