A few days ago Amroha was in the eye of an unusual storm. The city hit the headlines after the sitting parliamentarian from Amroha Kunwar Danish Ali was showered with such unparliamentary abuse by a ruling party parliamentarian in the newly inaugurated Parliament that it made the country shut its ears in shame.
The language used by the offender sounded most shameful to all those aware of the way people address each other even on the streets of Amroha in ‘shusta zubaan’, or clean language that sounds like music to the ears. Amroha is still famous for its aesthetic sense and for the literary background of its residents.
Spirituality is the soul of Amroha. It is a legacy left by sufi mystics who have lived and died here and whose life has been a glowing example of how well-meaning human beings are able to transcend religious boundaries and together build a syncretic way of life based on mutual respect and bonding.
In Amroha people had taken the trouble to teach themselves to be constantly engaged in dialogue, and to accommodate into their own life what was mutually beneficial to the self and to others. Over centuries the community elders had ensured that the youth use proper language to have it say.
Poetry and literature were made to run in the blood of residents, till the entire town became one proud heir of an enviable heritage not to be found elsewhere.
Out of the refined environment of Amroha emerged the painter and poet Sadequain, poet Raees Amrohvi, Devendra Nagpal, Harish Nagpal, Maikal Chandra, film maker Kamal Amrohi and the poet Jon Elia.
Amroha may have started out as a small town near Moradabad in western Uttar Pradesh (UP) but it blossomed into a cosmopolitan cultural centre, giving birth to a string of literary figures. Records of Amroha go back to at least 2400 years to the Bansi Dynasty in 479 BC and when it was part of the historic Hastinapur.
According to a manuscript titled ‘Tarikh-i-Amrohi’ or the history of Amroha, Rajput kings had ruled the place between 676 and 1141. Its possible beginnings are traced back to the glorious days of Indraprastha and its continuing importance during the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal periods is legendary.
In the late 19th Century, Amroha’s contribution to literature and to intellectual life in UP is without parallel. The small town was transformed into a cocoon for both members of the Kayastha Hindu gentry and the Muslim residents of Amroha engaged in high literary pursuits. In more modern times, the people of Amroha were in the forefront of the long fight of freedom against the British.
It is true that Amroha has witnessed the rise and fall of many cultures but the abuse showered upon its way of life today is sure to go down in the records as one of the lowest moments of the country.
Wah Re Mayawati
Kunwar Danish Ali, who was at the receiving end of the abuse hurled at him by a fellow parliamentarian, is a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Member of Parliament (MP). But it was not the BSP leader Mayawati who was seen consoling Ali, but Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The Muslim votes in UP add up to about 20 percent and Mayawati has in the past enjoyed the support of a large chunk of Muslim voters. In the coming Lok Sabha elections Mayawati is not expected to get much support from Muslims.
A sizable number of Dalit voters too are turning away from the BSP as Mayawati is seen to lose touch with the yearnings of voters and as she holes herself further inside the gigantic buildings built as her party office and her home.
The Muslim Voters
Many Muslim votes were cast in favour of the ruling party in 2014. The Muslim votes had contributed to empower the ruling party but not because Muslims had wanted the state to gang up against it but in hope of a better government than the previous ones.
Now most Muslim voters say that they are fed up with the cruelty of the state. They prefer to vote for a national party in the Lok Sabha elections and for a regional party in the Assembly elections.
The Sad Tale of a Hospital
The Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Amethi has been closed. On September 22 ruling party MP from Pilibhit Varun Gandhi wrote a letter to the UP Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak requesting him to reconsider the decision to suspend the registration of the hospital. Pathak is also the health minister of UP.
The hospital is named after Varun Gandhi’s father but that is not the reason for the MP’s concern. Talking to the media, he pointed out that it takes a lifetime to build institutions. First provide alternative facilities for the people and then shut down an institution like a hospital, is Varun’s argument.
The large majority of the population of UP is poor. Health facilities provided to the common citizen are already meagre. To shut down a hospital is to deprive the poor people of Amethi of badly needed health care, particularly in an emergency.
The death of a female patient at the same hospital had led to its closure, making people say that the crime of negligence of one person should not be used to punish all patients which is an act of cruelty beyond words.
Akhilesh Yadav In Madhya Pradesh
The Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and leader of opposition in the UP Assembly was in Madhya Pradesh (MP) to address public meetings. Yadav campaigned for his party’s candidates contesting the upcoming Assembly elections in MP.
The SP promised a monthly allowance for the unemployed, government guarantee for business loans, and loan waiver for farmers. The SP will contest seats in MP where the fight is mainly between the Congress and the ruling party.
The question is whose game will the SP be spoiling in MP by contesting the elections in MP? Will it be the Congress, a party which is its ally in I.N.D.I.A, the recently formed alliance of 28 Opposition parties, or the ruling BJP?
Despite the SP and the Congress being on the same page against the ruling party, the SP is determined to put up a fight in MP, Chhattisgarh, and other states where polling is scheduled later this year.