LAW AND ORDER

INTERNAL SCHISMS

DEVELOPMENT RECORD

DALIT POWER

Unofficially kicking off the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign for the Lok Sabha election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a massive rally last month at Maghar, the final resting place of 15th century mystic poet Kabir, revered by both Hindus and Muslims. It was deft political messaging — Kabir is above religion and caste, venerating knowledge and wisdom instead.Interestingly, Modi attacked the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress, avoiding mention of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Speculation is rife that the ruling party wants to head off any alliance between Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav . If BSP contests solo or reaches an understanding with BJP — explicit or otherwise — the ruling party’s chances of an encore in Uttar Pradesh improve exponentially. Some suggest it may even spark consideration of early national elections to coincide with polls in Madhya Pradesh , Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.Uttar Pradesh is crucial — a fourth of BJP Lok Sabha lawmakers are from the state, having won a thumping 42% of the vote in 2014. It swept the March 2017 assembly elections, winning 312 of 403 seats, but then slumped. In May, it lost the Noorpur assembly constituency and the Kairana Lok Sabha seat.Opposition parties are consolidating the lower caste and Muslim votes to take on BJP. The fledgling SP-BSP alliance — the two together command about 42% of the Uttar Pradesh vote as per their 2014 record — is a potent threat to the BJP’s prospects.With Kabir, Modi is trying to raise the BJP above caste-based politics in the Hindi heartland.However, the upper caste Hindu voter prefers an aggressive posture. “Kabir doesn’t make a difference electorally. The Prime Minister trying to rise above caste is okay. But if he is trying to woo Dalit and Muslim votes, it won’t work,’’ says Kripal Singh, chairman of the local sugarcane cooperative and an influential BJP supporter in Thana Bhawan. “Hindus will vote for whoever they think would protect Hindu interests.” As Rajinder Singh, a prosperous farmer in Sakoti village, puts it, Muslims had become “aggressive” under the SP government.Hence, upper caste Hindu support for the Yogi Adityanath-led government’s crackdown on slaughterhouses. They allege that Muslims steal cows to kill them for the meat. But now, dairy farmers don’t know what to do with non-milch cattle — earlier sold for slaughter to a thriving meat processing industry — so they let them loose. Farmers in western Uttar Pradesh complain that free-roaming cattle have become a menace to crops.It’s indeed a dilemma. Hardcore Hindutva helps rake in votes but empowers groups that make governance difficult. Vikas (development) is a caste- and religion-neutral poll plank but doesn’t guarantee votes.Meanwhile, the police have been given a free hand in crushing criminal gangs, resulting in a number of encounter deaths. In a February notice to the state government, the National Human Rights Commission said state police personnel “were feeling free, misusing their power in the light of an undeclared endorsement given by the higher-ups” and were using their privileges to “settle scores.”The Supreme Court on July 2 asked the state to explain the alleged 49 deaths and injuries to 370 people in 1,100 police encounters in one year.Cracks can also be perceived in the edifice. “The problem with the BJP is that it is now just an election-winning machine,” says a senior leader of the party in Uttar Pradesh. “It has destroyed relationships.”Multiple sources close to Adityanath and the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) he founded say he’s grown distant from the organisation, leaving it rudderless. One person who helped build the HYV says it largely comprises militant upper caste youth who would do anything for Adityanath, though he did not want them on the rampage under his chief ministership.Another HYV member who spent several months in jail for rioting complained that it had been hoping for some “fruits of power,” but ‘Maharaj’ had forgotten them after assuming office. “Hindu dharm ki raksha to hum karte hain. Yeh log to khali dhandha karte hain aur malai khate hain (We (HYV) are real protectors of Hinduism. Others are mere dealmakers),” he says.The party has suffered electorally, too, of late. It has lost every byelection after the Adityanath government came to power in March last year.These include Phulpur, earlier held by deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya; Gorakhpur by Adityanath himself and Kairana, by veteran politician Hukum Singh.Complacency has set in, rues a former BJP election-in-charge. “The BJP worker does not seem bothered with the byelection losses. That does not bode well for the party,” he says.Rival SP leader Udaiveer Singh says the BJP’s appeal for politicians had also faded. “After four years, those who deserted the BSP and SP have realised that the BJP sees people as neither friends nor enemies; just utility.”In mid-June, the state government released full-page advertisements listing its achievements —almost all in centrally-sponsored schemes. Its own achievements were a Rs 36,000-crore farm loan waiver and record purchase of wheat.Corruption, though, has reduced in areas. “Earlier, we had to submit fixed deposit receipts for earnest money in tenders personally to the officer,” says the owner of an Agra-based civil engineering firm. “The officer would delay accepting receipts until deadline, favouring those who paid bribes and disqualifying others. Now, we can just upload an image of the receipt online.” Foundry owner Jai Agarwal, who employs about 600 workers at Kajeco Industries, says companies like his benefited from GST and e-filing. Less interaction with officials means less need for bribery.Nonetheless, breakdown of the traditional patronage system means the conventional redress system is also crumbling.“Earlier, if we had an issue, we could go to the MP or MLA — the BJP has nine MLAs and two MPs from here. Now, they don’t have any power to get anything done. Nobody is really representing the city or its people,” says Amar Mittal, president of Agra Iron Founders’ Association.Of course, none of this is likely to matter on election day. Caste will count more than roads. “The idea of caste is ingrained into children from the time their first admission forms are filled,” Keshav Dev, a primary school teacher in Naraich near Agra, points out.The Saharanpur-based Bhim Army has emerged amid aggressive Dalit assertion. It runs about 350 schools in western Uttar Pradesh and Haridwar. Its national president, Vinay Ratan Singh says more children come to its schools because the quality of education is sound and secular.“RSS and BJP play divisive politics and teach hatred in their schools,” he says, adding that Bhim Army schoolteachers are postgraduates, engineers and lawyers.Simmering tension between the political affiliations has erupted in the form of violence. Clashes broke out between Thakurs and Dalits in Saharanpur district in May 2017 after the former took out a procession to honour 16th century Rajput king Maharana Pratap through a Dalit colony, where homes were reportedly torched. On April 2, Dalits staged mass national protests after the Supreme Court seemed to dilute the SC&ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. These led to violence in western Uttar Pradesh, with two casualties.“This is a battle between the ideologies of (RSS founder KB) Hedgewar and (Dalit icon and social reformer BR) Ambedkar,” quips Laxmi Narayan, a production manager at a shoe factory in Agra. “If the country ran on Ramcharitmanas, Indira (Gandhi) would have remained in the kitchen.” The BJP, however, is trying to convince voters that in its parlour, Hedgewar and Ambedkar read the Ramcharitmanas together.