The civil rights organisation has demanded a free and fair inquiry on Mohd. Ramzan’s custodial death urgently. He was an inmate of Baran Jail who died due to custodial violence by the police guards of the Prison Ward of Kota Medical College Hospital on April 26.
Jaipur: Kavita Srivastava, the President of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) wrote a letter to the Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) New Delhi, demanding their immediate intervention in the matter of the custodial death of Mohd. Ramzan, an inmate of Baran Jail due to custodial violence by the police guards of the Prison Ward of Kota Medical College Hospital on April 26.
“Mohammaed Ramzan, son of Hafiz Alimuddin, resident of Mangrol, District Baran, Rajasthan was imprisoned in Baran Prison under the charges of Section 347 of the Indian Penal Code i.e. wrongful confinement to extort property, or constrain to an illegal act. He was awarded two-year imprisonment by the sessions court of Baran. He was out on bail when the High Court of Rajasthan rejected his appeal, he was arrested again in 2018 and put in Baran Jail. Subsequently, a Special Leave Petition was also filed in Supreme Court for bail, but the SLP was rejected,” she wrote.
Ramzan complained of liver and other gastro problems, so he was referred to the Kota Medical College for treatment. In the Jail ward of the Kota Medical College, there is a constant rotation of 4 guards sent by the police. A video which surfaced before the demise of Ramzan, shows him telling that three of these guards only had beaten him up very badly. He says the guards were inebriated on alcohol and would beat him up when he would cry up in pain. Upon talking to the Rizwan, son of Ramzan, he informs us that these guards would ask for Rs 500/- for each meeting of the family with the patient, so the family had complained about this demand to higher authorities, which has worsened the relationship between Ramzan and the guards, she wrote in the letter to NHRC.
Ramzan was then referred to SMS Hospital Jaipur, the family was informed that a leg of Ramzan had been fractured and needed to be operated upon urgently so they rushed to Jaipur. The family met Ramzan once, this is the day the video was recorded in which Ramzan has given a statement against the guards. They were then denied access to the patient and were later informed that the patient has been transferred back to Kota. The guards on their own volition moved Ramzan back to Kota, denying him proper medical treatment, which went against the advice of the doctors present and treating Ramzan. When the family of Ramzan was rushing to Kota, they were informed by the prison officials that Ramzan has expired in their custody of the police in the ward for prisoners of the Kota Medical College. The death was recorded at 10:30 pm on April 26, 2019, PUCL said in the letter.
“The family refused to take the custody of the dead body of Ramzan, until and unless an FIR was filed against the 4 police guards of the jail ward of Kota Medical College as well as those who took him away from the SMS Medical College, Jaipur. After 14-15 hours, SP Kota City assured the family that an enquiry will be done of the custodial death by a judicial magistrate under Section 176 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He also informed the family that the four guards have been removed, the nature of removal is unclear, whether is a suspension or a change in duty. Post Mortem has been done by a Medical Board. Upon this reassurance, the family has now taken the custody of the body to go ahead with the burial of the departed man,” the letter stated.
PUCL’s demand:
Immediate lodging of the FIR against the police guards involved in the custodial violence leading up to the death of Ramzan, the police inquiry can run parallel to the judicial inquiry. The police authorities need to answer for the complete lack of due diligence in the above matter.
A detailed inquiry needs to be done by the Kota Medical College Hospital as to how could the prisoner’s ward allows such brazen violence against an ill man.
Compensation to the family of Ramzan.
Both the jails, Baran Jail and Kota Jail should submit a report each to NHRC, SHRC, home secretary and DG Prisons within 24 hours of the custodial death as required by the guidelines of the NHRC
The videography Post Mortem Report and the enquiry report by the Judicial Magistrate must be submitted to the NHRC at the earliest possible instance.
“We would be highly obliged if a free and fair inquiry can be done on Ramzan’s custodial death urgently. Communally targeted violence by the authorities raises a serious concern of human rights violations of minorities present inside the various correctional institutes across the nation. Ramzan’s family has suffered a great loss, and a speedy inquiry would give them some solace in these troubling times,” Srivastava wrote.
You started your interview by saying that you are going to have an apolitical interview. You have every right to do that. You can ask every stupid question under the sky – pattern of eating mangoes, bank balance, process of dealing with cold, wish from djinn of Aladdin’s lamp, sleep hours, desire for becoming PM, anger management, valuable things held by PM inside the house, pattern of styling, style of wearing watch and sleep hours.
But contrary to what you said, you are only playing politics. Through your interview you only wanted to convey the message to the people for them to turn away from the reality and see an apolitical Modi. You wanted to convey – Let things be what it is. Let things happen the way it happens. Let us not worry about issues – Jobs, Unemployment, Poverty, Demonetisation, GST, Rafael, Corruption, Women safety, Lynching’s, Communalisation, etc. Let us forget that there are elections and there are issues to think and bother about. Let us forget that the Prime Minister is to be questioned on these fronts. Let us just see the personal life of the Prime Minister, away from the Political life.
It is true that you are not one of those who has been affected by the policies of the Prime Minister. Whether it is Demonetisation, GST, Lynching’s, intolerance and growing communal environment. But if you are sensitive enough to your own industry, you would have realised that even the well-established popular and respected actors in your own industry are feeling at the environment that has grown in the last 5 years – whether it is Amir Khan, Shahrukh Khan or Nasiruddin Shah. If their situation is like that, imagine the situation of normal minorities. You could have at-least asked the Prime Minister about the growing sense of insecurity among the Minorities in the country taking a cue from your own industry.
You rather seemed to display the Bhakt in you and use your celebrity status to strengthen and continue the Bhakt narrative around the Prime Minister. You wanted to show the Prime Minister as a simple humble and saintly person – as a person from poor family who struggled even to buy mangoes, a simple person who wanted to become a saint or sainik, someone who sleeps less or works hard, someone who left family for doing something great for the nation. You also wanted to show how the Prime Minister controls his anger, is friendly towards opponents, and treats his subordinates. However, the things said by the Prime Minister goes against the points he made. His personal attacks against the political opponents, his encouragement of hatred against the political opponents through following trollers, encouragement of lynching’s through lack of action on offenders, encouragement of terrorism through providing electoral space to Pragya Sadvhvi, narcistic personality and concentration of powers display a completely different thing.
So contrary to what you said, you were only doing a political interview. You were playing a hide and seek game. You were hiding the burning issues bothering the citizens of the country – Jobs, Unemployment, Lynching’s, Demonetisation, Rafael. On the other hand you were seeking to explore aspects of Prime Ministers personal life which makes little sense to Public life. His style of eating mangoes, way of dealing with cold, sleeping lesser number of hours, style of wearing watch – means little for the people.
Jhansi and Banda districts, Uttar Pradesh: In a small clearing in the Banda-Purva village in one of Uttar Pradesh’s poorest districts, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporter started a conversation on the party’s pet subject: Religion.
People don Bharatiya Janata Party caps, waiting for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a campaign rally in Jhansi. As the Bundelkhand region of the state is set to vote on April 29, we found religious fervour and cynicism among voters.
“We are with Lord Shri Ram. He is supreme. He has developed this world.”
When asked “What about Allah?”, he said, “Woh toh kisi ne dekha nahi (No one has seen him). But we’ve seen Ram.”
Shouldn’t Allah be recognised equally?
Another BJP supporter erupted: “Nahi. Allah nahi aatey usmey (No, Allah isn’t one of the Gods).”
“We are with Lord Shri Ram. He is supreme. He has developed this world,” says Bharatiya Janata Party supporter (forward left). When asked “What about Allah?” he said, “Woh toh kisi ne dekha nahi (No one has seen him).”
These views were not an aberration. This was election season and in meeting after meeting across Banda district, the BJP candidate R K Patel made that amply clear. He was campaigning with a local swami (monk), and a member of legislative assembly (MLA) Prakash Dwivedi. The opening lines of their campaign speeches: “This is a dharam yudh–a religious war–like the Mahabharata. A fight between good and evil.” The Narendra Modi sarkar (government) is good, the opposition collectively stands for evil. “Congress ki sarkar ne Muslim dushtikaran ke charam ko touch kiya,” said Dwivedi. “The Congress government crossed all limits of Muslim appeasement.”
This is the Bundelkhand region–one of the most economically deprived parts of the country. This geographical zone, named after the Bundela rulers from the 14th century, is spread across two states in the present day–Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Madhya Pradesh (MP). It comprises seven districts of UP and another six in neighbouring MP.
In the half of Bundelkhand that is in UP, the seven districts are amongst the most thinly populated in the state: UP has a population density of 829 persons per sq km, while the density in the districts of Bundelkhand is just 329. This means that the districts together account for only four parliamentary seats of the 80 (5%) that UP sends to the lower house. That is a tiny number of representatives or MPs for a geographical zone that is 28.7% of the total area of Uttar Pradesh but sparsely-populated zone. Local politicians said it gives the area lesser bargaining power with which to lobby for funds from the Centre–to build road and irrigation schemes.
This is the third in a six-part series on the Hindu vote in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most hotly contested electoral battleground, which accounts for 80 of a total of 543 Lok Sabha seats (you can read the first part here and the second here). Three of four constituencies in the region–Jhansi, Hamirpur and Jalaun–vote on April 29, while Banda votes a week later on May 6.
Three of the four constituencies were listed as drought-affected by the UP government in 2018.
So, the polarising nature of BJP candidate Patel’s campaign, said political observers, is not surprising. It may make a deeply cynical voter choose the Hindu right party over the other contenders, since convincing them of any development work is an almost impossible feat.
Source: Bundelkhand Human Development Report 2012, NITI Aayog Note: UP + MP refers to data for the combined Bundelkhand region, including districts from both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
The history of under-development of the region has a lot to do with sparse rainfall and a shrinking water table. One of the markers for anyone travelling to the region are the hillsides of stark boulder and almost grey bramble and bush that pass for vegetation. The statistics tell the rest of this story. This is a drought-hit zone and, affected both by poor rainfall and, over time, a rapid depletion of groundwater. The rainfall deficit has been high, data from the National Institute of Disaster Management show.
People do not have water to drink or to water their fields. Whatever water does collect underground is getting contaminated. As much as 85% of rural India’s drinking water supply comes from groundwater, according to a 2016 study on the groundwater situation in India published in the journal Advances in Water Resources. Access to as much as 60% of that is restricted “by excess salinity or arsenic”.
Farmers, 71% of the workforce here, earn Rs 7,658 a year, on average, according to this 2016 report published by the United Nations Development Programme. That is Rs 638 a month or Rs 20 rupees a day. The farmers’ income, taken separately, is much lower than the overall income an average person in Bundelkhand earns, which according to an International Labour Organization report, is about Rs 26,805 a year–nearly four times the agrarian income.
There is virtually no sewage or garbage disposal, no jobs and the agricultural sector is suffering not just due to drought but also the apathy of successive governments, voters here said.
Lack of basic amenities triggers anger, discontent
As Patel listed schemes that the Narendra Modi government has rolled out, the anger and boredom of those gathered around was on full display. Patel described Modi as the big strong banyan tree under which they were all gathered. The next day, under the same banyan tree, in Tindwada village, in the district of Banda, villagers said they didn’t buy the speech.
“Yeh log kehtey hain dharam ki ladai hai. Koi dharam ki ladai nahi hai (These people say this is a religious war, it is no such thing),” said one farmer angrily. “Sab khokhey bata rahey hain (Those are all empty words).”
Sita Ram, a 70-year-old farmer has seen many elections come and go. “Nothing has changed here,” he said.
A third farmer was cynical enough to question what he had heard in speech after speech about Modi providing the support and strength for the Air Force to go in and strike Pakistan in retaliation for the 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) members killed in Kashmir.
“Jo, madam, Modi bol rahey hain 340 jawan marey gaye wahan Pakistani… kuch batao iske barey me, ka hua? (Madam, tell me, what do you make of what is being said that 340 Pakistani terrorists were killed?)” he asked.
When he was, in turn, asked what he believed, he said, “Kis pe vishwas karein… khud pe vishwaas nahi hota hai, toh batao (Whom to believe… at this point, I don’t even believe in myself).”
The most irate were women who had to walk several kilometres, carrying drums of water on their heads, since tubewells had not reached this village.
Gomti is one such angry woman who explained that at the very spot where Patel had listed how Bundelkhand’s water problems would soon be a thing of the past–with the Centre sanctioning a budget of Rs 9,000 crore–is the hand pump where women are forced to bathe in full public view.
There was Rekha, a young girl in her mid-twenties, bathing in a blue salwar kameez as people walked past. “This is what it’s like to be a young woman in Tindwada,” Gomti said, her voice full of anger. “To have no bathroom and no basic dignity.”
Voters–and leaders–shift loyalties across elections
Gomti’s cynicism is part of the matrix of the overall disconnect the voters in the region experience and the fact that the BJP contender from the area, Patel, has switched parties four times in the last decade only adds to this.
Patel started out as a student in 1980 by joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological parent group. But he jumped into electoral politics a decade later with a party that defines itself as the BJP’s political opposite–the dalit bastion of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). After losing one election, then winning the next on a BSP ticket, Patel switched to yet another party, the Samajwadi Party (SP), in 2007.
He lost one election on an SP ticket and then won the next. And when the last parliamentary election came around in 2014, when the SP didn’t give him a ticket, he switched back to the BSP and lost. Soon after, he joined the BJP and contested the 2017 state election on a BJP ticket. And won.
In defence of the political criss-crossing, Patel said: “Kanshi Ram ne jo vichar dhara shuru kiya, aaj Modi ji woh vichar dhara badha rahey hain (The ideas that [BSP founder] Kanshi Ram started with have been continued and taken forward by Modi ji).”
RK Patel, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate from Banda, at a campaign event. Patel cut his political teeth with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, before getting into electoral politics through the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party.
His co-canvasser and the more colourful leader from the district of Banda, the MLA Dwivedi, said: “Agar vipakshi koi kalpit kalpana pe khwaab dekh rahey hon toh mai bata doon ki woh phadey kapda gyara bajey ke bhagenge. (If the opposition is even beginning to contemplate any sort of victory, let me tell you, come counting day, 11 am, they will tear their clothes and run).”
Prakash Dwivedi, the Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Banda district, during a campaign for the party’s Lok Sabha candidate RK Patel.
But the politics of Bundelkhand in UP is anything but a straight line between voter fatigue and the BJP’s polarisation. Despite their apathy and deep frustration, voters across all four Lok Sabha seats voted for the BJP in the last general election and have been BJP voters intermittently in state elections.
While Ravi Sharma of the BJP had won the state assembly election from Jhansi both in 2012 and 2017, Banda voted for Vivek Kumar Singh of the Congress in 2012 before voting in Dwivedi in 2017.
Source: Trivedi Centre for Political Data, Ashoka University
This time, the people of Tindwada village in the Banda constituency were ambivalent. “Yeh toh abhi nahi bata saktey kisko vote denge (We can’t say yet who we will vote for)” was the standard answer.
When probed further, some said that while they were upset with the BJP, they didn’t have much faith in any of the political alternatives. So it might just come down to a choice between voting for religion or caste, some said. Hindus may vote for what many see as the `Hindu-leaning’ party–the BJP. Some castes and religions may vote for parties they see as the protectors of their communities–the SP or BSP.
But the picture gets more complex when the campaign in Banda district is squared with that of the more urban, slightly less economically deprived district of Jhansi.
The Jhansi formula: Jhansi = Valour = Modi
The BJP–and indeed most parties in Jhansi–lean on the valour and political history of Jhansi. The city is plastered with statues of its most famous leader of the revolt against the British in 1857, the Rani of Jhansi–used now in BJP campaigns to tell voters they have had a history of bravery, so they must vote in a government with a recent trajectory of bravery–in “giving it back to Pakistan at the border” when the country’s soldiers were attacked. In other words, Jhansi equals valour and valour equals Modi.
Uma Bharti, the BJP’s fire-brand leader who was a prominent face of the party’s Ayodhya campaign, won this seat for the party in 2014. Not only was there a Modi wave to ride on, the politics of building a temple for Lord Ram at Ayodhya, believed to be his birth-place, after the destruction of the mosque there in 1992 catapulted Bharti to the political centre-stage. This time, however, she isn’t contesting but is campaigning for the party candidate Anurag Sharma.
A town square in Jhansi district’s Lalitpur featuring statues of Rani of Jhansi, and a baby being cradled in its mother’s hands. The bill board above reads ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, referring to the government’s flagship programme for the girl child. The BJP invokes the Rani to say the city has a history of bravery, so they must vote for a party with a record of bravery, In other words, Jhansi equals valour and valour equals Modi.
A first-time politician, Sharma is the chairman of the Baidyanath group of Ayurvedic medicines and a Harvard university graduate. His only campaign pitch is development, he said.
Stepping out of his large, green bungalow in Jhansi and into his luxury SUV, Sharma said he runs one of the largest charitable trusts in the Bundelkhand region, that is “entirely self-funded”. It made him travel to the remotest parts of the region, he said, and that is where he realised that no matter what he did–giving scholarships to 60,000 students, building borewells, sending tankers to areas that had no water–it was “just a drop in the ocean”. What was needed was “a change in the government’s policy towards Bundelkhand, someone to raise the right questions”. He further clarified that he has “never raised a religious slogan”.
Anurag Sharma, the Harvard-educated chairman of Baidyanath group of Ayurvedic medicines, is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Lok Sabha candidate for Jhansi. Sharma says he has “never raised a religious slogan”.
As he got to his election rally in the municipal town of Lalitpur, he stuck to what he said. His speech was short and modest. “I am Anurag,” he said, “known by most of you here as bhaiya (brother).” He listed his charitable work and ended his speech.
What Sharma did not say and did not need to was that, despite his singular push for a progressive campaign, Jhansi had already seen two decades of polarisation.
The Hindu movement in Jhansi
At the RSS office in the city, two senior leaders who spoke on the condition of anonymity, explained what the Hindu right and its umbrella of institutions from the RSS to the BJP have done. In Jhansi, the process of Hindu proselytisation began shortly after emergency rule imposed by the Congress party’s Indira Gandhi in 1975. The next big spurt was the demolition of the Babri masjid or the Ayodhya campaign of 1991-92. There are now 700 shakhas or branches across the seven districts of Bundelkhand.
And it was in this second wave post 1991, the leaders explained, that the RSS made sure the institutions of the Hindu right move beyond their upper caste base to include Dalits or scheduled caste groups–since Bundelkhand has a high dalit population (23.5%, higher than the state average of 21.1%). “We added the celebration of Valmik Jayanti (traditionally a festival of the Valmiks amongst the scheduled castes) to the RSS celebration of Sharad Poornima,” they explained.
From the year 1996 on, they also worked with the Sahariya tribes that lived mostly in and around the regions of Lalitpur and Mauranipur that are part of Jhansi district.
“In communities where backward classes were not leaders, we made them leaders, like Uma Bharti,” they explained.
In these two decades, the community work they have done has extended from the very basic–like performing the last rites for the deceased–to cow protection and, most of all, building people’s identities. That crucial task is where all the proselytisation has worked to deliver successive victories to the Hindu right’s political arm–the BJP. It includes a re-branding of the word “secular” from its traditional meaning as many understand it to be in the Indian Constitution. “We have a different understanding of that word,” they said, going over the familiar tropes. India is a Hindu nation. “Musalmaan ki topi bharatiya kab se ho gayi? (Since when did the skull cap of the Muslim become part of Indian culture?)”
This wrestle between on-ground hard-to-do development work that the RSS calls seva or volunteer work and the cultural nationalism is borne out by the next generation of Hindu nationalists as well.
Over coffee and pakoras, Saurabh Mishra, a member of the BJP’s student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), had an incredible story of his rite of passage into the world of politics. It came from a self-imposed hunger strike to force a moribund administration in his village to commit to providing drinking water.
The 25-year-old is currently studying law in Jhansi, but made his way here from an extremely backward part of Bundelkhand–a village called Icholi in the neighbouring district of Hamirpur. “There was no drinking water to speak of, what we had was such hard water that is wasn’t even fit for animals,” Mishra said.
So in 2016, he decided to go on a hunger strike with his friends. Initially, this was scoffed at by people in the village.
After four days of surviving on nimbu-pani (lemonade), the sub-divisional magistrate came to try and negotiate. By this time, the protest had become a popular uprising and on the strength of that, on day 8, the district administration gave them an assurance in writing that they would ask the state to sanction a Rs 7.5 crore fund to build pipes for drinking water.
Now, in 2019, a Rs 5-crore budget to build those pipes has finally been granted, said Mishra with a broad smile. Mishra emphasised that it was his training in the ABVP that made him persevere.
Muslims and Pakistan
At the other end of the spectrum of the Hindu right is Satyam Tiwari in the Badausa region of Banda. He is part of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s state-grown cultural nationalist outfit, the Hindu Yuva Vahini.
Tiwari sat in his mud house, narrating stories of his vigilantism: Against “love jihad”, where he stopped Hindu girls from hooking up with Muslim boys to “save them from themselves”; and for cow protection–saving cows from being slaughtered by Muslims. Two years ago, he added another feat to this list of vigilantism: Entering a school run by Muslims and demanding that they put up posters of Mahatma Gandhi and the Prime Minister on their classroom walls.
Tiwari was quick to demonstrate his Hindu-ness and accompanying aversion to everything that is Muslim. When it was pointed out that he was sitting in a room flanked by two posters of the actor Katrina Kaif who is part Muslim, he got up, took a blade to them and ripped them off the wall. “Aren’t Muslims also human beings?” this reporter asked him on camera. “Yes, they are, but they don’t have humanity,” he said.
Satyam Tiwari rips posters of Katrina Kaif off his wall after it was pointed out to him that the actor is part-Muslim. He says that sees that this kind of dramatic politics may get him the political attention he seeks.
Later, away from the camera’s eye, he said he has many Muslim friends and is also a fan of the Muslim actor Salman Khan. But, he said, he saw that this kind of dramatic politics may get him the political attention he wants.
Tiwari’s vigilantism seems like the hard end of the Hindu right’s political spectrum. But in a region of deep distress, the ‘Hindu’ factor underscores even the ideas of the BJP’s Jhansi candidate Anurag Sharma who believes that India is a “Hindu nation” and the BJP is the one party that stands for the “protection of Hinduism”.
At Sharma’s rally, there were at least 50,000 people. They weren’t there to hear what their candidate from Jhansi had to say about development. They were there because the CM Adityanath was leading the campaign.
While the crowd waited for Adityanath to arrive, a local leader tried to keep the crowd excited. He said, “Kamal par button nahi dabega toh Pakistan mazboot hoga (If you don’t press the button on the lotus [BJP’s electoral symbol], you will be strengthening Pakistan.”
Once the CM’s helicopter landed and everyone clapped, the heat took over. The crowd started to thin as Adityanath talked about how this election has been blessed by the prayers of Lord Hanuman, the strong, muscular God–Bajrang Bali–and likened it to the strong, muscular persona of the Prime Minister who led the armed forces to “attack Pakistani terrorists and finish them off”.
Farmer Hari Ram, 64, at a Bharatiya Janata Party rally in Jhansi. “No party has done anything,” he says, “But what to do? We have to vote for someone. It may as well be the present regime.”
A 64-four-year old farmer, Hari Ram from the Ghimar caste–a group classified by the government under “backward classes”–gazed into the distance. He had come to the rally riding on a tractor, from a village 25 km away. “What do I think?” he said, tuning in and out of the CM’s speech. “I have three kids, two are daily wage workers. One is handicapped. No party has done anything. But what to do? We have to vote for someone. It may as well be the present regime.”
This is the third in a six-part series on the Hindu vote in Uttar Pradesh. You can read the first part here and the second here.
(Revati Laul is an independent journalist and film-maker and the author of `The Anatomy of Hate,’ published by Westland/Context in December 2018.)
Martin Macwan in conversation with Githa Hariharan
The recent publication Bhed-Bharat provides a searing account of atrocities against dalits and adivasis between the years 2014 and 2018. The editor of the book, published in Gujarati and also available in English, is Martin Macwan, dalit human rights activist based in Gujarat and Founder-Member of the Navsarjan Trust. In a conversation with writer Githa Hariharan for the Indian Cultural Forum, Martin Macwan discusses the continuing – indeed escalating – injustice dalits and adivasis have been subjected to.
Githa Hariharan (GH): The first thing that struck me about the regional as well as state-wise organisation of the book is that dalits and adivasis have been at the receiving end of injustice across the country. And this is only from registered cases, and those reported in media – in other words, incomplete data.
Martin Macwan (MM): Yes, because of regionalisation of the media, a comprehensive picture of atrocities and injustice against dalits and adivasis has not emerged. Besides, what gets reported are only the sensational cases. Given the fact that there are so many abuses, they are perceived as if it is something “routine” – it does not disturb the conscience of the society at large.
Also, “atrocities” have, unfortunately, been confined to physical violence. What about the non-implementation of policies and measures? This marginalises these communities even more. I have noticed that English language newspapers do sometimes report on policy issues but not regional papers in local languages.
GH: So, on the whole, the media tends to limit itself to reporting the more violent, obvious, physical cases – what you are describing as sensational. What about government?
MM: We really do not see an attempt to present a comprehensive picture in the State assemblies and the Parliament. So it is difficult, even for enlightened dalits and adivasis, to strategise articulation or action. Besides, what gets presented in government reports are pure figures – which do not convey the human picture as the narratives in the book do. This is the context: most dalits and adivasis struggle for basic survival. Their condition makes it hard for them to know and understand the plight of their fellow community members across the country. So, for instance, a dalit from Gujarat may not even know that there are dalits in Assam or Mizoram.
Then there is the critical question of the veracity of atrocity figures. West Bengal with a dalit population of as much as 23 per cent does not report beyond 80-85 cases under the Atrocity Act. It is clear that facts are being suppressed. How do you explain the fact that the National Commission on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes report cases 20% higher than the cases reported by the National Crime Records Bureau? A related question is whether the police in local stations are friendly and sensitive enough to dalits and adivasis to help them register cases.
Besides, there are discriminatory practices in government institutions such as schools and anganwadis – which are mandated to inculcate the value of equality. There have been cases of rape, pregnancy and child birth involving minor Adivasi girls in Ashram Shalas that are specially financed and run for them. There have been deaths of Adivasi children in these Ashram Shalas.
GH: What about response from civil society, or from students and teachers? Do you find the same situation of the “blunted conscience” as you do in the media and in the government?
MM: Unfortunately, caste discrimination – mostly manifested through atrocities – has been generally perceived as the problem of dalits rather than the problem of the nation – though it is the biggest challenge to the Constitution of India and its core value of equality. Even in interaction with students and faculties of colleges and universities, I find they admit ignorance about such happenings. Most of their questions at the end of my talks are on reservation for dalits and adivasis, an irritant for them.
GH: Of course, this injustice / atrocity is a terrible old story in India. But this compilation between 2014-2018 — is this a continuation of the old story or does it indicate new forms of injustice? Atrocities?
MM: While atrocities against dalits and adivasis are not new, there are some features which are certainly “new”.
The NDA made promises to both these communities during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but atrocities have continued. The government, over the last five years, claims enormous development in the country, but again, the facts on the ground do not show a reduction in atrocities against dalits and adivasis.
One would think that with increase in education, urbanisation and modernisation there would be less caste prejudice and so a lower number of atrocities. But what we find is that caste discrimination co-exists with development in all its manifestations. The new generation of the so-called educated have protected their caste status.
There has been a systematic growth in caste-based organisations as social, political and religious platforms. Applying sections of the Atrocity Act are especially difficult against a religious body. That would mean organised protests from the dominant caste groups.
In the absence of research-based study and evidence, the Supreme Court strengthened prejudice in dominant castes through its order that the Act has been misused by dalits and adivasis. In a way, this was also used to justify the low conviction rate in the offences under the Atrocity Act.
A striking unique feature emerges from Gujarat, the “model” state. Compared to a mere 7.01 percent dalit population (some sources say 6.7 percent), 32.9 percent of the total convicts in Gujarat is dalit. 23.4 percent of undertrials in Gujarat jails is dalit. What does this mean? That the community, by and large, are the most criminal community and not the victims of criminal abuse?
A new feature is that minor girls are, increasingly, the targets of caste-based sexual abuse.
From my experience, I have seen that the atrocities committed earlier were the result of blatant caste prejudice and the structure of social power in rural areas. Nowadays, we also see that many atrocities against dalits are committed because of jealousy. A dalit man is attacked for riding on a motorcycle. A young man is murdered by mowing him under motorcycles for playing an Ambedkar song as a ringtone. Or dalit college-going youth are assaulted for tucking their shirts in or for sporting a moustache.
GH: You point out that in spite of the NDA giving dalits and adivasis more seats, there has been an increase in atrocity cases since 2014. Is this linked with the consolidation of power of the right-wing across the board?
MM: On a larger note, we need to stress that the root causes of the atrocities are poverty, subjugation and social-economic powerlessness. Most atrocities are around the issues of land, wages and entitlements. While the State has confined its response merely to provide compensation, the social and economic inequalities have become pervasive and systemic. In 2010, Navsarjan conducted a study to map the prevalence of untouchability practices. This study, often quoted in assembly and parliamentary debates, found that in 90.2 of the 1589 surveyed villages in Gujarat, dalits who practise Hinduism are not allowed to enter temples. Hindutva organisations such as RSS have never dared to undertake agitation to ensure temple entry for Dalits even when they want them to remain Hindu. Religion has become a platform for political power in present times. Since untouchability is perceived as a creation of Hinduism, in the context of systemic nexus between political and religious (Hindu) power, there is no political will to address the question of untouchability.
This also speaks of the complete ineffectiveness of the dalit and adivasi parliamentarians. Dr Ambedkar had foreseen this when he pursued the demand for a separate electorate for dalits, which he considered the best constitutional remedy to ensure effective political representation of Dalits. Those elected on reserved seats are more preoccupied with being advocates of their party and less with the urgent concerns of the community they are to represent. At the village level, often those dalits and adivasis who are elected as Sarpanch are laborers in the farm of the deputy Sarpanch.
GH: One concrete manifestation of this current nexus between “religious” and political power you speak of has been the rush of attacks by “cow vigilantes”. Could you comment on repercussions of these attacks on livelihood, food and nutrition, in addition to physical danger?
MM: The profitable business of the dead cow has been captured by the so-called dominant castes which make money out of the skin, bones, horns, and the tail hair. The waste is transformed into chicken feed — here too the dominant castes have captured a large share of the business. The fat often finds its way to the bakeries. But all these businesses and factories have never been the targets of the cow vigilantes.
Nor have the panjrapoles (animal-shelter homes) been on the radar of the so-called cow protectors. These panjrapoles flourished in Gujarat after Independence, especially because the agricultural lands held by them were declared exempt from coverage under the Agriculture Land Ceiling Act. It was a good program for many landlords to turn their agricultural land into “gaushala” to save the land from going away to landless dalits and adivasis under the Agricultural Ceiling Act. Besides, there is no audit on the number of cow deaths in these panjarapoles, the reasons for death, and the money earned by selling the dead cows.
While Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura had the most successful land reforms, Gujarat has had the most disastrous implementation of land reforms which was to benefit dalits and adivasis. True, the most successful land reforms post-Independence took place in Kathiawar State. Here, in a short span of four years, 3.75 million acres of land were transferred from the feudal castes to the present day patidars or Patel who were then considered shudra.
Dalits and adivasis have mostly been reduced to landless agricultural labourers. To survive in the rural areas, they are forced to stick to caste-based occupations such as manual scavenging and disposal of carcasses. In present times, with the soaring of land prices, the lands given to dalits for skinning the carcass have become a bone of contention. As it happened in Una, in the name of the cow protection, dalits are attacked to remove them from those pieces of land.
There is another angle to the phenomenon of cow vigilantes. Under the influence of the Ambedkar-Phule ideology, dalits have invested a lot in education. Despite a poorly implemented reservation policy, they have been able to secure benefits in jobs. But OBC youth have little education and so, meagre employment opportunities. There is little ideological work done among them. Hence, their only “capital” is their caste – they can use it to get power when they are backed by politicians to make exhortations in the name of cow protection. More cows die eating plastic – but no one is concerned about that, neither these people nor the state.
GH: And the economic consequences of this nexus between caste and religion?
MM: True, this nexus has economic consequences for dalits and adivasis. There are several incidents recounted in Bhed-Bharat which show how social and economic boycott follows the atrocity incidents. Dalits and adivasis are then deprived of work, share cropping. They are denied places for defecation. They are denied credit, common village services, and much more.
GH: Again, demonetisation and growing unemployment are among the problems we have faced in the last five years. In particular, what has this done to dalit and adivasi lives?
MM: I asked an adivasi man in a village about the impact of demonetisation on his family. He said there was no impact simply because he did not have a currency note. As for dalit women, they lost all their hard-earned savings they had saved for social occasions without the knowledge of their husbands, as the savings became public during demonetisaton.
Unemployment has been the major problem. With increased wages, farmers prefer wheat and paddy cutting machines in rural areas. The factories prefer migrant labour from other states to ensure they do not organise around labour rights. So labourers from each state are forced to migrate. Factory wages seem higher but they are not — as the working hours are often 12 instead of 8. Besides, employment is often based on the volume of work.
There have been more cases of caste confrontations in the factories as opportunities have reduced. Also, unemployment among the educated has been a sharper among dalits and adivasis – with no implantation or weak implementation of reservation. Too often, the burden of running the family has fallen on women. You can see them every day, carrying fodder on their heads to feed their animals and earn some supplementary income.
After math of deadly attacks in Sri Lanka at churches which took hundreds of innocent lives and created an environment of fear and grief, Muslims from all walks of life from Islamic Jamaats to IT professionals, Housewives to Social organisations & Educational institutions , children and the elderly gathered on 28th April morning, the time of prayer mass, at various churches to share love, warmth and express solidarity, support and stand with our brethren during these tough times with a message that no force can break this brotherhood.
Social service Organizations like All India Muslim Educational Society, Help Hyderabad, Access Foundation, MS Education institutes, Islamic jamaat students (SIO) and the common man -all joined hands and gathered at the St Georges Cathedral Church , after a brief meeting in which some speakers addressed the media and the visitors and condemned the deadly attack and gave the message, “these attacks aim to instil fear and break us but today we want to say it loud and clear that we are together and will always stand together in all the times sharing love and brotherhood.”
They also expressed their condolences and presenting flowers near the church, marched to St Georges Grammar school church and visited Rosery Convent school Church and Wesley Church.
Polling for 303 seats has been completed and new alliances along with anti-incumbency is likely to cause this steep decline for the ruling BJP-led coalition.
A strong feeling of discontent with the Narendra Modi government’s policies in the last five years, new alliances and alignments among Opposition parties and breaking away of some National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners is likely to cause heavy damage to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA in the 303 seats for which polling was done in the first three phases of ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The NDA tally is projected to drastically dip from 134 seats in 2014 to just 66 this year, while the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance seats are likely to go up from 49 last time to 137 currently.These projections are based on the following: votes got in the last Assembly election results (except in West Bengal where 2014 general election results were used) mapped on to Parliamentary constituencies; current alliances; and state-wise swings of votes away from the ruling party in the state projected as a balance of discontent with/support to contending parties in the state. In general, disaffection with the Modi government at the Centre is projected as causing various degrees of swings depending on local factors. The analysis and projection was done by Newsclick’s data analytics team.
In the table below, fragmentation of Opposition parties in 2014 is evident with the huge list of others. This is also because many of them were with the NDA in the previous five years but have since left the ruling alliance. Examples of such parties are the Telugu Desam Party and People’s Democratic Party, besides various regional or even sub-regional outfits. Many parties in the North-East have contested this election independently although they were part of NDA throughout.
One of the biggest results of a new alliance trumping the BJP is emerging from Uttar Pradesh, where the ruling BJP is getting roundly defeated by the Gathbandhan (Alliance) of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal. In 2014, the BJP had won 25 of the 26 seats that have completed polling in three phases but this time it is slated to plummet down to just five seats.
Another big defeat awaits the NDA in Tamil Nadu where the AIADMK had swept the last elections and later supported the NDA, but this time the DMK- led alliance (which includes the Congress and Left parties besides others) is set to notch up a significant victory getting 28 of the 38 seats that have gone to polls, with election in one seat postponed.
Interestingly, many of the parties listed as ‘Others’ in the maps and table are likely to oppose the NDA in the post-poll scenario. This includes the Gathbandhan in UP, projected at getting 21 seats till now, and the TDP in Andhra Pradesh, projected at eight seats. In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (AITC) is getting just one seat out of the nine for which elections have been held. In the subsequent phases, the remaining 33 seats are expected to tilt more towards this party and it too will stand in opposition to NDA, going by current stances.
What these projections do indicate is the failure of the Modi-led BJP attempt to use a synthetic version of nationalism and security in order to gloss over its failures in the past five years, especially on ameliorating farmers’ distress, on the jobs front, on curbing corruption and black money and even on national security. It is more than likely that the forthcoming phases of polling (four phases still to go) the trend is going to continue, and the NDA will end up far short of the majority mark of 272 in the Lok Sabha.
[Data analysis by Peeyush Sharma and mapping by Glenissa Pereira]
The fourth phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, to be held on Monday, April 29, is the first time the people of Madhya Pradesh will go to the polls to vote for their members of Parliament. Six constituencies in the state are going to the polls on April 29: Balaghat, Chhindwara, Jabalpur, Mandla, Shahdol, and Sidhi. In 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 27 of 29 parliamentary constituencies in the state, and secured the majority in the Lok Sabha as well. In 2009, and in 2004, even when the BJP failed to secure a majority in the lower house, the party still won the majority of constituencies in the seat. In 2009, the BJP won 16 constituencies, with one going to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and 12 going to the Congress. In 2004, despite the reversal of its fortunes, and the failure of its major India Shining campaign, the BJP still managed to win 25 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh.
The New Indian Express highlighted that, before the previous Lok Sabha elections, voters in the six constituencies had broadcast their preferences in the 2013 state elections in Madhya Pradesh, with the BJP securing 28 of 47 assembly seats, and the Congress winning 18. However, this time around, the trend seems to have reversed. Per The New Indian Express, in the 2018 assembly elections, the Congress won five of eight seats in Balaghat, won all seven seats in Chhindwara, Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s constituency, and secured six of eight seats in Mandla. The BJP and Congress each won four seats in Shahdol and Jabalpur, with Sidhi being the only constituency where the BJP defeated the Congress, The New Indian Express noted.
Following the 2018 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and other states, including Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, IndiaSpend had noted that farm distress seemed to have played a major role in the BJP’s decline, noting that in 2016, as many as 1,321 farmers in Madhya Pradesh killed themselves, the highest since 2013, according to government data. Moreover, the BJP recorded its worst ever performance in assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Castes or Schedule Tribes: it lose 25 of 82 of reserved seats, IndiaSpend noted, highlighting that in Madhya Pradesh, tribals comprise 21% of the total population, and people from Scheduled Castes account for 16%.
FirstPost noted that the BJP has consistently won the Balaghat Lok Sabha seat since 1998, when Gauri Shankar Bisen won; he won again in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections as well. In 2009, KD Deshmukh of the BJP won the seat, and in 2014, Bodh Singh Bhagat secured the seat for the BJP. However, Bodh Singh Bhagat was removed from the BJP over accusations of anti-party activities, per Times Now, and is now contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate. Times Now reported that he “was expecting the party to rename him as the candidate for the 2019 elections but was instead asked to extend his support to the official candidate.” Dhal Singh Bhisen is running from the BJP, against Parawada MLA Madhu Bhagat, from the Congress. Kishore Samrite, formerly of the Samajwadi Party, is also an independent candidate, making this a four-way race.
Chhindwara Although Chhindwara has not been reserved for candidates from Scheduled Tribes in the past six decades, there is a significant presence of tribal people in the constituency, with nearly 30% of its population comprising members of Scheduled Tribes. Although the constituency is generally rural, “it has nevertheless reaped benefitsof better infrastructure, which is often dubbed ‘Chhindwara Model’ of development,” FirstPost stated.
Nathan Shah Kavreti of the BJP, a tribal leader and former MLA, is running against Nakul, and has alleged that Kamal Nath “has been winning the seats because of money power and by misleading the public with false assurances in the name of his closeness to the Gandhi family,” the Hindustan Times reported. “The father and son’s defeat is certain this time,” he told the Hindustan Times, which noted that the Congress won all seven assembly seats in 2018, including the three reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes candidates.
The Hindu opined that the Jabalpur constituency’s importance could be assessed “simply counting the number of public rallies addressed by the star campaigners of the BJP and the Congress,” noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to speak there on Friday, April 26, and that Congress president Rahul Gandhi spoke at a meeting previously. The Congress “buoyed by its recent Assembly election victory,” is aiming to retake Jabalpur, per The Hindu. Jyotiraditya Scindia and Chief Minister Kamal Nath also spoke there during the campaign.
In his speech, Gandhi concentrated on the Rafale deal, and argued that it had taken jobs from public sector concerns manufacturing defence products, The Hindu reported, noting that issue resonates because, according to Congress leaders, jobs at Jabalpur’s ordnance plant have declined over the years.
The Hindu noted that Jabalpur, the capital of the Mahakaushal region, was once a BJP bastion, but voted in a Congress MLA in the recent state elections, adding that was anti-incumbency against the previous BJP government and its MLA. Congress pledges like loan waivers for farmers and cutting the cost of electricity were appealing, The Hindu stated, adding, “Just as the promise of cheaper electricity resonated with urban voters, the prospect of debt relief helped win the votes in the rural areas.” It noted the current trend of anti-incumbency, similar to what was seen in the assembly elections.
The Economic Times noted that the race in Jabalpur is, on the ground a race of Modi against “an informal Mahagathbandhan“. Tankha’s candidacy being backed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the Samanya Picchda Evam Alpsankhyak Samaj (SAPAKS), “an anti-reservation front that had played the disruptor with protests against Modi government’s amendment to the SC/ST Act,” the Economic Times reported.
Singh has played the BJP’s “trump card,” i.e. Modi, and recalled his targeting of terrorists while speaking to ET, saying, “I hope people vote for development because then, it would be a vote in BJP’s favour”. Per Singh, Tankha, who was previously MP, did not do anything. “Whatever you see today is because of the BJP. Otherwise, Jabalpur was just a very big village.” Meanwhile, Tankha asked where there was development, telling ET, “For every problem a person has taken to Rakesh Singh, he has told them, ‘Ye mera vishay nahi hai’ (This is not my subject). So I have unveiled a document that says, ‘Yeh mera vishay hai.’ Now I am a people’s candidate. Everybody wants me.” Writing for Newsd, Shams Ur Rehman Alavi noted that the lack of development was a major issue in Jabalpur, and that Tankha’s campaign was concentrating “on the failure of elected representatives on this account.” He acknowledged the anti-incumbent sentiment, but stressed that BJP remains strong in Jabalpur, saying that it would be difficult for Congress to wrest the constituency from the ruling party.
Mandla The Mandla Lok Sabha constituency is reserved for candidates from Scheduled Tribes. It covers parts of four districts: Dindori, Mandla, Narsingpur, and Seoni. Both the Dindori and Mandla districts have the highest tribal populations in Madhya Pradesh, FirstPost noted, adding that almost 54% of Mandla’s population is comprised of tribals; this figure is 64% for Dindori.
Faggan Singh Kulaste of the BJP has consistently secured victories in the Mandla constituency since 1996, barring 2009, when the Congress’s Basori Singh Masram won. Kulaste won against the Congress’s Omkar Singh Markam in 2014, defeating the latter with a margin of more than 1.10 lakh votes, the Hindustan Times noted. He is running again this year, against Kamal Maravi of the Congress. In late March 2019, the Times of India reported that BJP workers had opposed Kaluste’s candidacy.
The Times of India described this year’s Mandla race as one between a “veteran” and an “outsider”. Kulaste has won the seat multiple times, but Maravi, who moved to the Congress from the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) some years ago has received opposition from local party leaders, in spite of “being projected as a leader with a strong base among tribals” in the constituency, the Times of India noted. It highlighted that the “resurgent GGP” received nearly two lakh votes in the eight assembly seats that comprise the Mandla constituency in the recent state elections, and said that if this trend continues, the GGP could sway the result in the Lok Sabha race. The BJP itself was only able to secure two of the eight assembly segments in Mandla in last year’s state election, with the Congress securing the other six. In 2013, Maravi, who, per the Times of India, is reportedly Kamal Nath’s pick, ran as a GGP candidate from the state’s Bichhiya assembly seat, but was defeated.
Shahdol The Shahdol constituency is reserved for candidates from Scheduled Tribes, with Dalpat Singh Paraste of the BJP serving as its MP for three terms from 1999 to 2016, when he died. In 2009, Rajesh Nandini Singh of the Congress won the seat, while in the 2016 bypoll, Gyan Singh of the BJP won; he is the current MP, the BJP has replaced him in the Lok Sabha race. In late March, Gyan Singh told the Times of India, “I will file a nomination as an independent candidate and will stick to my commitment. The party has dropped my name without any prior discussion. My silence has been mistaken as my weakness”. In a recent interview with News State, Gyan Singh criticised the BJP, and alleged that he was cut from the party’s ticket for not being involved in corruption. The Shahdol constituency has a tribal population of more than 40%, per FirstPost, and also borders the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh.
Notably, Shahdol is seeing race “between two turncoat woman politicians,” as The New Indian Express noted. Himadri Singh, who is the BJP’s candidate, had previously run in the 2016 bypoll as a candidate from the Congress. She is running against Pramila Singh of the Congress, who has previously served as BJP MLA.
Per NewsClick, Shahdol is a significant seat for the BJP, “and the growing disenchantment of the tribal voters for the party has been a cause of concern.” Moreover, if the race between the Congress and the BJP is a close one, the GGP, which has a base in the constituency, could influence the result. In 2016, it had won around 70,000 votes in Shahdol, NewsClick noted. According to NewsClick data, the constituency has nine lakh voters who are members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, of the total 16.46 lakh voters. The dominant castes–Brahmins and Thakurs, as well as minorities, comprise around 3.5 lakh voters.
Sidhi Sidhi is one of the biggest constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, covering the Sidhi and Singrauli districts as well as some parts of the Shahdol district. FirstPost, citing 2011 census data, said that nearly 27% of the population of the constituency is from Scheduled Tribes.
Singrauli is a hub for power and cement manufacturing, per NewsClick, but lacks railway connectivity, leaving roads the only option for transport. Moreover, the roads are badly managed here, causing long journeys, NewsClick noted, adding that the lack of water, poor roads and railways, displacement, education, and healthcare are key issues in this constituency. Voters from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) comprise nearly 80% of the votes in Sidhi, per NewsClick. Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste voters are around 50%, of which 37% are Gond voters, while voters from Other Backward Classes are nearly 29%, per NewsClick.
In Sidhi, Ajay Singh ‘Rahul’ of the Congress, who is the son of former Chief Minister Arjun Singh, is contesting against sitting BJP MP Riti Pathak. Pathak won in 2014, defeating Indrajit Kumar of the Congress by more than one lakh votes. Ajay Singh ran in the 2018 state elections, from Churhat, the “family stronghold,” per The New Indian Express, but was defeated. Senior advocate and political observer Umresh Tiwari, who is from Sidhi, told NewsClick, “BJP MP Riti Pathak is facing anti-incumbency, and some senior party leaders have either quit or are opposing her candidature. As the election dates are approaching, the voice of dissent is growing louder. If the BJP succeeded in controlling the rebellion, the party can win”. Journalist Jaganath Dwivedi opined to NewsClick that “In Sidhi, BJP and Modi are contesting the election, and not Riti Pathak. But on the other hand, Rahul Singh is fighting the election not Rahul Gandhi or Congress”.
NewsClick also reported that recently, former BJP MP Govind Prasad Mishra, who won from Sidhi in 2009, quit the BJP over Pathak being awarded the ticket again. Moreover, sitting BJP MLA Kedarnath Shukla “has been openly opposing her candidature which may hurt the saffron party,” NewsClick noted.
As Bengal goes to polls on April 29, all eyes are on three of its most communally sensitive constituencies; Asansol, Birbhum and Krishnanagar.
Asansol: Until last year, Asansol was a peaceful town where a diverse group of people Hindus and Muslims, Bengalis and non-Bengalis, lived in harmony working in its coal mines and steel plants, earning it the tag of “City of Brotherhood”.
But today, Asansol has become one of the most communally turbulent constituencies in Bengal. Communal clashes broke out here during Ram Navami in 2018 that led to the death of 16 year old Sibtulla Rashidi, son of the local Imam. It was only because of Imam Imdadul Rashidi’s heart rending appealnot to avenge his son’s death that the escalation of violence could be prevented and carnage finally came to an end.
Interestingly, sitting MP Babul Supriyo of the BJP had threatened to skin alive some people shouting slogans against him during his visit to riot affected areas. The police then filed and FIR against him claiming he inciting violence and was preventing the police from doing their jobs. Anuj Sharma, Inspector-General of Police (Law and Order), told The Hindu, “We filed a case against Mr. Supriyo on Thursday for violation of orders under Section 144 of the Cr.PC and under Sections 353 (use of criminal force to deter a public servant from performing his duty), 146, 147 and 148 (rioting).”
Violence also broke out in 2019, once again on Ram Navami, when two police vehicles were vandalised and set on fire. But the situation was swiftly contained and ten people were arrested.
Electorally Asansol was a CPI (M) bastion and the party had registered consecutive victories here from 1989, losing only in 2014. Supriyo faces competition from actor-turned-politiciann Moon Moon Sen of the TMC, Gaurang Chatterjee of the CPI (M) and Biswarup Modal of the INC.
Birbhum: This is another communally sensitive constituency where violence broke out last year after an allegedly objectionable social post about Prophet Mohammed. There was violence at a madarsa, a national highway and at a bazaar where a police station is located. The person who made the allegedly offensive post was taken into custody, but the crowd wanted him to be handed over to them.
Birbhum was a CPI (M) bastion from 1971 till 2009 when the TMC’s Satabdi Roy scored a surprise victory. This time Roy is up against the BJP’s DK Mondal and CPI (M)’s Dr Reza Ul Karim.
Krishnanagar: The land of Chaitanya Mahapraphu is much coveted by the BJP. In 2015, 50 BJP supporters and 11 policemen were injured in clashes that took place at the site of a program where the BJP was trying to ironically draw attention to the violent ways of the TMC. While the police lathi charges, the BJP supporters took to stone pelting. This year, both PM Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah campaigning aggressively in the constituency. The BJP has fielded former football captain Kalyan Chaubey hoping to highlight the anti-incumbency factor against the TMC’s Tapas Paul. Paul though has been mired in several controversies including a Ponzi scheme and has also allegedly made a series of violent threats. All this led Mamata Banerjee to deny Paul a ticket this year. The TMC candidate is Mahua Moitra a former investment banker. Krishnanagar is a diverse constituency with Hindus, Muslims and Christian residents.
