Saikat Datta | SabrangIndia

‘We’ll show them what it means to be cashless’: In West UP, simmering anger against demonetisation

Fri, 10 Feb 2017 06:01:12 +0000

Modi’s decision to suck 86% of the cash in circulation overnight hit farmers in this region during harvest time.

Image credit: Saikat Datta

The anger against demonetisation is palpable in western Uttar Pradesh.

Though the region’s Hindu and Muslim traders are not usually vocal about the impact of the demonetisation on their lives, when prodded, they quietly point to setbacks caused by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to invalidate old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes overnight in November.

Members of the dominant Jat community, however, speak with candour once the topic is broached.

A lost crop

Sohram Singh, a young Jat, cultivates his family’s land in Khirwa Naobad village, about 20 km from Meerut city. It is part of the Siwalkhas Assembly constituency.

Sugarcane is the mainstay of this region. In November, when demonetisation sucked out 86% of the currency in circulation in India overnight, Singh and his father were planning to harvest their sugarcane crop and sow wheat, a regular feature in this part of the country at that time of the year.

Demonetisation hit them at the time they needed cash to buy seeds and other farm inputs, and pay labour for the harvest.

“I don’t understand what this Digital India business is, but it hit us very hard,” said Singh. “Farmers have been extremely stressed for years in this belt. Then they take away our cash and expect us to support them?”
The anger poured out slowly as his father, Inderpal Singh, listened to the conversation.

“Why should we stand in line to withdraw our money?” continued the junior Singh. “Does the government think that we have all the time in the world? Who tends to the fields during the reaping and sowing time?”

Sohram Singh finished college and attempted to get into the Army like many other Jat youngsters from villages do. Joining the famed Jat Regiment is still a matter of pride in these parts. But he fell short of the minimum height requirement by three inches. As age caught up with him, he gave up his ambitions to leave the village and settled in agriculture.

“My father and his brother were the most well educated people from this village,” he said. “In 1971, he was the only one with a Master’s degree. Had he taken up a job, we would have prospered. But he loved farming and look where we ended up. We will show them what it means for us to be cashless.”

Western Uttar Pradesh votes on February 11, the first phase of the seven-phase Assembly elections in the state.

In the neighbouring Assembly constituency of Sardhana, BJP’s Sangeet Som is the sitting MLA. He is re-contesting from this seat. In 2013, Som was arrested for his alleged involvement in the Muzaffarnagar riots in which more than 50 people were killed. After he was released on bail, he came to the aid of other Jats arrested in connection with the riots. Ideally, that should have ensured him a great amount of support in this area. However, a few days before polling, Atul Pradhan, the Samajwadi Party candidate, seems to be gaining ground here.

Nearly 60 km away, in the village of Bijrol in the constituency of Baraut, Jats are just as angry.

“We had to take material on credit once notebandi [demonetisation] hit us,” said a wizened farmer. “There is a society that works as intermediary, and decides the price for seeds, fertilisers and takes a commission from the minimum support price. With notebandi, we had to take everything on credit that comes at a 12% to 13% interest. What are we going to eat?”

The others with him, nodded in agreement.

Rajendra Singh, who worked as a teacher with the state government for decades, lamented the crisis in agriculture that demonetisation exacerbated. He returned to his village of Bijrol after he retired, and says it resembles a retirement home.

“Most of the youngsters are gone,” said Singh. “Only the seniors are left. We can work hard, but the next generation can’t. Who will do agriculture in the future? And now the notebandi has hit us. Prices have soared for fertiliser, electricity and seeds. And [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi has done nothing for us.”

Traders upset

In Muzzaffarnagar town, traders are also upset. The trader community has traditionally been the BJP’s core base for decades. But they faced severe hardship when demonetisation struck.

A Hindu trader in the main market, who requested that he remain unidentified, pointed to his unsold stocks and said that it had been three months since demonetisation, but the market had still not recovered.
However, he did not criticise the BJP, since he has been a supporter of the party all his life.

“My family has always been BJP supporters, and I never bothered to vote,” he said. “But this time I will.” He added that it was notebandi that has prompted him to do so.

The fact that Modi chose to personally associate himself with the decision to demonetise India’s currency seems to have tarnished his once larger-than-life image. People here mainly associate him with the decision, and most blame him.

In 2014, Karan Chandna, who runs a hardware shop in Meerut, had voted for the BJP. He was part of the Modi leher, or wave, that swept the region.

“Now we are all leher-affected and we will have to bear the pain,” he said with a half smile. The flood-affected analogy is not lost on those gathered around him. “Business fell by more than 60% and it still hasn’t recovered,” he said. “My business depends on construction but most people put off their purchases. I agree that the move may have been good. But do you see many leaders or industrialists who have been caught with their black money?”

But Sandeep Goel, the mahamantri of the Sardana Road Trader’s Association, admitted that business has been bad but he remains supportive of the BJP and the prime minister.

“Well, there are hardships and the bankers let us down,” said Goel. “But we have to lose something to gain something, don’t we?”

He plans to support the sitting BJP MLA from the Meerut cantonment constituency, but said that the BJP should have gone for a younger candidate.

A few other traders, who did not want to be identified, said that demonetisation was not a good decision.

“Do you hear the BJP talking much about notebandi?” asked one trader. “Doesn’t that tell you a tale.”

Jats upset

In Baghpat town too, traders are upset with the BJP, as are the Jats.

Many Jats here are vocal about their support to Ajit Singh, leader of the Rashtriya Lok Dal. Singh is the son of Jat leader, farmer icon and former Prime Minister Charan Singh.

“This time, we are with Chaudhry Ajit Singh,” is a common refrain. “He understands our pain. He will speak for us.”

Off the Budhana-Muzzaffarnagar highway, Suresh Kumar, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste, toiled in his jaggery producing centre one day last week. As the sugarcane juice was boiled and filtered, before it cooled to form fresh jaggery, he scraped off the old stock and prepared a fresh batch.

“Notebandi was hard, but I support the prime minister,” said Kumar. “I think this was a good thing.”

Such sporadic voices of support could give the BJP some solace in this region.

However, western Uttar Pradesh has 77 Assembly seats out of which Jats, who comprise 18% of the population, can influence nearly 45 seats to 48 seats.

And the Jats are angry at the BJP, and not just over demonetisation. Members of the community have not forgotten what they see as the heavy-handed treatment of Jats in BJP-ruled Haryana during riots on the issue of reservations last year.

It’s no wonder then that the Jat community is vocal about supporting the Rashtriya Lok Dal. And that is bad news for the BJP’s aspirations to capture Uttar Pradesh after more than a decade.

This article was first published on Scroll.in

The post ‘We’ll show them what it means to be cashless’: In West UP, simmering anger against demonetisation appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Reality check: There’s a message in BJP’s furious WhatsApp messages in western Uttar Pradesh

Mon, 06 Feb 2017 08:00:54 +0000

Villagers near Muzaffarnagar seem set to break all easy assumptions about caste and community in this election.

It started with a murder in August 2015. A dispute between Shias and Sunnis in the village of Khirwa Jalal, about 20 km from Meerut city in western Uttar Pradesh, led to the death of a man called Zahid. The police believe that the murder was the result of a political dispute between the two groups. After Zahid’s nephew filed a complaint, the police rounded up several people, including Mohammed Irfan, the man who was tipped to be the next village pradhan, or chief.

A few months later, when the panchayat elections were held, Irfan’s wife Begum Nayyer won the polls hands down. However, she is just a rubber-stamp authority. Irfan’s brother, Mohammed Irshad, is pradhan by proxy, and takes all the decisions, which his sister-in-law then signs off on.

Khirwa Jalal is a Muslim-dominated village in this part of western Uttar Pradesh. It is part of Siwalkhas Assembly constituency, which, in turn comes under Baghpat Lok Sabha constituency. Of the village population, while Sunnis have about 3,500 votes, Shias have 800 and Jats and Dalits have approximately 1,800 and 500 votes respectively.

The composition of this village is representative of the complexity of elections in the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh. This is especially apparent in the western part of the state, is considered to be a distinct political entity as compared to other parts. Jats are a distinct and numerically significant community in several districts this area – the Baghpat-Baraut-Muzaffarnagar-Shamli-Meerut belt. Most residents here are either landowning farmers, or work in farms.

This region goes to the polls on February 11, the first phase of the seven-phase Assembly elections.

Overcoming assumptions

Like elsewhere in India, each community in Khirwa Jalal village has certain assumptions about the other. For instance, Jats view Muslims as a single, homogenous entity. They believe Muslims will only vote for a Muslim candidate.
However, it is not as simple as that.

The divide between Sunnis and Shias in this village because of the 2015 murder has meant that the Sunni community has decided to support Yashvir Singh, a Jat candidate of the Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate, who is also supported by the Jats of the village.

This is because Sunnis perceive the Shias to be close to sitting MLA Ghulam Mohammed of the Samajwadi Party who is up for reelection.

Thus both Jat and the majority of Muslim voters here are consolidating behind the Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal was founded in 1996 by Ajit Singh, the political heir of Chaudhry Charan Singh, one of the tallest Jat leaders, who briefly served as prime minister between July 1979 and January 1980. The party had a strong presence in Jat-dominated districts of western Uttar Pradesh because of the loyalty of Jats towards Singh and his successors. In past elections, the Rashtriya Lok Dal was a strong contender in every constituency in this region, either winning the seat or emerging a close second.

But the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots changed things.

As the ruling Samajwadi Party scrambled to contain the riots and arrested several Jat leaders, Ajit Singh’s silence on the matter angered Jats. This, coupled with the “Modi wave” of the 2014 general elections, saw Jat-dominated areas in this region turn away from the Rashtriya Lok Dal and vote for the BJP en masse.

Anger at BJP

But things are no longer the same. The furious messages being sent across by BJP workers via WhatsApp to woo Jat voters in the region indicates that the party is aware that it is losing the community’s support.

In village after village in this region, the Jats are angry at the BJP.

“What has the BJP done for the farmers since it won the elections in 2014?” asked Rajendra Singh of Bijrol village on a cold February evening. “No one other than the RLD has ever thought about the farmers. Before 2014, we did not believe in any divisions between Jats and the Muslims. We were all farmers with the same problems. The BJP came and divided us and we are paying a heavy price for it.”

This statement is repeated in other Jat villages.

Nearer Muzaffarnagar, in the village of Sohram, Balyans, the dominant sub-caste of the Jats, are also keen to back the Rashtriya Lok Dal because they feel betrayed by the BJP.

“This village saw a lot of firing during the riots,” said Dariyo Singh Balyan, sitting under a giant photograph of the old farmer leader Mahindra Singh Tikait, who stormed and occupied Delhi’s Boat Club in the 1980s, seeking assurances for farmers from the Congress government at the Centre.

Dariyo Singh Balyan of Sohram. (Photo credit: Saikat Datta)

Farming costs up

The farmers here alternately grow sugarcane and wheat. With input costs for farming like fertilisers, electricity and seeds having escalated, most farmers here feel that the procurement price of sugarcane is no longer remunerative. At the same time, payments from sugar mills have been delayed due to demonetisation.

“Modi tells us that he has sent us money but Akhilesh [Yadav] is delaying the payments,” said an elderly Jat farmer in Sohram village, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim during election rallies that the Samajwadi Party government was not delivering central grants to its beneficiaries. “But what stops Modi from sending the payments directly to our bank accounts? After all, if he can start Jan Dhan Bank accounts and send money directly, why can’t he send out money to us as well.”

The farmer added: “The BJP used the riots to gain ascendancy here, and now that our people are facing cases, they have pushed off and left us to our fate. We never fought the Muslims until 2013.”

The procurement price for sugarcane is a sore point.

Most Jat and Muslim farmers recollect that the only time the price went up was during Mayawati’s reign as chief minister from 2007 to 2012.

“She raised it by Rs 40 per quintal,” said Rajendra Singh. “No leader has ever done so much. That is why we must support the RLD [Rashtriya Lok Dal]. Ajit Singh may not become chief minister, but like his father [Charan Singh] he will speak for us and he is one of our own. We must ensure his people win.”

But in that case, why not support Mayawati instead?

The response is that the Dalit leader raises none of the issues important to them.

Remember Haryana

One of the WhatsApp messages being forwarded to the Jat community speaks about how the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal abandoned them after the 2013 riots, and of how the BJP stood by them.

But that argument finds few takers.

The BJP’s radio jingles also holds up the Muzaffarnagar riots as an example of the abysmal law and order situation in the Samajwadi Party-ruled state.

But most people here smirk at such messages.

“We all know who created the riots,” said Amit N, a young Jat, who lives in Baraut, Baghpat, while preparing to head to the fields to tend to his crop. “In 2014, our fathers were very angry with us for abandoning the RLD, Some even stood with lathis [wooden sticks] at home, ready to hit us for voting for the BJP instead of RLD. But many of us won’t make that mistake any more.”

The other refrain among the old and the young is to forget Muzaffarnagar and remember BJP-ruled Haryana, which saw riots last year by Jats demanding that they be included in the Other Backward Classes category, and thus be eligible for reservations in government jobs.

A Jat mahapanchayat held in Kharad village in Muzaffarnagar district on January 8 decided that the community would not vote for the BJP this time, and the khaps, or village councils, have been entrusted with the task of ensuring that the message reaches all members of the community before the elections.

A video of a BJP leader asking all other Hindu castes to isolate Jats is also doing the rounds on WhatsApp. This counters all the forwards being sent by the BJP in one stroke.

The fact that the BJP has fielded complete outsiders like Avtar Singh Bhadana, a former Congress MP from Haryana, as a candidate in Mirapur constituency in Muzaffarnagar district, has led to further anger against the saffron party.
“We will teach the BJP a lesson,” mutter many young Jats quietly in village after village.

Another refrain in the villages in this area is: “Where is Satyapal Singh [the MP from Baghpat]”. Many allege that Singh, former Mumbai police commissioner, has not been visible in the constituency.

All this is an indication that though different consolidations are taking place, none of them seem to favour the BJP right now.

Dalits divided

Back in Khirwa Jalal, these consolidations throw up more surprises. Take Dalits, the majority of whom belong to the chamar sub-caste in this village. Many were once dedicated supporters of the Bahujan Samaj Party. But this time, they are a divided lot.

“Look at our corner in the village,” said Sewa Ram, as he gathered around Jats sitting on a wooden cot discussing politics. “Mayawati has not managed to do anything for us. Instead, many of us are with the BJP.”

“Or with the RLD,” piped up Lal Sigh, also a Dalit, who has moved away from the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Back at the village chief’s house, Mohammed Irshad is using his position as as proxy pradhan to pick households that will be the next beneficiaries of the Union government’s ambitious toilet-construction programme under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Under this scheme, the government has sanctioned Rs 12,000 per beneficiary to enable them to construct a toilet in their homes.

Irshad had a village voters list to guide him.

“Look at the list of people I am ensuring get toilets,” said Irshad. “They are not only Muslims but also harijans [Dalits].”

Ask him who he is supporting, and he mentions Yashvir Singh, the Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate.

The defacto pradhan of Khirwa Jalal village, Mohammed Irshad. (Photo credit: Saikat Datta).

This article was first published on Scroll.in

The post Reality check: There’s a message in BJP’s furious WhatsApp messages in western Uttar Pradesh appeared first on SabrangIndia.