In west UP, chinks in BSP's Dalit base could help SP-RLD

Muslims worry about their lives and others for their livelihoods, but few are happy with BJP despite free rations

The ground is sodden with rain and dangerously slippery. The narrow drains are overflowing with water and refuse, broken twigs, and dry leaves. But for the residents of Fatehpur, with memories of the time when even the 'kharanjas' (uneven brick pathways) did not exist, this is the least of their problems.

In the village of Fatehpur, located 28 kilometres from the university town of Aligarh, most of the dwellings look half-finished, almost as though their owners had run through their funds before they could complete construction. Hidden among these cheerless homes are the ruins of abandoned havelis, their exquisitely carved wooden doors the only reminder of a grander past when wealthy Bania families dominated the life and economy of this village, and indeed, owned most of the farming land in the vicinity.

Omprakash, a staunch supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and one of the few Banias left in the village, lives in a recently built, double-storeyed house that has none of the elegance of the havelis built by his predecessors: it even has a small 'kirane ki dukan' (grocery store) on the ground floor.

In the early 1990s, when the Indian economy was beginning to open up, he says, some members of his community were murdered in the village. A combination of opportunity and tragedy led to a mass exodus of the village's Banias. They shifted base to Aligarh, Delhi and Ballabhgarh to start fresh. But those who left Fatehpur did not sell their land; instead, they rented it to Jats from neighbouring villages who farm it for them.

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With the departure of the landed Banias, Jatavs, a Scheduled Caste community, became the dominant group in Fatehpur, one of a cluster of villages that make up the gram panchayat of Rajpur. Its members account for 40 per cent of the current population here, said Sanjay Diwaker, the former pradhan of Rajpur and now the state general secretary of the youth wing of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). Jatavs are also the second-largest community in the assembly segment of Khair, where Fatehpur is located, with approximately 60,000 votes – Jats, with 1,25,000 votes in the constituency, head the list.

Fatehpur's Jatavs are mainly daily wage labourers and stressed their "biggest problem is finding work." "The last five years have been particularly bad," said Urhar Singh, swathed in a green shawl, head covered in a woollen cap. "And the pandemic has made it worse. There is almost no work, and prices have shot up. Earlier, there was NREGA; now even that is not there."

Others chimed in, saying that in the last few years, not one of them had managed to get more than a total of three days work under MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), for which "payment is still awaited".

"This is a corrupt government, from top to bottom," said Ganga Ram, "and no one is prepared to listen to us. The police turn a deaf ear to our complaints. It doesn't care for the poor, the chhota varg (the lower classes). Meanwhile, the punjipatis (capitalists) are getting richer. No one is talking about the poor because the media has been bought up."

What about the rations that the government has been giving people during the pandemic, which is counted as one of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's biggest successes? Yes, everyone is getting rations, but it is not enough, one Jatav said, adding, "It is like throwing crumbs at a dog – and mostly the makke ka atta (wheat made from corn) is rotten." They had complained, but they alleged that the ration dealer paid the inspectors a bribe.

They all made it clear that their community was once again plumping for Behenji – the name by which they refer to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati – and the "elephant" (the party symbol). "If we don't vote for Mayawati, we will not have a voice at all. We want her as chief minister – only if she comes will we be safe and get all the conveniences we need," said Suraj Pal.

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Members of two other small SC communities, Dhobis and Khatiks, also stressed they felt oppressed and deprived under the current government. Bohri Lal, a washerman, said he would vote for the Rashtriya Lok Da (RLD), while Sitram, a Khatik, merely said he would vote against the BJP. The allegiance of dhobis in this village this time to the RLD has a great deal to do with the fact that the former pradhan, Sanjay Diwaker, is from their community and a member of the party.

Kumhars, an OBC community, also complained, like Jatavs, of lack of work and the virtual closure of MNREGA-sponsored employment. But unlike Jatavs, they were happy with the rations. Bimlesh Devi and Kamlesh, both young homemakers, lipstick just so, beamed at me and said that in the past, they had voted the BSP and the SP, but since 2014, their party of choice had been the BJP.

Jogis are another OBC community in Fatehpur. Anil Jogi, dressed in a tracksuit, sprawled in a chair, waxed eloquent about the "security" provided by the Yogi regime "Our sisters and daughters are safe, and no one dares touch cows. Three years ago, he said some cows were slaughtered here, and those responsible were immediately put behind bars. The accused are out on bail, but the case continues," he said.

Once a Behenji admirer. Jogi, a road contractor, is now firmly in the BJP camp: "Baba (Yogi Adityanath) has ended goondaism and put Mukthar Ansari, Atiq Ahmed and Azam Khan behind bars," he said with relish.

In 2010, many landless Jatavs and members of other SC communities here were given pattas (record of rights) for plots of government-owned land when Mayawati was the chief minister. But this piece of information did not emanate from the Jatavs – it came from the other end of the village, from the Brahmins, whose homes stand in a neat row, flanking a motorable lane, unlike the untidy sprawl of the crowded Jatav quarter.

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Behind the high gates made of corrugated iron, a grizzled Pramod Gaur sat on a charpai set in a courtyard, large enough to accommodate a tractor. After the Bania exodus in the last century, Brahmins became the largest landowners in the village. Gaur described Yogi Adityanath's government as benevolent, dispensing gas cylinders, free rations, and more: "No one is poor in this village," he said, adding "he has helped people open bank accounts and is building an airport close by."

Vikas Sharma, another resident, said, "Mayawati had given land pattas to the landless in our village; property dealers are now lining up to buy the land along the main road. 'plotting chal rahin hain' (the land is being carved into plots for residential use) and these Jatavs are making a lot of money, getting Rs 10-12 lakh per bigha (six bighas make an acre).

Upon telling Gaur and Sharma that Jatavs complained of rotten makka flour, Sharma revealed that he had the dealership for the local ration shop, which he "inherited" from his father. He is also the president of the Adarsh Kotedar Aur Upabhokta Welfare Association of Khair tehsil.

Sharma admitted that the allegation was true but then launched into his complaints against the government. "The government commission is only Rs 70 per quintal. If my family didn't own any land, we would not survive. We get it both ways – the government commission barely covers transportation costs, etc. The people abuse us when the rations' quality is sub-standard. People label us as thieves, but it is us who have kept the rations coming in during the pandemic at great risk to our health."

If survival for most Fatehpur residents depends on employment/ money earning opportunities, for Muslims, the second largest group in the village, survival depends on something infinitely more elemental. "This BJP government," said Lalloo Khan, "has reignited the Hindu-Muslim problem. Yogi Aditynath is spreading hatred. We just want brotherhood and communal harmony. Religion is a personal matter — it should not be dragged out and made a source of social division."

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So while Muslims face the problems that others in the village do, it is fear of their lives that is uppermost. "The law and order system has collapsed," Raziuddin Khan said. "Every time there is a small fight in the village, we Muslims are put behind bars. If nothing else, they file cases under the Harijan Act (a reference to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act)."

Raziuddin Khan said that the kabristans (Muslim graveyards) were being taken over by the land mafia. "This mafia is largely controlled by Jats, but they have a few Jatavs among them. So, when we try and register a complaint of illegal occupation, they retaliate by filing cases under the Harijan Act by using the few Jatavs among them, "he said.

The kabristan motif, as is well known now, is used by BJP leaders — including Yogi Adityanath — to demonise Muslims.

And pitting Jatavs against Muslims and vice versa is an old BJP ploy to ensure that this formidable combination does not work against it. This is particularly important in constituencies like Khair, where the BSP was seen as a formidable force.

Indeed in Fatehpur, this is posing a dilemma. "We have no party, so we will vote for the one that can best ensure our security," said Laloo Khan. The RLD, part of the Samajwadi Party-led coalition, was their number one choice, he said, but reports suggested that the BSP was doing better.

History, conflicts of interest, community rivalries all come into play at election time, and the village of Fatehpur is no exception.

(Smita Gupta is a journalist. She is profiling assembly segments in western Uttar Pradesh that go to the polls in the first three phases of the elections to the UP Assembly. This report is from Fatehpur, a village in the Khair assembly segment in Aligarh district that went to the polls on February 10)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH

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