By Haider Abbas

When UP was going to polls in 2017 BJP Minister Hukum Singh made a startling fact that Hindus were forced to be driven out from Kairana and Kandhla in Shamli district of UP, out of fear of criminal activities of a ‘particular community’ (read Muslims) and his claims fell flat on face as even those who were dead were named in the migrants list. But, the purpose was fulfilled as it gave a polarization tool to the Hindutva politics and BJP went on to win UP in 2017. Now exactly after five years an incident of a similar variant has taken place but the BJP drenched lotus-faced media, as quite-understood, is turning a blind eye to it.

The importance of the event assumes more significance as it has erupted from the same Shamli but this time with another overtone as Brahmins of the area, have alleged to be living under the terror of Thakurs ( both Upper Caste Hindus) and have shot a letter to DM of Shamli on June 10, which states that the applicants ( all Brahmins) live under Tehsil Jalalpur, in district Shamli and that Jai Prakash Rana, the sitting Pradhan is a Rajput who openly engages into using abusive language against Brahmins and that on June 9 there was also an attempt to kidnap one Brahmin boy Mohit, and in a ‘show of power’ two shots were also fired on his house, which all has instilled a fear-psychosis in the area, after which Brahmins are planning for a forced-exodus from the area. The Pradhan has also got uprooted; tap and street light from those houses which did not vote for him and even stopped public water tank supply to them in order to teach them (Brahmin) a lesson for not voting for him which has forced Brahmins to undertake migration from the village. The applicants demanded action against the Pradhan. Ironically, UP CM is Ajay Singh Bisht and is a Thakur.

Did the media houses run any parallel story on it? Did it hog the news headlines? Was there any panel discussion splattered on news channels? Did news anchors made a beeline towards Jalalpur in Shamli? Perhaps not, as the crafty media, run primarily by High Caste Hindus, did not even let it become a whimper if not a bang! And, do not we remember how then the media-personnel had scrambled to reach to Kairana and Kandhla! Obviously as then it was to result for a profit for BJP as a communal division between Hindus and Muslims on religious lines will always help BJP. Even when the entire episode was found to be fake and nothing less than a propagandist tool.

The last couple of months have seen a Brahmin centric narrative in UP as Brahmins are considered to be around 10% while Thakurs make for approximate 6% in UP. BJP has been primarily a Brahmin-Bania party and in the last three decades or more there hasn’t been a Brahmin CM in UP. BJP Ram Prakash Gupta, from a Bania background had became a CM in 2000 and nonetheless there have been non-Brahmin CMs in UP. Brahmins have been in the last five-years extolled their grouse over this issue and there is hardly anyone in UP not to have experienced the growing chasm between Brahmins and Thakurs in UP. UP BJP government in now in its last phase and it was speculated that a retired Brahmin IAS AK Sharma would take oath as CM or may be as Deputy CM but Ajay Singh Bisht is said to have put his foot down. Keshav Prasad Maurya, an OBC face of BJP who was once not even offered a chair in the presence of Ajay Singh Bisht and Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma, is also eyeing for CM post and has time and again expressed his open disdain for UP CM leadership. He may be made the UP BJP President to lure the OBC votes, but which still seems to be a distant reality.

BJP therefore anyhow wants to placate Brahmins as other parties too are racing to woo them. The wrong which Modi-and UP CM have done to BJP stalwart Murli Manohar Joshi and Kalraj Misra has gone deep enough to create a trouble-spot and perhaps no amount of damage-control may salvage the tide towards BJP. To anyhow contain the damage, Jitin Prasad is the latest high-profile entry from Congress into BJP, which of course, is also a natural home for Brahmins, as after all Congress had been in principle ‘always overloaded with Brahmins’. Jitin was once calling that under UP CM there was a manifold increase in crimes and atrocities against Brahmins but now has taken refuge in BJP to cool his heels under UP CM. Brahmins increasingly feel let-down as they feel BJP should have donned the mantle of UP CM on anyone Brahmin.

The consternation which the Brahmins have been feeling towards BJP had in fact started to splurge on media sites, more explicitly after Vikas Dubey encounter case in July 2020n as was reflected from a report published in SpecialCoverageNews.in on July 19, 2020, that right after Ajay Singh Bisht assuming office five-Brahmins were burnt alive in Rae Bareli and that in the months of May-June-July (2020) there was a sharp rise in murders of Brahmins in districts like Etah, Barabanki, Prayagraj and Bijnaur and that UP government did not take any hard step to tackle it, and ultimately, what added fuel to fire was the encounter of Vikas Dubey, who was a criminal but the government was bent upon to take revenge. In the next month on August 25, 2020 News18 carried a story that Brahmins might start to find refuge in any other parry apart from BJP. The report highlighted that Brahmins had in the last elections given their top-priority vote to BJP and that in districts like Kushinagar, San Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Bhadoi, Varanasi, Ambedkernagar, Sultanpur etc Brahmins have a considerable influence to turn political fortunes for any party.

Will BJP be able to placate Brahmins is what time would tell but what has been shocking is the deliberate silence of BJP centric media which has almost buried the whole story, and if, as a matter of fact it had involved Muslims, all the prime-time headlines were to have hogged it. No wonder, therefore BJP rides only on the high tide of media waves.
The writer is a former State Information Commissioner, India and is media analyst.

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The writer is a former State Information Commissioner, India and is media analyst.