Durga Nagpal suspension and the dangerous communal politics of Narendra Bhati

Samajwadi Party leader Narendra Bhati, the architect behind the grant design to dislodge IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal belongs to a dangerous breed of politicians.

Despite the public outrage over the suspension of the sub-divisional magistrate, who had earned a reputation of taking on politically well-connected players of the sand mafia, Bhati seems to have achieved what he set out to.

Bhati is widely believed to be the party’s chosen candidate to fight the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Gautam Budh Nagar - home to Kadalpur, the village at the centre of the storm over the IAS officer’s suspension. Bhati has been three-time MLA from Sikandrabad.

There is little disagreement that residents of Kadalpur were unwittingly made part of a pre-determined agenda. The minute the first brick fell, Nagpal’s fate, as far as Bhati was concerned, was sealed. Frantic calls by the residents of Kadalpur to Bhati – after all it was the SP leader who had inaugurated the mosque on June 15 and donated Rs 51,ooo for its construction – didn’t result in him rushing to the village to try and speak to the administration.

Looking back at how events have unfolded since, it would appear that if Bhati’s plan had to work, the wall of the mosque had to fall.

And sure enough, Bhati arrived the following day at Kadalpur to give his ‘41 minute’ speech pitting Nagpal against the residents and casting himself as their well-wisher. As far as Bhati was concerned, he was giving a pre-election speech to a key constituency in Gautam Budh Nagar. Bhati had become the man of the moment. But what he didn’t bargain for was perhaps the public outcry against Nagpal’s suspension and explosion of news about his alleged links to the sand mafia.

Only days before the incident in Kadalpur, Nagpal had booked a close aide of Bhati’s Omendra Khari, in a cheating case related to the auction of illegally mined sand. Khari is alleged to be a big player in the business of sand mining.

Quoting from an NDTV report , “…Ms Nagpal, the Sub Divisional Magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar, was the officer in-charge at an auction where sand confiscated from illegal mining was being sold during the first week of July. Mr Khari won the auction at Rs 8 crore. But when he did not deposit the mandatory Rs 2 crore, the one-fourth amount of the winning bid, by evening, Ms Nagpal reportedly told the mining department to file an FIR. Mr Bhati had then allegedly attempted to intervene to stop the FIR being filed against Mr Khari, who sources say has links to the sand mining mafia. However, an FIR was filed at the behest of Ms Nagpal on July 11, accusing Mr Khari of cheating. The police even went to his village Chitti to question him, but he had gone missing by then. After being on the run for almost two weeks, Mr Khari got a stay on his arrest from the Allahabad High court on July 25.”

Two days later, Nagpal was suspended.

While the media did all it could to expose Bhati’s real intentions in getting Nagpal out, it neglected to tell story of the residents of Kadalpur, which in turn worked in favour of Bhati who took on the role of being the sole sympathiser of the troubles of the residents of Kadalpur.

Some even argue that that the video of Bhati taking credit for shunting out Nagpal had the complete opposite effect on residents who were upset by what they believed was high-handedness by the administration.

The SP leader is acutely aware that his chances of becoming an MP from Gautam Budh Nagar depends on how the constituency’s 3 lakh Muslims vote. And in his cynical and dangerous brand of vote-banks politics communities and individuals are mere pawns to be used and abused in the pursuit of political power.

While residents of Kadalpur were made the immediate pretext for Nagpal’s ouster, Nagpal was used by Bhati to exploit the sentiments of a minority community. On both counts, Bhati, at least for now, seems to have emerged the sole winner. On the other hand, residents of Kadalpur village and Nagpal, who were successfully used against each other, have both lost out.