BJP-Akhilesh faceoff continues: Western UP nervous again, this time Moradabad

The last time leaders in Uttar Pradesh insisted upon holding a ‘mahapanchayat’, the Muzaffarnagar riots followed. On Friday, several people sustained injuries including a district magistrate and a police circle officer when BJP workers and the Moradabad district police clashed following police orders against a proposed mahapanchayat at the site of a religious dispute in Kaanth Tehsil, about 150 km from Muzaffarnagar. The faceoff between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh is the latest in a string of violent incidents that have kept the state’s political atmosphere charged while the mood in western Uttar Pradesh appears even more communalised than it did before the general election. [caption id=“attachment_1427455” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BJP leader Sangeet Som. PTI[/caption] On Friday, two trains were stopped, and overhead equipment damaged in Kaanth tehsil. The atmosphere of unease that had prevailed ever since a loudspeaker was removed from a village temple in Kaanth appeared to have erupted. Matters came to a head when, on Friday morning, local officials detained BJP legislator Sangeet Som on his way to Kaanth. Som is among the BJP leaders accused of inciting violence in Muzaffarnagar earlier this year. He was detained to ensure that the mahapanchayat is not held, said officials. According to a report in The Hindu three party MPs – Kunwar Singh Tanwar, Satyapal Saini and Nepal Singh – were also detained before they could violate the ban on the proposed mahapanchayat. “A senior government official was injured in the stone pelting by party workers protesting against the ban on the ‘mahapanchayat’ by the state government. The police detained over 100 other party activists who tried to defy the ban,” said the report. A report on NDTV also said about 1,000 BJP workers tried to block a train. The police then resorted to using a baton charge and tear gas and rubber bullets. Moradabad District Magistrate Chandrakant and police circle officer Archana Singh were injured. The DM was hospitalised. The BJP leaders were headed to the village of Nayagaon from where the loudspeaker had been removed. The clashes mostly occurred in Nayagaon and in Kaanth town. According to a report in The Economic Times Som claimed later that he had wanted to discuss the issue peacefully but the state government had decided to instigate the BJP workers. “Our voice is being stifled deliberately,” he was quoted as saying. “People are feeling alienated by the state government’s biased actions.” There is little doubt that both parties, the BJP which is attempting to consolidate the tremendous gains it made in UP in the general elections when bypolls to about a dozen Assembly seats comes up later this year and the Samajwadi Party that is in danger of slipping into the political wilderness if it fares poorly in the bypolls, are leaving no opportunity to appeal to narrow, religious identities to cement their support base. As Firstpost has reported earlier, the BJP capitalised – and with great success – on the SP’s flailing vote banks with a clever combination of communal mobilisation and a development-for-all plank in the Lok Sabha polls. The latest tension in Moradabad is only the next chapter in that tale. The state government, for its part, has chosen to face the crisis of worsening law and order by going into denial. The cornered chief minister opted for bravado, claiming at a recent conclave for investors not just that there was no law and order crisis in his state but also that investors are rushing to the state. When Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he was “concerned” about the law and order situation in UP, causing speculation on whether the Centre could intervene, the Samajwadi Party accused the Centre of trying to wilfully damage the state government’s credibility. The SP will, no doubt, now offer the BJP leaders’ intractable insistence on that mahapanchayat as further evidence of the BJP trying to malign the UP government. A report on IBNLive said the district limped back to normal on Saturday after the BJP leaders agreed not to return to Kaanth. But that was not the end – the Uttar Pradesh BJP on Friday constituted a committee of five MLAs for a “detailed probe” into the violence and detention of its legislators in Moradabad district. Obviously, this was not the last storm in western UP ahead of the bypolls later this year.