BY THE TIME Ajit Singh tumbles into his first public meeting of the day, the heat has climbed to 36°C. Spilling beyond the red plastic chairs placed under a white tent in Lacheda village, the overwhelmingly male gathering is both restless and eager; they have come in tractors and on two-wheelers from 15 neighbouring villages. It is not often that they get to see the state’s most identifiable face of farmer politics in their midst.
Almost as soon as Singh, 78, walks up to the stage, a singer breaks into robust praise: “Hindu Mussalman mein bhed kabhi karta nahi, gunda aur mawali se darta nahi (He never distinguishes between Hindus and Muslims, nor is he scared of goons).” Singh stands with folded hands as elderly farmers in white turbans come up to bless and garland him.
Minutes later, a visibly tired Singh starts his address. A rusty hand pump (party symbol of his Rashtriya Lok Dal) is hurriedly placed next to him. He says there is no need for too many words. “Did you get Rs15 lakh in your account? Did you get jobs? Were your sugarcane dues paid?” he asks. The applause reaches a crescendo as he delivers his final pitch: “Hai Hai Modi, Bye Bye Modi.”
Muzaffarnagar district—dubbed the sugar bowl of India—is not Singh’s pocket borough. It is Baghpat, from where he has been elected six times to the Lok Sabha; the seat has now been given to his son Jayant. But, Singh says he is in Muzaffarnagar to bury the BJP, as it is from here that the party rode to power.
This allusion to the BJP’s rise in the region is traced to a spate of communal riots in Muzaffarnagar in August-September 2013 (Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav was chief minister then). Many fact-finding commissions have since then concluded that a sustained campaign of polarisation had been on for many months, which the local administration and the police ignored. As per the Vishnu Sahai Commission report, the violence left 62 (Jats and Muslims) dead and 60,000 displaced. In 2014, the BJP recorded an astounding win in the seat that had eluded it in the previous three elections. In the 2017 state polls, that winning streak subsumed the district’s six Assembly seats.
The 2013 riots were reportedly triggered when two Jats were lynched by a mob for killing a Muslim youth who had allegedly eve-teased their relative. With a court in Muzaffarnagar pronouncing life sentences on seven people in the case this February, memories of the violence have resurfaced for Shakila Saifi, the 60-year-old matriarch of a family of 15. Sitting outside her unplastered brick house in Tawali village, she asks, “How do you ever forget or forgive?”
Sanjeev Kumar Balyan | Sanjay Ahlawat
Recalling the days when the violence spilled into the lanes of Kainoni—a village her ancestors had inhabited for more than a century—Saifi says, “We called the police many times. They asked questions, but did nothing. The night before we left, we called the pradhan. He said he could not be responsible for our safety. No one asked us to leave. No one asked us to stay.”
Saifi and her family stayed in a cemetery off Tawali for more than a month. A dalit family later offered them space in their two-room home. In turn, the Saifis did all household and farm tasks. “How do you say no to someone who gives you a roof?” she asks. On the rare visits she made to her erstwhile home, the ache became duller but settled deeper. “Now, the women (in Kainoni) say they miss us. They were our landlords. We managed their farms. We were woven into each other’s life. And then, they tore us away. Not a single woman stood up for us,” says Saifi, who admits that the political equation of the day has left those like her with few options. This election is a straight battle between the BSP-SP-RLD combine and the BJP.
Meanwhile, fresh fault lines have emerged in Muzaffarnagar’s divided electorate. Last December, Shahjahan, 38, and her two minor daughters were picked up by the police in Khatauli city. They were accused of slaughtering cows—a deeply distasteful offence since Yogi Adityanath became chief minister in March 2017. In Islam Nagar, where the family lives, such a crackdown on women was unheard of. “I was sleeping. There were heavy knocks on the door. About 20 policemen barged in and started hitting us,” says Shahjahan, who was jailed for three and a half months. Now out on bail, she says, “Why talk about talaq—that is between a man and his wife. This is public shame. Who will marry my daughters now?”
Back in Lacheda, as Singh comes off the stage and is surrounded by selfie seekers, he tells THE WEEK, “The only thing they (the opposition) say about me is that I am an outsider. But, I am here to mend what has been broken.”
Singh, popularly known as ‘Chhote Chaudhary’, was lambasted for his silence during the riots. But, Sukhvir Singh, a former MLA, says, “Unnecessary noise is not Chaudhary’s style. He has been working slowly to repair the tears between the Jats and the Muslims. You do not put a wooden pot on the fire again and again,” he says, alluding to the limited power of emotional frenzy, which, he believes, the BJP has capitalised over the last two polls.
Muzaffarnagar’s incumbent MP Sanjeev Kumar Balyan was one of BJP’s star winners in the 2014 polls. He trumped his nearest rival, from the BSP, by more than four lakh votes and was awarded with a Union minister of state berth. Balyan, 46, is accused of fuelling hate through speeches in the run-up to the riots. As per his election affidavit, he has been booked for disobeying an order issued by a public servant, assaulting a public servant and for wrongful restraint.
A public meeting at a temple in Shivay village, located along the highway between Meerut and Muzaffarnagar, reveals Balyan’s awareness that this is not an easy election. He makes a direct bid for dalit votes. “Every step of our prime minister starts with Ambedkar and ends with him. The dalits must vote for us,” he says.
Unlike Singh’s sedate campaign, this is Balyan’s 13th meeting of the day. Before his arrival at the temple, Shivay’s pradhan Jitendra Singh Vihaan beckons people to come for the meeting. Some who walk in are unsure who is coming. Anwar, a toothless 60-year-old, says, “Som is our man. We must boost his morale. Who we vote for is another matter.”
The Som here is Sangeet Som, BJP’s MLA from Sardhana (in which Shivay falls). Party sources say that Som had an assured Lok Sabha ticket, but this was overturned at the last minute. Vociferous protests by Som’s supporters followed. They remain uncommitted to Balyan’s candidature. “Imagine being told you are just an attendee in what you thought was your own wedding. That is what Balyan has done to Som. It is best that he loses to a Jat. If he wins, no other leader from here will emerge on the national stage,” says a Som supporter. Another attendee points out that with the two main contenders belonging to the same caste, this is an unusually subdued election, where the land-owning Jats (who account for just 1.6 lakh of the constituency’s nearly 16 lakh voters) have little control over whom the other castes will back.
Addressing the slim crowd, Balyan reels off a list of work he has done in his constituency, but then circles back to Singh’s status. “He is a very big leader. I bet none of you have his phone number. Even if you had it, you would not dare to call him,” he says.
Before he jumps into his car, Balyan tells THE WEEK, “I am working as hard as I did last time. There is Modiji’s work and mine to show. Last time it was just my name.”
Rakesh Tikait, national spokesperson of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, laments that the election in Muzaffarnagar and in seven other constituencies of the state that go to the polls in the first phase have been reduced to a contest of personalities. “The people’s movement we had built around the farmers problems with the march to Delhi has been washed away most significantly by the airstrikes against Pakistan. This factor will most heavily impact constituencies that vote first. Unlike the last Lok Sabha elections, castes will return to their original bases,” he predicts.
Despite the multiple background strains in Muzaffarnagar’s political orchestra, it essentially remains pitched to an oft heard note.