Will the damage control in Uttar Pradesh really work?

“One is in politics not to crush people under (the wheels) of Fortuner.” This is the rough translation of what the president of the caste-ridden Uttar Pradesh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Swatantra Dev Singh, had said, while addressing a meeting of the party’s minority front in Lucknow on October 10.

The remarks came as a surprise as, apart from the former Union minister, Meneka Gandhi, and her MP son, Varun Gandhi, no other prominent BJP leader has publicly made an adverse comment on the Lakhimpur Kheri incident of October 3, where at
least four farmers were run-over and crushed to death by the vehicle belonging to the Union minister of state for home affairs, Ajay Mishra. His son Ashish has been made main accused in this case.

The mother-son duo had to pay the price for their daringness–they were both dropped from the national executive of the saffron party.

However, independent political observers are of the view that Swatantra Dev Singh may not face any action as he has, most likely said so consciously, and that too at the instance of some party leaders. It may be also true that he deliberately took the name of Fortuner and not Thar, which actually was involved in the macabre act.

The party is now realising that this alleged act of Ashish, the son of Ajay Mishra, has greatly damaged the reputation of both the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Yogi Adityanath government in the state. So his statement is being seen in political circles as a part of the damage- control exercise by the party as the Assembly poll is due in UP and four other states, including Sikh-dominated Punjab, in February next.

But the big poser is: will this work? Or is it too little, too late?

The fact is that the BJP had in the last one week scored so many self-goals that it is virtually impossible to reverse the process in the near future. Even before the Congress general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi, reached Uttar Pradesh after the killing of at least eight people the loud-mouthed BJP leaders and their supporters in the mainstream and social media went the whole hog to hold Khalistani terrorists responsible for the incident.

They saw an international conspiracy behind the mayhem. This is simply because a sizeable number of protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri were Sikhs. But it needs to be mentioned that the four farmers who were mowed down by the speeding SUV of the Union minister were also Sikh.

Besides, so far dealing with the Yogi Adityanath government is concerned there are already so much contradictions within the Sangh Parivar. Till the month of June the central leadership wanted to get rid of Yogi. It was only after the intervention of the RSS that Yogi survived

This was followed by the rejig of the Narendra Modi cabinet on July 7. Seven ministers from UP were inducted. Two of them were Kurmis, the caste to which Swatantra Dev Singh belongs. Ajay Mishra was the lone Brahmin to be inducted, when many political observers were expecting that Jitin Prasad would be rewarded for crossing over from the Congress to the BJP only in June last.

After that Modi made a high-profile visit to his parliamentary constituency, Banaras, on July 15. He had by now reconciled to the ground reality and showered fulsome praise on Yogi. This was followed by a visit by the Union home minister, Amit Shah to UP.

In the meantime the central leadership continuously put pressure on Yogi to expand his cabinet and accommodate legislators from the weaker sections of the society. As under the rule of Yogi the Thakur or Rajput-Brahmin tussle has come to fore in Uttar Pradesh, the induction of Ajay Mishra was not very much appreciated buy the camp-followers of Yogi.

A feeling is gaining ground that in the last four and a half years of Yogi rule the Brahmins had not got their due share. This is so notwithstanding the fact that the caste had whole-heartedly supported the BJP in all the recent elections.

The manner in which gangster Vikas Dubey was killed last year did not go down well
within the Brahmins.

Though Yogi did not pay any heed to the advice of the central leadership to expand
the cabinet yet he hurriedly did so on September 26, that is just a week after the suicide by Mahant Narendra Giri, the president of the All Inida Akhara Parishad and thrashing to death by the police of a real estate dealer Manish Gupta, in chief minister’s home turf of Gorakhpur.

Yogi too inducted seven ministers, which included only one upper caste–that is
Jitin Prasada, a Brahmin. On the other hand the deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who has not very cordial relationship with the chief minister, has a very good term with Ajay Mishra, the new MoS in the Modi cabinet.

In fact, Maurya and Ajay Mishra were there in the high-profile function in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3. The farmers were protesting against their visits as they wanted the Centre to scrap the three farm laws.

After the the second wave of corona virus many BJP leaders had become quite vocal
against the Yogi administration. In private they are also heard complaining against PM Modi. The caste divide and a series of incidents further vitiated the atmosphere within the UP unit of the party.

As the October 3 tragedy is likely to have its impact on the next year’s election in UP Yogi would certainly like to see Ajay Mishra dropped from the Union cabinet, which is the main demand of the Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi.

But at the same time both Yogi and the central leadership does not want to send a wrong message to Brahmins of UP, who form a sizeable percentage of population. Brahmins may not switch over to the Bahujan Samaj Party, which is leaving no stone unturned to woo them, nor they may go towards the Congress because of the aggressive stand taken by the party against Ajay Mishra.

But if a big chunk of Brahmin voters remain indifferent and show no enthusiasm towards the BJP it may cost the latter much in the present scenario where the battle is becoming tougher for the saffron brigade. – INDIA NEWS STREAM