‘Unity slogans may give west UP politics new turn’
The mahapanchayat was held on September 5, over nine months after farmer leaders first reached the Delhi borders on November 26 last year
MEERUT: The religious slogans of “Allahu-Akbar and Har Har Mahadev” raised at the kisan mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar on Sunday (September 5) could be a turning point in the politics of western Uttar Pradesh, said political analysts and those associated with the farmers’ movement against the Centre’s three agri-reform laws. The state assembly election is due in early 2022.
Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait raised the slogan Allahu Akbar from the stage on September 5 and the crowd responded with Har Har Mahadev in unison.
Tikait clarified that BKU had been following the practice of raising both slogans since the time of his father Mahendra Singh Tikait, who led BKU for many years.
The event was organised by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) at Government Inter College ground in Muzaffarnagar in protest against the three new farm reform laws.
The mahapanchayat was held over nine months after farmer leaders first reached the Delhi borders on November 26 last year.
Dr Vikas Malik of Kurawa village in Muzaffarnagar district said, “Baba Tikait (Mahendra Singh Tikait) always advocated communal harmony and also proved it by launching a twomonth-long movement for justice for a Muslim girl who was kidnapped and murdered.”
“The Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013 would not have taken place if Baba Tikait were alive,” said Dr Malik, adding that it was believed that revival of these two slogans had the potential to change the politics of western UP.
Mahendra Singh Tikait’s trusted aide Gulam Mohammad Jaula, who left BKU after the Muzaffarnagar riots in September 2013, shared the stage with the Tikait brothers on September 5, over seven months after doing so with Naresh Tikait at another mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar on January 29.
Jaula said, “Don’t take these as mere slogans. They represent a culture of harmony, which existed in the area for decades.”
Jaula conducted many meetings in villages to mobilise Muslims for the mahapanchayat of September 5.
“We have decided to unite people instead of dividing them,” said Jaula, adding that the revival of these two slogans would change political equations in the forthcoming assembly elections in UP.
Western UP’s Meerut, Saharanpur and Moradabad divisions have 14 Lok Sabha constituencies and 71 assembly seats. The BJP won all 14 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, which was held a few months after the Muzaffarnagar riots. The party, however, lost all six seats of the Moradabad division in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. In the 2017 assembly election, the BJP won 51 of the 71 seats in these three divisions.
Political analyst Jamshed Zaidi said Muslims and Jats were decisive voters in a majority of constituencies of western UP and the revived Jat- Muslim equations with other supportive castes and communities may worry the ruling party.
Chaudhary Diwakar Singh, national vice-president of BKU (Bhanu), said, “They (the BJP) seem confused about how to respond.”
Jaula said BKU and farmers’ movement had brought HinduMuslim unity back in the area and its political, social and economic outcome would start showing with the assembly elections.
BJP traders’ cell state president Vineet Sharda said that people were free to raise any slogans.
He alleged that farmers’ movement had turned into a political platform and the so-called leaders of the movement had lost their credibility.