Frustration is a common mood in Indian public life. But when it follows a rare cycle of hope, it breeds a particular sort of desperation. In Lucknow, it’s hard to miss this dark mood. Talk at every home swirls around the terrible riots of Muzaffarnagar. Close on this, swirl views on Uttar Pradesh’s 40-year-old chief minister.
Back in March 2012, Akhilesh Yadav could do no wrong. His election campaign had been run pitch perfect. He seemed to embody the new order everyone was longing for: he was young; his speeches were soothing; inclusive; positive. His dream-selling was bang-on. In his latter years, the old war-horse, Mulayam Singh Yadav, had squandered a lot of political capital.
Akhilesh, on the other hand, seemed a space-pod that could make Uttar Pradesh jump a century. The people voted him in with 224 out of 403 seats.
Eighteen months later, even his closest aides have become doubters. “I wish he would read Stephen Covey,” said one bureaucrat in his inner circle. “He needs a high dose of auto-suggestion. He should remind himself: I’m the chief minister; I’m the chief minister. I have been voted in with a massive mandate.” Another said dryly: “We need to add one line to the Samajwadi Party manifesto: The chief minister must work.”
On ground, however, there does not seem to be any direct evidence of such diabolical Samajwadi Party design. There is only a scary vacuum. Akhilesh is not being allowed to fly: he has been downsized and grounded by his patriarch and his uncles. The CM’s chair is being pulled by too many strings. This is little comfort for those who are suffering though: incompetence can be as bruising as evil. In the shadow of all this — in the shadow of Muzaffarnagar, 50 dead and thousands displaced, in the shadow of the clamour and criticism around him, in the shadow of an ascending Narendra Modi and resurgent BJP — Akhilesh agreed to meet INN.
In some senses, it was a heartening meeting. The mess of Uttar Pradesh is colossal, the relief camps of Muzaffarnagar are teeming with the poor and the devastated, and there is a mountain Akhilesh has to answer for. But still, there are things to be grateful for too.
Unlike BJP prime minister hopeful Modi, who has never allowed himself to be grilled by the media about the 2002 Gujarat riots; unlike Modi again, who has coldly and resolutely never expressed regret or admitted to any mistakes (set aside his active collusion) in the riots, unlike Modi (or indeed any other leader in the aftermath of a major riot), in a crucial differentiator, Akhilesh opened himself to a hard and detailed questioning about the riots, his role in it, and the flawed nature of his government.
Predictably, he defended many of his government’s moves. He also fobbed off criticisms about his father’s interference. But, significantly too, he expressed regret, acknowledged mistakes, and spelled out his vision for Uttar Pradesh’s development. He also gave a detailed account of the communal incidents that led up to the conflagration of Muzaffarnagar and the BJP’s allegedly insidious role in it. At one point in the conversation, he said, “Why do you keep saying I’m not in control? Am I consulting anyone before replying to your questions?”
Still, meeting Akhilesh in his palatial house in Lucknow, it was hard not to feel one was watching an understudy, playing out lines in a green-room, while the real act goes on elsewhere. As we sat, he kept getting calls about incidents across the state. His uniform response over the phone was: “Security laga doh.”
Akhilesh has warmth: unfortunately, he lacks gravitas. But perhaps one should still not underestimate him. In displaying a democrat’s spirit, in at least acting like a true leader in braving questions frontally and affably, Akhilesh has once again showed his potential. The riots may be over, but the relief still has to begin. If only Akhilesh would catch his cue correctly now, perhaps he might yet turn out to be the space-pod he was meant to be.
He may yet redeem the cycle of hope.
Akhilesh, you came to power as a big symbol of hope for the people, but that has been badly shaken. Does hope break so quickly? How can one function then?
Not quickly; you have been CM for 18 months. But let’s talk about the Muzaffarnagar riots first. Your government has been condemned for this by everyone. What is your own assessment? Where did you go wrong?
First, I want to say, it’s a terrible tragedy. It shouldn’t have happened. I have condemned it myself in the House. See, whenever the history of UP politics is written, or the story of my personal political journey is written, the Muzaffarnagar riots and the Durga Shakti Nagpal incident will always come up as black marks. Whatever mistakes were made, an inquiry has been ordered, there have been suspensions, more action will be taken so it does not happen again. We are constantly working towards that.
But my greatest concern now is that the people who are displaced should go back. The government should provide security. More than that, the government has to create a sense of trust between the communities.
But equally important, we have to keep an eye on those forces that are turning small skirmishes into major incidents; who are politicising everything with a Hindu-Muslim colour as election approaches. I can give you many examples.
Let’s start with Kannauj. There was a farmer who has been tilling a piece of land for many years. One day, someone told him his land was going to be taken over by the DM, so he set up a chabutra and put a religious flag on it. After this, someone complained that he was squatting on the land so the DM and SDM came and broke the chabutra. The farmer accepted this peacefully enough when he was told he could go back to tilling the land. The chairman of the town council, who is a Muslim, was fine too, but suddenly the BJP and BSP got involved and the situation flared up. There was stone-throwing and lathicharge, only then did the issue get settled.
Let me give you another example. In Jhansi, there is a mandir in which Hindus and Muslims have been living together in the same compound from before Independence. No one even knew of this mandir. But suddenly the BJP dug it out and said the Muslims have to be removed so that the temple can be made holy. Again we had to resort to strict action. We arrested a big BJP leader like Yogi Adityanath, only then did things settle down.
Then, see what they did with the 84 kosi yatra. Everyone knows this is not the correct time for it. It’s true they met us for permission. But they were asking for an extra 100 kosis and this was not the correct time, so the government stopped them.
You first gave permission, then withdrew it; so you helped to make it a bigger issue.
No, no permission was given. This is just a false claim they make. Now come to the Muzaffarnagar area. In Loni, there was a big incident, when someone wrote a mobile number on a Koran. One Muslim group attacked Thana Masuri; another group of Muslims protected the thana. The police took some time but they got the situation under control. In Meerut, too, there have been many incidents, where the BJP’s hand has made simple incidents into communal flare-ups. Some animal was killed; they put it on a buffalo- driven cart and took it around town. The same thing happened in Ambedkar Nagar. An animal was killed, and the VHP burnt and smashed shops. In the Shamli incident, the girl had come from Roorkee with some Muslim boys who were known to her. When some incident happened between them, the BJP turned it into a Hindu- Muslim issue. The same thing in Shorum. A girl was teased by some youth from a different community. The guilty were arrested and then both parties came to an understanding between themselves and it was sorted out.
My point is, in these areas, such incidents keep happening. Normally, elders of the village or the parties concerned can get together and sort things out. But because it’s a crucial election year, these are being ballooned out of proportion on purpose.
We will come back to these incidents. Let’s talk of Kawal first. Why were the seven arrested Muslim boys let off, and on whose instruction?
In Kawal, some say a motorcycle and cycle collided; some say a girl was molested. This is subject to inquiry. What we know for sure is one boy was killed; then the other two. The police should have arrested people and they did. You are right, there is an allegation that the seven Muslims who were arrested were let off. The judicial inquiry will establish who ordered this. Whoever did will definitely be punished but, to my knowledge, the leaders that are being accused — like Azam Khan — had no role in it. I’m told it was a small local leader but I would not like to name anyone until the inquiry is over.
But that day, after the last rites, there was a lot of breaking and looting of houses, even a masjid, in Kawal. One panchayat happened, then other small panchayats happened. At first, they didn’t allow any politician to speak. Then on 30 August, one political leader set up a panchayat in front of a masjid. Section 144 was on, and the leaders said they would march to the DM’s office to submit a memorandum.
The mistake of the administration — or you can call it their decision — was to go to that manch to allay this mood and say, “Please don’t march to the DM’s office because other big processions will come out.” They wanted the issue resolved right there. But the media wrote this up in a big way, photographs were published, and things began to spiral. The next day, there was a panchayat and then the mahapanchayat on 7 September. The gap on our side is that the administration did not realise so many people would turn up for this. What made it worse was that, in the days running up to this, there were SMSes, MMSes, leaders were putting up fake videos on Facebook, so passions were being deliberately stoked and an atmosphere of mistrust was created. At the mahapanchayat, Prachi Sadhvi and some BJP leaders gave fiery speeches. After this, one of the Muslim drivers was killed, then at Jolly Canal, there were many killings. The mistake we made is that the precautions we should have had were not put in place. We did not assess the situation correctly, we did not realise the impact all these SMSes and MMSes were going to have.
As things began to spiral, we called in the army so the situation would not get worse. By 9 September, things were under control. The most affected were the really poor Muslims living in interior villages, people who have lived together for generations with other castes as someone’s barber, mali, tillers or looked after their animals.
You are saying your administration did not realise the mahapanchayat would become so big. But as Section 144 had been enforced, why did you allow it in the first place?
Many panchayats had already happened. But nothing bad had happened, no incitement, no khoon kharaba (bloodshed). As a rule, panchayats discuss issues, come to some resolution and present that to the administration. They have never taken on this colour before. So that day, we had no idea things would turn so ugly.
Several political leaders — from the SP, BSP and Congress — had already made hate speeches at the Muslim panchayats. How can you say you had no idea?
These questions are rising today, in retrospect, after the event has happened. The police was there, things kept happening, they tried to stop it. Now an inquiry has been ordered; derelict officers will definitely be punished.
On 5 September, the BJP had called a bandh. Mukul Goyal, ADG Railways, was there, the DG police was there, DGP Law & Order Arun Kumar had reached. They were there until the 7th. With three such senior officers on the spot, how can one accept they were not aware of the gravity of the situation?
No, a couple of officers had come back. ADG Mukul Goyal was sent because many incidents were happening on trains and bus stands. He was sent to stop these. As far as the panchayats and mahapanchayats go, in the history of UP, they have never taken such a colour, that political parties will come and give such incendiary speeches. If I’m wrong and you know of such an example before, please tell me.
Panchayats have always been on farmer issues, khap community issues, on water, electricity. It has never taken such a communal colour, never led to such declarations — so much so that the very Muslim driver that had driven some people to the rally, who had been hired by them, was attacked.
Why were the DM and SP transferred on 27 August?
When people were returning from the last rites, there was looting and arson; houses, shops, masjids were targeted. The DM and SP could have used force to stop the looting; they didn’t.
The perception is they were transferred because they had arrested seven Muslim boys.
I’m telling you the truth of what happened, but you are returning to the perception. There may be any amount of perceptions, but haven’t you come to me to hear the facts? I’m telling you the facts. Anyone can create perception.
If this had been the first incident that had suddenly flared and gone out of control, you wouldn’t have been criticised so much. But there have been so many in the past 18 months. You yourself accepted there have been 27 small and medium communal incidents; media reports say it’s close to a 100. Why is the atmosphere so vitiated? Didn’t you take this seriously? Wasn’t it a sign that things are going wrong? Why couldn’t you control it in 18 months?
But we have already taken action in all these incidents. Perhaps you don’t know the details. If you go into each incident, you will see the government has been doing what is needed.
As far as I know, sufficient action hasn’t been taken.
There has been action taken.
