Dadri: Almost nine years after Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched in Bisada village in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri over allegations of slaughtering a calf and storing its meat in his fridge, his family home lay abandoned with its front door left ajar. An upturned cot, a mud pot and some construction material lay scattered inside.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The Rajput dominated village, located about 60 kms from Delhi, is a part of the national capital region (NCR) but unlike the glittering high rise building complexes and long flyovers in Noida, vikas (development) remains elusive in this village that falls under the Gautam Buddha Nagar Lok Sabha constituency. As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pitches a communal narrative in its election campaign, Akhlaq’s murder and religious polarisation finds no mention as locals rally against the sitting BJP MP Mahesh Sharma who is seeking a third consecutive term from the constituency that has been with the saffron party for the last decade.
“This time no one in the village will be voting for BJP because MP Mahesh Sharma has done nothing in the last 10 years. The biggest issues are unemployment, roads and vikas. Kehne ko toh hum NCR mein hai but vikas yaha se 50kms dur hai (we are technically a part of NCR but development is 50 kms away),” said Brajesh Sisodia, who runs a stationary shop in the village.
Gautam Buddha Nagar will vote along with seven other seats in Uttar Pradesh in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 26. Sharma’s win in 2019 by a 3.3 lakh vote margin against the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s candidate Satveer Nagar was buoyed by a 40% increase in his urban vote share, despite disenchantment over development in rural pockets.
Rajinder Singh, who used to work as a farmer before taking ill, points to the broken road just outside the entrance to the village opposite a railway line.
Broken road at entry of village. Photo: Sravasti Dasgupta
“Have you seen the road? No vikas has happened in the last five years. If they could cut VK Singh’s (sitting MP from Ghaziabad) ticket why not Mahesh Sharma’s. What has he done?” said Singh.
Disenchantment with the BJP, rally attended by ‘outsiders’
Just on Tuesday, defence minister Rajnath Singh visited the village to address a rally ahead of the elections. Singh’s deputation to the Rajput dominated village comes as the BJP battles disenchantment from the community considered a loyal voter and ideological base of the saffron party. The Wire has reported on how Rajput resentment in the state is a result of simmering discontent over political representation and the BJP’s focus on increasing its support base among the other dominant landed communities, Jats and Gurjars, who are incidentally grouped under the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in UP.
During the rally, Singh, took cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s openly communal remarks in recent campaign speeches and referred to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks from 2006 about Muslims and minorities’ right to resources and accused the Congress of attempting to redistribute the country’s wealth.
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“In 2006, at a meeting of the national defence council he said that the first right to the country’s resources is of the minorities and especially the Muslims. The country’s resources belong to everyone. He said this, not us. And when the prime minister said this they (opposition) have been creating a hungama (ruckus),” he said.
As chairs lay upturned a day later at the rally spot, locals said that the rally had been populated by outsiders as barely 50-100 people from the village attended it. Villagers say that though they have been supporters of the BJP, and continue to support Modi, this election will be to teach them a “lesson” by voting for the BSP’s Rajendra Singh Solanki, a Rajput. Samajwadi Party’s Mahendra Nagar is also in the fray in the constituency.
Sway towards BSP’s Rajendra Singh Solanki
“The whole village will be voting for Solanki this time. We are all supporters of Modi and BJP but the problem is Mahesh Sharma. We need to teach them a lesson. Once BJP votes are cut they will realise their mistake of putting up this candidate and taking us for granted,” said Akhil Rana standing opposite a saloon at the village square.
Solanki is looking to capitalise on the resentment in the rural areas against Sharma and has promised to increase the quota for local youth in private factories from 40% to 60%, according to a report in the Times of India.
Sanjay Rana, who works in real estate in Noida, said that the reason the village will vote for Solanki is that he is a Rajput.
“Mahesh Sharma does not meet us locals. Local youth are not getting jobs in the private factories. He only gives jobs to his own people. He has not done anything for us. Solanki will get our vote as he is a Rajput,” he said.
Rakesh Gautam, a member of the Dalit community, who has been a member of the BSP in the past said that it does not matter to villagers who the candidate is from Mayawati’s party and who the SP has fielded.
“The bricks you see on the road were placed in a day just before Rajnath Singh’s visit. Who is in power in the centre? BJP. Who is in power in the state? BJP. Then why hasn’t any development happened? Why haven’t our youth got jobs? It doesn’t matter who the candidates are, Mayawati has fielded Rajputs across western Uttar Pradesh and that is why she will gain in this region. Here too the BSP will win, it does not matter who the other candidates are,” he said.
Bricks laid on village road before Rajnath Singh’s rally. Photo: Sravasti Dasgupta
Polarisation politics
Since 2015, Dadri has become synonymous with Akhlaq’s lynching, as religious polarisation has been placed at the centre of the BJP’s politics – a strategy that the party is once again using in its campaign ahead of the second phase of polling.
On September 28, 2015, Akhlaq and his son Danish were dragged out of their home, mercilessly assaulted and then left for dead over allegations of slaughtering a calf and storing its meat in their fridge. While Akhlaq died on the spot, his son sustained critical injuries.
Akhlaq’s case was sent to a fast track court in April 2016, however, all 18 villagers accused in the murder were released on bail by September 2017, months after the Yogi Adityanath government first came to power in the state. The accused live in the village itself. One of them, Ravi Sisodia, died by illness in judicial custody in 2016.
Mohammad Akhlaq’s abandoned house. Photo: Sravasti Dasgupta
Just a few metres away from Akhlaq’s now abandoned home, stands Rohit Kumar along with a few other young male villagers. They say that despite the lack of development work done by Sharma in the area, votes will go to the BJP because of the “Akhlaq issue”.
“The only reason we support BJP is because of the whole Akhlaq issue. Our boys were released on bail after Yogi ji formed the government. The Akhilesh government did not do anything to release them. If the opposition alliance forms the government they will be sent back to jail,” said Kumar.
Akhlaq’s family home was the only Muslim one in the Thakur dominated lane. The village has about 40 Muslim families, though Akhlaq’s family have moved out.
Muslims in the village refrained from making any overt statements belying fears or discontent. Mohammad Dauood, the imam at the village mosque said that there is no tension between the two communities.
“There was tension after the incident. I have worked with the two communities and now everything is peaceful. It has taken time but now there is no tension, neither is there any fear,” he said.
When asked about the communal speeches being made by the BJP in the election, including by Rajnath Singh, at the village the day before, Dawood refrained from pointing fingers at any party.
“During elections, political parties throw mud at each other. Any government that comes to power will point fingers at opposition parties whether it is the BJP or the Congress. I have not been listening to the speeches they are making but if they are delivering such addresses it is not right because it shapes the thoughts of our future generations.”
Ilyas, works as a barber in the village, and plays a key role in the village marriages, also refraining from betraying any sense of communal tension in the village, he said that he has never faced any discrimination.
“Whichever way the rest of the village votes, we will vote for the same person. Everyone is living in peace. I have never faced any discrimination myself. I am called for Hindu weddings as well as Muslims’. They (politicians) can say anything about Muslims but it does not affect my life in any way. I am born a Muslim but in practice essentially I am as good as Hindu,” he said.
Shiv Kumar, who runs a grocery store in the village and knew Akhlaq well, said that the incident got out of hand because of the frenzy created around it.
“A frenzy was created around that time. Before any right thinking individual in the village could act, Akhlaq had already been killed. There was some tension around that time but now everyone lives together and both communities participate in each other’s festivals and weddings,” he said.
Sisodia, the stationary shop owner said that the whole incident was a “propaganda” by the BJP government that played out in the media.
“Now they are saying they have constructed the Ram Mandir. But the Mandir has been constructed on the Supreme Court’s orders and the people of the country have contributed donations to its construction. We are not interested in this and rather want vikas,” he said.
Akhlaq’s lynching precedent and template
Akhlaq’s murder in many ways set the precedent and template for a slew of such murders across northern India in the Modi decade where self proclaimed “gau rakshaks”, in the name of cow protection, attacked Muslim men for allegedly slaughtering or transporting cows.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) does not record hate crimes separately, as the Modi government has informed parliament on more than one occasion.
In 2018, the Supreme Court asked parliament to consider enacting a new law to effectively deal with incidents of mob lynching and cow vigilantism, saying “horrendous acts of mobocracy” cannot be allowed to become a new norm.
In July 2023, the court asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to collate data on mob lynching in compliance with the preventive and remedial measures passed in the 2018 judgement.
The following month, Union home minister Amit Shah introduced the three new criminal bills in parliament that also includes criminalising mob lynching.
“A lot has been said about mob lynching in the last seven years. Now mob lynching will have a punishment of seven years imprisonment or for life or death penalty,” he said in parliament.
The three bills to replace the CRPC, IPC and the Indian Evidence Act were passed by parliament in December and received the President’s assent the same month. However, as G. Mohan Gopal has noted in The Wire , the revised versions of the three bills avoids “explicit mention of religious hatred” as a ground for the crime of lynching [clause 103(2), BNS] or for grievous hurt inflicted by a group [clause 117(4), BNS].
Gautam, who identifies himself as an Ambedkarite, said that in matters of faith a frenzy has been created but that does not mean that people take law into their own hands.
“What is the police there for? Was this such a big incident that he had to be killed? When girls are raped, their culprits are let off, but Akhlaq was killed. Any community that is in minority in a majority area can be fearful under pressure. But if a person is corrupt, or of a bad character, what has religion got to do with it?” he asked.
