Farmers Movement Archive

Signs of new alliances emerge in U.P.

“I kept wailing the whole night,” said Abdul Wahid, remembering the night when the image of Rakesh Tikait crying in front of cameras was flashed across western Uttar Pradesh. Standing on the Meerut-Delhi Expressway at the Ghazipur protest site with his family, Mr. Wahid, who hails from Tajpura village in Saharanpur, said that night they decided to strengthen the hands of their brothers. “I could relate with the plight of Sikh farmers that day. We have been singled out, used, polarised many times but I liked the way Mr. Rakesh stood for them. It won my heart.” Mr. Wahid’s grandson Shahzad, who works as a painter in Chandigarh, rushed as well. “I work in Sikh homes, get my livelihood from them. I felt it was my duty to support them in the hour of need,” he said. Ghulam Mohammad Jola, 85, who had been with Mahendra Singh Tikait right from the foundation of the BKU, parted ways and formed Bhartiya Kisan Mazdoor Manch after the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. In the riots, at least 62 people died and over 50,000 were displaced. Rendered apology During the mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar on January 29, Naresh Tikait apologised for two things. One for voting against RLD president Ajit Singh in the 2019 general elections and second for letting the Muslim brothers down during the Muzaffarnagar riots. “I have worked with Mahendra for 27 years. Mr. Rakesh and Mr. Naresh are like my sons but they chose the wrong path after 2013,” said an emotional Jola. “After Mr. Naresh apologised and Jayant touched my feet, we are hoping that the wounds of the riots would heal. Out of one lakh farmers present during the mahapanchayat, at the least 30,000 were Muslims,” he told The Hindu. He said talks about the merger of his faction with the BKU have yet to start. “See, right now BKU is their family’s fiefdom. All the zonal heads are Jats. If they allow Muslim farmers a dignified space in the union, we would definitely consider it. Otherwise, we are happy the way we are,” said Mr. Jola. Having said that, he added social tensions have eased. “We have forgiven them. And it is not just the high caste Muslims, lower caste have also felt after the emotional outburst of Mr. Rakesh that they are farmers first and Muslims later,” asserted Mr. Jola. Senior advocate Mannan Baliyan said he also belonged to the Tikait’s khap (Naresh Tikait is the head of Baliyan khap). “ But after 2013, I was seen as a Muslim Jat and was not invited. After Mr. Naresh’s appeal in the last week, Muslim farmers in western U.P. have felt an emotional bond with Jats and at least 60% of Muslim farmers are seriously thinking of returning to the BKU fold.” Now, he said, it depends on how the BKU carries forward the movement. “If it turns out to be a ‘drama’, all the efforts would come to a naught,” he said. The coming together of Muslims and Jats could prove to be a shot in the arm for Rashtriya Lok Dal. If the alignment is complete, experts say, RLD could cross the electoral rubicon in more than a dozen Assembly seats in the region.

The Hindu

2021-02-03

Ghaziabad