The rows of broken, brickwalled houses — if it can be called that — with spilling sewage and uneven, narrow paths are where hundreds of those rendered homeless by the communal riots of 2013 were “resettled”.Reports from Muzaffarnagar that came in those days, 11 years ago, said over 50,000 had been driven away from their villages. Many haven’t been able to go back though the tougher and luckier ones among the refugees have clawed their way back into better livelihoods and localities.
As polling drew to a close on Friday for the Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat, Mohammad Rashid was agitated — from having carried hurt and helplessness for over a decade and a recognition that his vote had made no difference to his situation. Or that of the others who were herded in the dark through roads crawling with vigilantes into safer settlements.
“Who do you think I supported this time?” Rashid asked as a bunch of people, bedraggled and exhausted with the manual labour they usually do for a living, encouraged him to vent a collective and widespread sense of despair and abandonment. “Batao Rashid bhai, batao,” one of them goaded. “Harender Mailk (of Samajwadi Party). Aur kaun (who else)? We were very clear.”
The mood in the “danga pidit (riots affected)” camp is in stark contrast to that of most Muslims elsewhere in the region who have generally preferred to remain quiet these elections about their choices or strategy.
“We don’t know about them, but we must talk,” said Momina Manga, a widow with four children. “My lungs still hurt. My house was set on fire. Look at us even now. See how we live. We don’t often get the full ration we are entitled to. Someone filches a portion of it.”
Sitting next to Rashid on a hard wooden bed, Israr Mohammad, a soft-spoken man with some of the soot from a brick kiln where he works still sticking to his face, said he belonged to Kutba, which along with Kutbi, was one of the worst affected villages. “We do think bloodshed could have been contained had the administration acted on time,” he added. Told that they were rooting for the same party that held office in Lucknow then, Israr thought for a moment and said, “We see no alternative.”
What hurts Israr’s friend Mohammad Asif the most is that “no one comes here to see us. We’ve been left to fend for ourselves”. He said, “Who needs us? The opposition feels they won’t win in any case and those who are sure to win are convinced we won’t vote for them.” Asked if Malik will visit the camp as MP, Asif simply said, “Woh bhi nahi ayenge (he won’t either).”
It’s not been easy for anyone in Muzaffarnagar this time. Elections and the run-up to polls in the constituency — in the heart of UP’s “sugar bowl” alongside cane cousins Meerut, Shamli, Saharanpur, Bijnor — which voted in the first phase, have been bitter and raucous. It was hard for BJP and its candidate Sanjeev Balyan, victorious twice earlier. Muzaffarnagar that saw a consolidation of Hindu votes following the violence of 2013 — it’s been committed and strong, a glue that has largely trumped complex caste dynamics in the forever restive belt — witnessed a veritable revolt across the district and beyond by Rajput groups against Balyan, a Jat.
There were multiple mahasab has against Balyan by Rajputs who said BJP had not given them enough representation in ticket distribution. Thousands attended these rallies that kept going at Balyan right up to polling day. Sangeet Som, BJP’s controversial former MLA from Sardhana nearby, was alleged to have a hand in fomenting some of the unrest.
Asked about his role in the agitation, Som had recently told TOI: “I have no differences with anyone. But voters know the reality and have made up their mind.” It will help Balyan that he now has support from RLD and its Jat cohort. Pitted against Ajit Singh in 2019, he had barely scraped through with 6,000 votes.
On his part, Balyan exuded confidence. “The BJP apparatus is with me,” he said. “Days of destructive politics are over and he (Som) is from that era. We will win. Let the results come, big banyan trees will fall.”
