Tag: Azamgarh

Why the Azamgarh Airport Expansion Plan Is Being Met With Protests

Agitating villagers are claiming that because of the project, nearly 25,000 people will be displaced and lose their livelihoods.

Lucknow: A large number of villagers, mostly farmers, have been agitating against the expansion of the Azamgarh airport for the past three months. They are apprehensive that the government will acquire nearly 4,000 houses in eight villages for the project.

Agitating villagers are claiming that because of the project, nearly 25,000 people will be displaced and lose their livelihoods.

According to the villagers, they learned about the airport expansion plan through media reports. The reports suggest that the government has planned to expand the Manduri Azamgarh airstrip under the Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) scheme. For the expansion of the currently dysfunctional airport, there is also a proposal for the acquisition of land, for which a survey has reportedly been completed.

Rajiv Yadav, one of the leaders of the agitation, told The Wire that as per the plan, 360 acres of land will be acquired in the first phase and 310 acres will be acquired in the second phase.

The situation turned volatile on the intervening night of October 12-13, when a team from the local administration and provincial armed constabulary (PAC) entered Jamuwa Hariram village for the survey.

They allegedly locked the villagers inside their houses and “beat up women who resisted the survey”, says Yadav.

Protest against the Azamgarh airport expansion plan. Photo: Special arrangement

Subsequently, on the following day, October 13, villagers of several hamlets, including Hasanpur, Kadipur Harikesh, Jamua Hariram, Jamua Jolha, Gadanpur Chindan Patti, Madurai Jigina Karampur and Jehra Pipri, gathered and launched an agitation against the proposed land acquisition at the Khiriya Bagh area of Azamgarh.

Annoyed villagers have named their agitation the “Makan Bachao Khet Bachao” movement. Villagers categorically announced at the onset of their agitation that “We will die but will not give up land”.

Another leader of the agitation, Ramnayan Yadav, told The Wire that when the villagers went to meet the district magistrate, he informed the agitating villagers that the administration surveyed the land using drones and Khatauni records (a document that carries information relating to land for cultivation and about its owner, mainly in rural areas).

However, Ramnayan has raised objections to the survey, as he says, “In the Land Acquisition Act 2013, there is no such provision to survey by drone or Khatauni.”

Ramnayan also expressed apprehension that the government would acquire their fertile land and hand it over to the corporate sector. He also claimed that most of the population of the villages is either Dalit or OBC.

The villagers also claimed that Dinesh Lal Yadav, alias Nirahua, a Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian, allegedly threatened them. Rajiv and Ramnayan both alleged that on November 19, Azamgarh MP Nirahua threatened the agitating villagers during a public gathering in the Mubarakpur area.

The BJP MP allegedly said, “The lone reason Azamgarh remains backward is that its people here are out of hand.” If the district has to progress, then first such a trend needs to be stopped. “Those who are out of control, either send them to jail, break their knees, or kill them,” he allegedly continued.

When contacted, administrative officials confirmed they had carried out the survey. Vishal Bhardwaj, the district magistrate, told The Wire that the airport project is in its preliminary stages.

The DM went on to say that a survey has been carried out by the administration but further decisions will be taken by the government. “The administration will follow all the provisions of the land acquisition law,” he said. He also added injustice will not be done to anyone.

Protest against the Azamgarh airport expansion plan. Photo: Special arrangement

Several prominent farmers’ leaders and social workers, including Rakesh Tikait, Medha Patkar and Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey, visited Azamgarh in support of the aggrieved villagers.

Addressing the gathering of villagers, farmers’ leader Tikait said, “If the farmers won’t agree to sell their land, nobody can acquire it forcibly.”

Tikait promised the farmers of Azamgarh that if the administration forcibly took their land, he would join the protest.

Patkar of the National Alliance of People’s Movements said the government, as well as the administration, were violating provisions of the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, According to her, as per law, the administration should have the consent of 80% of landowners before acquiring any area.

Leaders of the protest alleged that the local administration is persistently mounting pressure on them to call off their protest.

Rajiv Yadav said that the police detained him and Sandeep Pandey while they were going on a “padayatra” in support of agitating farmers, from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency of Varanasi to Azamgarh.

While talking to The Wire, Rajiv alleged he was “abducted by plain-clothes policemen on December 24, while he was on his way to Azamgarh from Varanasi.”

“Policemen took me to various police stations, including Kandharapur police station. Later, they produced me before the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Sadar.” He also alleged that the police roughed him up and abused him during detention.

Protest against the Azamgarh airport expansion plan. Photo: Special arrangement

Meanwhile, the airport expansion issue was also raised in parliament. In the presence of civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Manoj Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal raised the issue of the villagers’ agitation in the Rajya Sabha: “Thousands of farmers are agitated, but there is no communication established with them.” Jha urged the ministry to talk to the angry farmers and figure out how to solve the problem. Scindia said, “We will investigate the matter.”

After By-Poll Losses, Akhilesh Yadav to Oversee Several Changes in Samajwadi Party

After dissolving all party units, Akhilesh Yadav is planning to revamp the way tickets are issued and give greater responsibility to those who performed well in the recent assembly elections.

Lucknow: After losing the by-elections in the Samajwadi Party (SP) bastions of Azamgarh and Rampur – which raised serious questions about the party’s future prospects in electoral politics – Akhilesh Yadav is planning a complete revamp.

Aggrieved by the defeat, the SP national president dissolved all party units and positions – except the state president.

Party insiders revealed that Yadav is planning to overhaul the organisational structure. The party’s top bosses believe that its weak organisational structure is responsible for successive defeats it has faced since 2014. The SP’s defeat in the March 2022 assembly election was its fourth consecutive defeat under Akhilesh’s leadership – beginning with the 2014 general elections.

Sources in the party revealed to The Wire that Yadav believes that contesting elections against the BJP in the 2024 general elections without a strong team will be futile. Therefore, Yadav is keen on overseeing a number of changes.

Sources in the party revealed that Akhilesh Yadav believes that contesting elections against the BJP in the 2024 general elections without a strong team will be futile. Therefore, he is keen on overseeing a number of changes.

First, a membership drive has been started. Yadav hopes that through this drive, new faces will be inducted into the party at the state and district levels.

Speculation suggests that the party might fire non-performers from their posts. Those who performed well in the 2022 assembly elections – when it won 111 seats in the 403-member house – will be given a larger role. Because Uttar Pradesh is driven by caste politics, the party will keep this arithmetic in mind when posts are reconstituted.

The party is also mulling over a new strategy for ticket distribution. Sources close to the party president say that from now, the SP will not invite applications from members to contest elections. This method created unrest within the party and many ticket seekers either left after they were denied tickets or did not work for the party in elections, they said.

Therefore, the SP high command has decided that it will declare candidates by assessing their performance and influence in the constituency.

Pooja Shukla, who switched to mainstream politics from student politics, also gave The Wire some insights into the SP’s strategy for the future. According to her, the party will give greater responsibilities to those who showed dedication in the recent assembly polls.

Shukla, who contested the Lucknow North assembly seat, said, “Those who did not perform well would be fired. The party will not sack everyone, but give them a chance to improve their performance.”

She says that the party has started working at the booth level. The reason behind its dismal performance is poor booth management, she said. Shukla also hinted that after the state convention, a new state president will be elected.

Pawan Pandey, a former lawmaker, also admitted that weak booth management was the problem. “In the past, we lost several assembly seats because of this. Many who were denied tickets did not work for the party during the elections,” he said.

Rajpal Kashyap, a former MLC, said that the SP is not going to give up before the BJP. “Our president aims to form a formidable organisation that will fight strongly against the communal forces,” he said.

Unpopular moves?

However, these changes are not popular with everyone.

The dissolution of all party units has also upset the local leadership, as many of them will lose their influence if the party fires them from office.

A party leader said on the condition of anonymity that through these measures, Yadav is trying to put the onus of debacles on the shoulders of other leaders and workers. In the Rampur and Azamgarh elections, he avoided working on the ground, which proved costly to the party, the leader said.

However, the SP leaders also admit that their party lost its stronghold because of an incorrect assessment of the ground situation. Abdul Hafiz Gandhi says the debacle in Azamgarh and Rampur is a strategic failure. “The party president avoided visiting the constituencies to avert polarisation, but it did not work,” he said.

He said the party needs to induct new young faces ahead of the 2024 election. He said it is not easy for the SP to contest against the strong network of the BJP without having committed leaders at each level.

UP Bypolls: As BJP Wrests Bastions From SP, a Question of Who Is to ‘Blame’

‘If complaints were coming from Rampur that Muslims were not being allowed to cast votes, why did Akhilesh Yadav not register a protest over it?,’ asked a political observer.

Lucknow: The Bhartiya Janata Party’s defeat of the Samajwadi Party in the by-elections held in the Azamgarh and Rampur parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh is a significant blow for the state’s principal opposition party – especially after the debacle of the assembly elections held early this year.

In Azamgarh, the BJP candidate, Dinesh Lal Yadav “Nirahua”, won against Dharmendra Yadav of the SP. Nirahua got 312,768 votes, while Yadav got 304,089 votes.

The Rampur result also disappointed the SP. BJP’s Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi defeated Azam Khan aide Mohammad Asim Raja. Lodhi got 367,397 votes and defeated Raja by a margin of 42,192 votes.

Azamgarh and Rampur were both bastions of the SP.

In the 2019 general elections, SP president Akhilesh Yadav was elected from Azamgarh. He had then defeated Nirahua. Azam Khan, the party’s Muslim face, had emerged victorious in Rampur. He defeated BJP’s candidate, actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada.

After the party’s loss in the assembly election, SP president Akhilesh Yadav and jailed SP heavyweight Azam Khan both resigned from the parliament and decided to continue as MLAs from the Karhal and Rampur Sadar assembly seats respectively. This brought the strength of the party in the parliament down to three.

The by-election in Azamgarh and Rampur was necessitated after their resignations.

Both Azamgarh and Rampur towns have sizeable Muslim populations and Muslims have been traditional voters of the SP for a long time, since the early 90s. However, in the 2007 assembly elections the Muslim community largely voted for the Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. From the 2012 assembly elections onwards, Muslims have, however, largely voted for SP.

In the Azamgarh by-elections, BSP, by fielding Muslim candidate Shah Alam, or ‘Guddu Jamali’, is believed to have dented SP’s chanced. Jamali, who is influential in the region, got 266,106 votes.

On voting day in Rampur, Azam Khan’s son, and Suar MLA Abdullah Azam Khan, had shared multiple videos on social media showing Muslim voters claiming that they were denied entry into polling booths. Many more similar claims were made on social media.

Atul Chandra, a former editor of Times of India and a political observer, said that Akhilesh Yadav’s perceived lack of interest in the by-polls has proven costly.

“If complaints were coming from Rampur that Muslims were not being allowed to cast votes, why did Akhilesh Yadav not register a protest over it?,” Chandra asked.

Political observer Syed Husain Afsar, an editor of an Uttar Pradesh daily, echoed him.

“Akhilesh appears a reluctant politician at this stage as he does not want to work on the ground like his father Mulayam and uncle Shivpal Yadav. He has disappointed not only the SP cadre but also the secular voters who were loyal to his party in a politically significant state,” he said.

While talking with the media, SP leader, Azam Khan, cast doubts on whether a fair election took place at all. Khan, who recently stepped out of jail on bail, said, “How can it be possible that only six people voted in a locality with 900 voters?”

While talking with The Wire, BJP leader Rakesh Tripathi said, “BJP defeated the arrogant Akhilesh Yadav, who did not even visit the constituencies to campaign for his candidates. Perhaps he was confident in the caste math while the BJP worked at the booth level.”

Tripathi said Azam Khan’s allegations were “face-saving propaganda, as the party president [Akhilesh] was campaigning from his drawing room.”

Congress did not contest the by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, saying its reconstruction was important in order to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Akhilesh Yadav Resigns From Lok Sabha, Likely to Retain Assembly Seat of Karhal

Akhilesh Yadav, who was until today one of five MPs of the Samajwadi Party, has won the Karhal assembly seat in the recently-held assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

New Delhi: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday, March 22, submitted his resignation from the Azamgarh parliamentary constituency to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla.

Akhilesh Yadav had won the Karhal assembly seat in the recently-held assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. This was the first time Akhilesh contested an assembly election. Karhal, an Yadav-majority seat, is in Mainpuri which has traditionally been a Samajwadi Party stronghold. The Lok Sabha constituency has been with the SP for nine consecutive terms.

Sitting MP and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is representing it for the fifth time. Besides Akhilesh and Mulayam, the SP has three other members in the Lok Sabha.

The move is the clearest indication in recent times of Akhilesh deciding to concentrate on state politics.

In alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal and several smaller parties, Akhilesh’s SP had sought to train the focus of the Uttar Pradesh election to livelihood issues.

The party won 111 seats and was beaten by Bharatiya Janata Party which won 255.

“Starting the political campaign merely months before the elections and to end up with 36% vote share, it has emerged as the other dominant narrative in the state,” Ankur Bisen had noted in his analysis of vote share percentages for The Wire. Bisen had also written that the SP should focus on holding and expanding on its political alliance and mobilisation.

(With PTI inputs)

Makers of Azamgarh’s Famous Black Clayware Are Having to Let Go of Their Craft

With rising costs of raw materials and a limited market for their products, craftspeople are moving to red earth pottery instead.

Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh): With Uttar Pradesh entering the final phase of voting, Azamgarh, also known as the bastion of the Samajwadi Party in Purvanchal, has gone to polls. In the 2017 assembly elections, despite a strong wave in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the saffron party could manage to secure only one out of 10 assembly seats in the district. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh Yadav, all-India president of the SP and former chief minister, was elected the MP from here.

Potters in Azamgarh district’s Nizamabad assembly constituency are known all over the world for their splendid craftsmanship in designing shiny black pottery engraved with silver floral or geometric patterns. Black pottery from Nizamabad has been registered under the government’s One District, One Product (ODOP) initiative and Geographical Indication tag scheme. Despite this, however, nearly 200 families of craftspeople settled in Nizamabad market are struggling to survive and keep their art alive.

The Qazi dynasty of Nizamabad emerged during the time of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. In a book titled Itihaas ke Aaine Mein Azamgarh (Azamgarh in the Mirror of History), author Pratap Gopendra Yadav writes, “Between 1696 and 1697, Abdul Farah was the Qazi of Gujarat and Sarkhej. Qazi Abdul Farah brought along some black clay artisans of Gujarat to Nizamabad town. Over a period of time, their descendants in the town’s Prajapati community acquired and developed the art to its current form.”

Also read: Varanasi’s Poor Show the Many Ways the Adityanath Government Has Gone Wrong

In the potters’ locality, both women and men are busy making utensils. One also finds clay pots lined up in rows for drying. In a neighbourhood bustling with so much activity and production being carried out on such a wide scale, one hardly gets an inkling of anything being wrong. But a closer look reveals that red clay pots, lotas meant for Karva Chauth, and diyas (despite Diwali being several months away) have largely replaced the silvery black utensils.

Ramjatan Prajapati has been awarded for his craftsmanship by various governments. “We are potters and clay is everything for us,” he says. “What will we do without clay?”

Ramjatan and Anand Prajapati. Photo: Abhyuday

A few years ago, clay was available in his vicinity at Rs 300 to Rs 400 per tractor. The local administration also granted land which was later occupied by local strongmen. In addition, 27 people were granted land on lease where the tehsil building stands today. The land was seized in the name of beautification and a pond was constructed there.

Today, artisans are forced to fetch soil from distant villages. Priced at Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200 per tractor a couple of years, half the quantity of the same clay is now sold at Rs 2,500 per tractor. As a result, the cost of production of black clay utensils has increased dramatically. The cost of zinc, lead and mercury used to fill the grooves in the clayware to give the engravings a silvery look has also increased significantly during the past two or three years. Mercury, which was available for Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 earlier, is now sold at Rs 14,000 per kg.

Anand, a young artisan, says that the quality of clay has also deteriorated as it has to be filtered several times to make it fit to be used. Earlier, he says, his father and grandfather used to sift it only once before they could work with the clay.

Watch: How Pink Sandstone Mining Has Turned a UP Village Into Living Hell

In the traditional furnace, known as aawan, up to 5,000 pieces of small red earthenware can be made at a time. The kiln for black clayware, on the other hand, produces 250 to 300 pieces at once. While it takes only one or two days to completely bake the red clay utensils, black earthenware requires 15 to 16 days, thereby increasing fuel consumption manifold.

When asked about the government support extended to the craft after getting registered for ODOP and the GI tag, and whether it is being promoted, local craftspeople claim that officials from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce rarely visit them. The market does, though, supply Ganesh idols and other decorative items to official functions and programmes. The craft has also been displayed at the Vikas Bhawan, the tehsil, and other places in the district. But no marketing or government procurement has been carried out as potters struggle for basic raw material for the craft like clay and tree bark.

Sachin Prajapati with bhatthi for black pots. Photo: Abhyuday

Three or four years ago, artisans were asked to fill a form and told that a committee would be formed following which they would be provided with modern technology. The move would help reduce both the production cost and labour, it was claimed. It was led by then MP from Lalganj Neelam Sonkar.

A Social Upliftment Service Committee was also set up in Nathupur, Rani ki Sarai in Azamgarh. Later, on February 22, 2021, Mini Black Pottery Clusters with state-of-the-art machines were set up at a cost of Rs 132.9 lakh under the Union government’s SFURTI scheme. One such cluster was inaugurated by then Union minister Nitin Gadkari in Dodpur village, four km away from the potters’ locality. It was assured that 300 craftsmen would be directly or indirectly connected with it. But local artisans claim that they rarely visit these clusters. Neelam Sonkar, BJP candidate from Lalganj, could not be contacted for comment as she is busy in the poll campaign.

Local potters Ankit and Kanchan claim that they get electricity at commercial rates. “If the government wants to promote our work, they should at least offer us electricity at cheaper rates,” they say.

Ramjatan Prajapati’s shop. Photo: Abhyuday

When asked about local public representatives and party candidates in the fray in the ongoing elections, people claim that no one has visited them till now. SP’s Alam Badi is a four-time MLA from the seat and is contesting this year as well. Rajiv Yadav, general secretary of the Rihai Manch, is contesting as an independent, supported by the CPI (ML) and various civil society organisations and intellectuals. But no SP, BSP, BJP or Congress candidate visited the area for canvassing. The outgoing MLA has also failed to raise their problems, let alone meet the people.

The question, therefore, arises – will the future generations of these craftsmen, who are incessantly battling the crisis of dearth of raw materials along with inflation and neglect from the government and the administration, be able to keep alive the legacy of this beautiful art?

Akhilesh Yadav Says He Won’t Contest Uttar Pradesh Assembly Polls Next Year

The Samajwadi Party MP from Azamgarh is likely to be the CM face of his party.

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav on Monday, said he will not be contesting the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls early next year.

He also said that an alliance between his party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) for the polls has been finalised.

Also read: Samajwadi Party, Rajbhar’s SBSP ‘Join Hands’ for UP Assembly Polls

“Our alliance with RLD is final. Seat sharing is to be finalised,” he told PTI in an interview.

Yadav, who is also SP MP from Azamgarh and the chief minister face of his party, said he will “not be contesting the assembly polls”.

On chances of taking uncle Shivpal Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL) along in the polls, he said, “I don’t have any problem in this. He and his men will be given due honour”.

(PTI)

Was Police Savagery in Azamgarh the First Episode of a New Wave of Violence Against Dalits?

When about 200 police personnel attack relatives and property of a Dalit village pradhan with iron rods and bulldozers, it seems likely that caste issues are the motivation.

Azamgarh: “At around 8 pm I heard a commotion outside. Suddenly, the power supply was disconnected and everybody in the house started shouting, ‘Run! The police are here’!” recalled Sandhya, a 22-year-old Dalit resident of Palia village in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, about the horror endured by her family on the night of June 29, 2021. 

“Before I could understand what was going on, a dozen policemen barged into the house. One of them hit me on the hand with an iron rod while hurling abuses at me. The policemen began vandalising everything in the house. I grabbed my sister’s hand and fled to the lake behind our house. It felt as though my heart would stop and I’d die. I still feel the terror. That night, it seemed we were attacked by a bunch of criminals, not cops,” she said.

That night, according to the villagers of Palia, about 200 policemen had arrived at about 8.30 pm in about 30 to 40 four-wheelers and two-wheelers and violently raided the village. The villagers alleged that police had brought three JCB bulldozers with them as well, which they had used break down parts of the village houses. 

Palia village falls under the Raunapur police station area in Azamgarh. 

The June 29 attack was followed by two further raids, one on June 30 and the other on July 3. The police might have wreaked yet more atrocities against Palia’s Dalit community after July 3, had it not been for the arrival of Anil Kumar Yadav, secretary of the Congress party, on the night of July 4. Yadav had heard of the attacks on Palia village and had decided to visit the village himself for more information.

It was only after members of the Congress party and other political parties staged a dharna or sit-in protest against the atrocities wreaked by the police on Palia that the administration transferred the station house officer (SHO) at the Raunapar police station to the police lines and also transferred the circle officer of the Sagri police circle to which the Raunapar police station reports. 

The incident is largely being viewed as the first episode of a new wave of violence and atrocities on Dalits.

Also read: Azamgarh: First Dalit Village Pradhan in 2 Decades Killed ‘to Send a Message of Fear’

The incident at Mau Qutubpur crossing

The police attacks on the Dalit community of Palia took place after an alleged incident of molestation at the Mau Qutubpur chauraha (crossroads) at 6.30 pm on June 29, which led to a scuffle between two constables and the people of Palia. 

According to Munna Paswan, the husband of the village head, Manju Paswan, a girl from the village had been in touch with Littan Biswas, the son of Anand Biswas, a doctor living at Mau Qutubpur crossing. 

At around 6 pm on June 29, the girl’s brother and Munna’s 21-year-old nephew Santosh went to warn Littan Biswas against pursuing the relationship. A heated altercation ensued, following which Littan allegedly attacked the duo with a sickle and a stick, hitting the girl’s brother on the head and Santosh on the back. 

When news of this altercation reached the village, the locals rushed to the scene. Munna Paswan, who had been at the brick kiln that he manages together with his cousin, Swatantra Kumar, aka Appu, said that someone had had phoned him about the incident, after which he ran to the crossing. There he had been told that Littan had fled while his father, Anand Biswas, had locked himself into his house. Munna claimed that he had mollified the locals and had urged them to return to the village while he accompanied the injured men for medical treatment. 

But before they had travelled even 300 metres, a police vehicle had drawn up and stopped and two constables had asked about Munna Paswan. 

Signs of destruction around Palia. Photo: Manoj Singh

“When I introduced myself, they told me to accompany them to the police station,” Munna recounted. “I told them I’d go once the boys had received medical treatment. But one of the constables, Vivek Tripathi, began forcing me into the vehicle. When I resisted, he punched me in the face and my nose began to bleed. This angered the locals and a scuffle broke out between them and the cops. However, I pacified the people and asked everyone to return to the village, where I returned as well.”

Littan Biswas and the police, meanwhile, have another version of the story. According to Littan, some boys from Palia village had been molesting some girls near the crossing. As he recorded the incident on his mobile phone, the boys attacked him. He immediately informed the police about the incident, but when two constables arrived, the villagers attacked them.

According to the complaint filed by a head constable of Raunapar police station he and another head constable, Vivek Tripathi, had been attacked by Mukhraj Yadav, Munna Paswan and his brother Brijbhan Paswan, Swatantra Kumar and several others, and Tripathi was gravely injured.

According to the complaint filed by a head constable Mukhraj Yadav of Raunapar police station he and another head constable, Vivek Tripathi, had been attacked by Munna Paswan and his brother Brijbhan Paswan, Swatantra Kumar and several others, and Tripathi was gravely injured.

In the First Information Report (FIR) based on this complaint, 16 people including Munna Paswan, Brijbhan, Swatantra Kumar alias Appu, Shri Bhajan, Santosh, Shravan, Dipak, Aakash, Sahul, Surya Prakash, Kavi, Subhash, Rahul, Rajpati, Ashutosh Rai and 100 unidentified persons have been charged under Sections 147, 148, 149, 307, 323, 325, 333,352,353, 504, 506, 188, 269, 270, and 427 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, along with Section 7 of the Penal Legislative Amendment Act, 2013.

The FIR states: “The accused attacked both the constables with lathis, sticks, rods, hockey sticks and sharp weapons. Tripathi bled profusely after being attacked by a sharp weapon and his collar bone was fractured. Incited by Munna Paswan, Swatantra Kumar Appu opened fire with his licensed rifle. Tripathi has sustained serious injuries and is admitted to the Azamgarh District Hospital.”

Based on Littan’s statement, the police have also registered a case of molestation and assault against 12 people, including Munna Paswan, in addition to 15 unidentified persons.

Munna however claims that Swatantra Kumar, aka Appu, who has been named in the FIR for firing shots with a licensed rifle, had not even been present in the village on the day of the incident since he had recently undergone a surgery. Instead, he had been in the hospital with his wife.

Also read: Azamgarh: In Crackdown on CAA Protesters, Police Accused of Pelting Stones, Using Slurs

The first police assault

According to the villagers, about two hours after the fracas at Mau Qutubpur crossing, hundreds of policemen on four-wheelers and two-wheelers attacked Palia. 

Both Munna Paswan and Swantantra Kumar’s houses are to the right of the main road of the village. The community hall of the Gram Panchayat is to the left. Adjacent to the hall is another house owned by Kumar, where a tractor and a scooter were parked. The vehicles were completely mangled in the police attack.

When he saw the police deployment outside his house, Munna Paswan grew afraid. As he fled the house, he shouted to his wife, Manju Paswan, and children, 17-year-old Surya Prakash, 15-year-old Annu and 12-year-old Satyam, to flee as well. Also present in the house at the time were Munna Paswan’s mother Champa Devi and sisters Sandhya and Suman. Sandhya, who had just been married in May, was visiting the family.

Village pradhan Manju Paswan. Photo: Manoj Singh

According to Manju, there were three JCB bulldozers with the police. 

“As soon as the police arrived in the village, they cut off the power supply to our house and our neighbouring houses. The cops then ran towards our house and attacked everyone who came in their way. They also began demolishing parts of the houses with the JCBs. I escaped along with my children towards the lake behind the house and stayed there till 1 am. Other people from the village also hid near the lake. We distinctly heard the sound of our houses being bulldozed,” she said.

Manju continued: “We returned to the village at around 1 am after the police had left. Our houses had been completely ransacked. The locks on almirahs (cupboards) were broken and jewellery including gold earrings, mangalsutras, mangtikas, rings, anklets, nose rings and a silver girdle and anklet, was missing along with some cash. The whole house was badly vandalised. No corner of the house had been spared. Even the clothes and the children’s books had been ripped apart.” 

According to Munna, a sum of Rs 6.5 lakhs had been stolen as well. He had received the amount as payment at the brick kiln but had not been able to deposit it in the bank since Kumar was in hospital.

“Our LCD TV, inverter and its battery, table fan, air cooler, 17 plastic chairs, three tables and several other items of furniture had been broken,” said Munna. His laptop had been smashed while mark-sheets and other documents related to their children were also missing.

Recounting the night’s horror, Sandhya said that she had been in her room when the cops barged into the house. Had she not escaped, she said, the policemen, carrying lathis and iron rods, would have thrashed her. Although female cops had accompanied the force, they had remained mute spectators as the male cops went on a rampage, Sandhya claimed. When she returned home along with the others that night, she saw that the entire house had been wrecked. Food grain containers had been toppled, the gas stove was damaged and the gas cylinders were missing. Sandhya alleged that several pieces of her family’s gold jewellery were also looted.

Sandhya also claimed that the police had confiscated her mobile and laptop. She had received the laptop under the earlier Samajwadi Party-led government’s free laptop distribution scheme for intermediate students.

Two pillars of Munna Paswan’s house had been damaged by the JCB machines and the front part of his house, which had been supported by these pillars, is on the verge of collapse.

Swatantra Kumar’s properties were also viciously targeted. When the police charged at the house that night, Swatantra Kumar’s mother, four-year-old son and his older brother’s wife, Sunita, were at home. Kumar’s older brother, Suryabhan, is an engineer at the diesel locomotive works, Varanasi.

Village pradhan Manju Paswan’s house. Photo: Manoj Singh

According to 45-year-old Sunita, she had been preparing dinner when the policemen broke into the house, hurling obscenities at everyone they came across. They had immediately started demolishing the front of the house with a JCB machine, she claimed. Sunita had escaped with Kumar’s son and mother and hidden in a house in the village. Her mother-in-law, who suffers from asthma, had been inconsolable when she saw the house being demolished and had had to be locked in a room to be stopped from returning. Following the attack, Kumar’s mother’s health has deteriorated and she is undergoing treatment at a hospital.

Kumar’s house was badly vandalised too. Even the temple in one room was not spared. Every single window in the house was smashed.

‘We were beaten with lathis’

Rajpati Paswan lives across from Kumar’s house. When the police raid began, Rajpati’s daughter Priyanka, a recent graduate, had been preparing dinner. 

“My sister-in-law Manju had been feeding her four-month-old child when the policemen broke the main door and forced their way into the house,” said Priyanka. “I asked them why they were vandalising everything. They asked me instead about the pradhan’s (village head) house. When I told them this was the house of her uncle, the policemen started hitting me with rods and abusing me. I was dragged out of the house and severely beaten up. My clothes were torn.”

Some police personnel had also targeted her brother Mintu’s wife Manju and began thrashing her, which caused the baby to fall from her lap and suffer a head injury. Manju had had a surgical procedure four months earlier and was still recovering from it.

“I kept pleading them to spare us, but they did not stop. My injured sister-in-law and her four-month-old baby have had to be hospitalised after the police atrocity,” said Priyanka.

All the women who had hidden from the police returned after 1 am and spent the rest of the night in their ravaged homes without food and water. Fearing arrest, the men did not return to the village at all. On the next day, June 30, when a large number of people had gathered around the three vandalised houses sometime in the afternoon, the police returned again.

Swatantra Kumar’s house after being raided. Photo: Manoj Singh

‘It will haunt me my entire life’

Pintu, a 25-year-old resident of Palia, said that the police had returned to the village with reinforcements on June 30 for a second round of attacks. Those who had gathered near the vandalised houses had fled. Two girls, including Pintu’s sister-in-law Sunita, had been badly beaten. The police had detained a 16-year-old high school student named Chandan and 40-year-old Chandrajeet.

Sunita, Pintu’s sister-in-law, had been going through the items in her damaged home when the police suddenly returned for a fresh bout of savagery and began thrashing everyone they could see with lathis and rods while hurling slurs at them. Even ten days after the assault, the wounds on her body have not healed and she is taking pain killers. 

“I still do not understand why I was beaten up. I have never witnessed such cruelty before. I am the family’s oldest daughter-in-law and rarely go out of the house, but that day the police thrashed and humiliated me in front of the whole village. The trauma will stay with me for the rest of my life,” said Sunita.

Sunita’s sister-in-law recalled how the policemen trampled on the family pictures with their boots, breaking the photo frames. 

“They took away the picture of Papa (Shyamdev) and slashed the photo of my nephew with a knife. What could be the purpose of such vile acts? We believe the attack was orchestrated with the aim of exterminating the entire family,” she alleged.

Also read: Hathras Case: The Intersecting Factors Behind Structural Violence Against Dalit Women

According to Pintu, the police went on the rampage for a third time on the night of July 3 and continued the assault till 2 am, nabbing a labourer named Suresh who they kept in custody for four days. 

“The police also entered my house,” said Pintu. “I hid inside the gohra (a heap of cow-dung cakes). About 20-25 police personnel entered Samharu’s house too and assaulted the women. They threatened them with the same fate as the village head if Shivvachan did not appear before the police within a stipulated time.” 

Samharu is the father of Shivvachan, one of the men who had scuffled with the two constables on the evening of June 29.

‘Worse than Manuvadi violence’

Before he passed away on May 5, 2020, Sunita’s father-in-law, Shyamdev, had retired after serving as the executive officer in several Nagar Panchayats or town councils, including Mau district. Shyamdev had proactively helped the Dalit community progress with education. As a result of his efforts, not only his family but fellow members of the Pasi community in the village acquired better education and secured jobs. Shyamdev is still fondly remembered for his endeavours.

Mahant Kanhaiya Prabhu Giri of Lalganj’s Ramjanaki temple, the first Dalit Maha Mandaleshwar (high priest) in the country, acknowledges drawing inspiration from Shyamdev. He was horrified by the attack on Shyamdev’s village and told The Wire that the scale of the ransacking and the looting of the houses clearly shows that the attacks were an act of vengeance. 

Examples of destruction. Photo: Manoj Singh

“It was even worse than the typical Manuwadi or upper caste violence against the Dalits. There are a number of Pasi community members in Palia and adjoining areas who have progressed a lot in terms of education and employment. The Pasi people are well-organised and actively involved in politics. Munna Paswan is quite a popular figure in the village and for the past 20 years his family members or candidates chosen by him have been elected as the village head. The upper caste members who envy him conspired and instigated the police to take this action,” alleged Giri.

Hinting at the involvement of a local BJP leader, Giri said that there had been several attempts in the last few years to harass and persecute Munna Paswan’s family. For example, Giri said, a year ago, Swatantra Kumar had been falsely implicated in a case when liquor was planted at his brick kiln.

Giri met the district magistrate and the superintendent of police (SP) on July 7 regarding the police assault on the property of Munna Paswan. He demanded compensation for the families that had been attacked and the damage that had been caused during the attacks. He also demanded punitive action against the guilty police personnel, the release of the villagers who had been arrested and the withdrawal of the cases registered against the villagers.

Ahsan Khan, the state spokesperson of the Azad Samaj Party, who is currently staging a dharna in Palia, believes that Giri’s assessment of the reason for the police attacks is correct. 

“The members of the Dalit community in the village have worked hard to progress and prosper. They own better houses, and possess tractors and cars. The village musclemen feel envious of the prosperity of the Dalits,” said Khan.

Khan believes that the police action against the Palia villagers between June 29 and July 3 was part of a larger conspiracy and demands an investigation into the matter.

The atrocities against the Dalits in Palia village might not have become widely known had Anil Kumar Yadav, secretary of the Congress party, not visited the village on the night of July 4. Yadav said he was stunned to see the condition of the vandalised houses. When the scared women of Palia pleaded with him to stay in the village because the police were still harassing them, Yadav and his fellow party members stayed the night and launched a dharna the next day together with Vishwa Vijay Singh, the state vice president of the Congress and Praveen Singh, the district president of the party.


The Congress leaders’ dharna continued for three days. On July 5, Priyanka Gandhi tweeted about the incident. This was followed by a tweet from Mayawati, the head of the Bahujan Samaj Party.


It was these social media interventions that finally awoke the nation to the atrocities against the Dalits in the remote Azamgarh village. The Congress later organised a fast against the police attacks on Palia at its district headquarters and a Dalit Mahapanchayat was called in Godhaura village of Jahanaganj police station area.

On July 19, Chandrashekhar Azad Ravana, the chief of the Bhim Army and president of the Azad Samaj Party, met the villagers of Palia. He demanded compensation of Rs 5 crores for the families who had been targeted by the police and said that if a case had not been registered against the guilty police personnel within a week, he would return to Palia and organise a mahapanchayat in the village. 

“Even after such a major incident, it has not occurred to Yogi Adityanath to visit Palia,” said Chandrashekhar Azad Ravana about the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The police statement

In a statement, Sudhir Kumar Singh, the superintendent of the Azamgarh police, reported that head constable Vivek Tripathi had been severely assaulted in the altercation with the villagers on the evening of June 29 and had had to undergo a surgical procedure. Two separate FIRs have been registered against the villagers, one for an assault on Littan Biswas and the other for an attack on police personnel. The SP denied all the allegations of vandalism against the police and said that a case has been registered against unidentified persons in connection with it. He also said that to avoid arrest, those accused in the FIRs had instigated the women of their families to stage a dharna.

Destruction at Palia village. Photo: Manoj Singh

However, as pressure mounted on the administration, senior officers of the police arrived at Palia village on the afternoon of July 6 and apologised to the villagers. 

“One of the senior police officers apologised and expressed regret over it,” said Anita, a resident of Palia. “I asked him how he would feel if someone did the same to the women in his family. Next to him stood the police officer who had beaten me up and abused me that night, his face covered with a mask. When I asked him to take off the mask, he looked down, but his face showed no remorse for his actions.”

Also read: BSP, Congress Raise Pitch for Action Against Cops Who ‘Ransacked’ Dalit Houses in UP Village

Eight days after the attacks, Tarakeswar Rai, Raunapar’s SHO, was moved to the police lines and a magisterial probe was ordered. Four days later, Gopal Swaroop Vajpayee, the CO of Sagri, was also transferred. In a video that has gone viral, Sunita Devi accuses the CO of telling her during one of the raids that the police had returned because they had “missed the fun”.

Even 10 days after the incident, the houses of the Palia village head Manju Paswan and her husband, Munna Paswan, their cousin Swatantra Kumar and uncle Rajpati Paswan, remain wrecked. Broken air conditioners, generators and other appliances can be seen lying outside Kumar’s house. The front of the house has been completely knocked down. All the windows have been smashed and glass is strewn all over the place. The roof of another house owned by Kumar across the road has collapsed over a tractor parked outside, which has also been vandalised.

Manju Paswan’s house is a similar picture of destruction. The verandah’s central pillar has been knocked down while the balcony dangles without support.

The manner of attack – bulldozing the houses with JCB machines and vandalising every single household item – suggests that the intent behind it was not simply retaliatory police action after a dispute between the villagers and two constables, but an act of vengeance aimed at teaching the Dalits a lesson. Why else would the police personnel mutilate photographs of children and elderly people, tear apart documents and smash laptops? 

The police atrocities on the residents of Palia have halted for now, owing to pressure from all quarters. The witch-hunt of Dalit men has also stopped. The men who fled the village have started returning. The locals are busy rebuilding damaged homes. But the police savagery experienced by the people of Palia between June 29, 2021 and July 3, 2021, will remain etched in the collective memory of India’s Dalits for a long time.

BSP, Congress Raise Pitch for Action Against Cops Who ‘Ransacked’ Dalit Houses in UP Village

Villagers who had allegedly fled the area were only able to return after opposition parties began protesting against the reported police atrocities.

New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have sought action against policemen who reportedly committed atrocities on Dalit families in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh.

Houses owned by a Dalit head of an Uttar Pradesh village were reportedly ransacked by police personnel, who villagers allege also misbehaved with the village head, in the aftermath of a fight among villagers.

“It is shameful that Azamgarh Police instead of giving justice to the victimised Dalits of Palia village are committing atrocities on them and causing financial losses. The government should take immediate cognisance of this incident and take strict action against the culprits and compensate the victims financially,” Mayawati said in a tweet in Hindi.

“Taking note of the seriousness of this latest incident of victimisation of of Dalits by the oppressors and the police, a delegation of BSP under the leadership of former MLA Gaya Charan Dinkar will visit the village soon to meet the victims,” she said in another tweet.


“News about attack on Dalit families in Palia village in Azamgarh. Houses were damaged, and cases were registered. This indicates the anti-Dalit mindset of the government. Immediate action should be taken against the accused, and compensation should be given to the victims,” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also said in a tweet in Hindi.


According to police, there was a dispute between a doctor and some people in Palia village under Raunapar Police Station area on June 29 following which two policemen intervened in the matter and they were allegedly attacked by the village pradhan and his aides.

On the same night, police surrounded the Dalit hamlet and damaged the houses and looted them following which, the villagers fled, claimed locals.

Indian Express has reported that three of the houses owned by the family of the Dalit Palia village head, along with a storage unit, household items, food grains and a tractor, were destroyed, allegedly by police.

The village head, Munna Paswan, told the newspaper that on June 29, a row had taken place in the village after a Dalit women went to meet a person outside of her community and Paswan was forced to intervene.

Constables at the scene allegedly hit Paswan and injured him, upon which villagers thrashed the constable, Paswan’s family claimed. However, the family has alleged that while they were not the ones who thrashed policemen, police disconnected power supply to their village and “hundreds of them” arrived, beat up “whomever they saw,” used casteist slurs and ransacked the family’s houses that evening.

Several people who had fled reportedly returned only when opposition leaders raised the pitch on the issue.

The district administration has ordered a magisterial inquiry by the SDM (Lalganj) and the local inspector has been removed, Indian Express has additionally reported.

Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police, Azamgarh, Sudhir Kumar Singh said a case has been registered against 11 named people and 135 unidentified people.

(With PTI inputs)

The Making Of Sharjeel Usmani and His Speech At Elgar Parishad

The 23-year-old former student of AMU is facing charges of sedition for his speech. He says he is fighting for his “fair share in Indian society”.

When Sharjeel Usmani was invited to speak at the Elgar Parishad event on January 30 in Pune, the 23-year-old did not think twice before saying yes. He was undeterred by the fact that over a dozen activists and thinkers had been jailed since the event was first held on December 31, 2017, to mark 200 years of the historic battle in which the Mahar regiment of Dalit soldiers defeated the Brahmin Peshwas. He was undeterred by the fact that he had already been charged for attempt to murder, rioting and promoting communal disharmony, following the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and spent two months in jail last year.

Whether his decision to speak at the event in Pune was down to youthful exuberance or folly, Usmani could not say. All that the former AMU student said was if he made a habit of playing it safe so early in his young life, he would be throttling his own ideals and aspirations, hopes and dreams, as a Muslim citizen of India.

“All my life, I’ve seen us being reduced to biryani and kebab or qawwali at best,” he said, speaking from an undisclosed location. “I’m an Indian. I’m fighting for my fair share in Indian society. We are fighting to save our dignity and self-respect as a community in India. That is what my fight is about. Give us our fair share.”

If he shied away from the Elgar Parishad event, Usmani felt he would be helping those who had tried for three years to vilify a platform of Dalit assertion. He spoke of his own community feeling the weight of slow-burning vilification while he was growing up in Azamgarh. He said Muslims would remember the demolition of the Babri Masjid by Hindu extremists in December 1992 every year. But as the years rolled by, they were made to feel as if they were doing something regressive. The practice of mourning the Babri Masjid slowly ceased to be a community affair.

“Remembering Babri was about expressing sadness, not anger. It started feeling as if most people were okay with what had happened, and it was just our community that was being looked down on for mourning it,” he said. “With Elgar, the state is saying that the people associated with the event are radical and it is okay to criminalise them. By not speaking, by staying away, we are also letting the state legitimise its repression.”

The first Elgar Parishad event, organised by the ‘Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyan’ – a coalition of 260 organisations led by two retired judges B.G. Kolse Patil of the Mumbai high court and P.B. Sawant of the Supreme Court – triggered one of the largest crackdowns on activists and academics. The case was initially probed by the Pune Police under the Maharashtra government, run by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena, before the Narendra Modi government took over the investigation in January 2020.

Capitalising on the violence between Dalit and Maratha groups that had marred the bicentenary celebration of the Bhima Koregaon battle on January 1, 2018, the Pune Police claimed that the event was organised by members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). Initially, lawmaker Jignesh Mevani and political activist Umar Khalid were booked for making “inflammatory speeches” and “promoting enmity” between two groups.

So far, 16 people have been arrested in a terrorism case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, including lawyers, academics, human rights activists, and an 83-year-old Jesuit priest.

Following the second Elgar Parishad event on January 30 this year, Usmani was slapped with two cases of sedition, one in Maharashtra and the other in Uttar Pradesh.

In his speech, Usmani said that there was a “rot” in Hindu society, speaking about the “constant attacks” against Muslims in the past six years. He said it was for the Hindus to fight the hatred that they felt towards Muslims.

Recalling his speech, Usmani said, “I was not mincing words. I was not hiding. I said what I was feeling, with dignity and in public. Who is it going to help if I tone it down? It has not helped us in the past 73 years.”

That a young Muslim man went to Maharashtra, the bastion of two right-wing political parties, and critiqued Hindus infuriated its leaders so much that both the BJP and Shiv Sena wanted to be seen taking Usmani to task. First, BJP leader and the former chief minister of the state Devendra Fadnavis wrote to the current CM Uddhav Thackeray, demanding action. Then, the state home minister Anil Deshmukh announced that a first information report (FIR) had been registered and the police were planning to arrest him. Next, Maharashtra BJP state president Chandrakant Patil wrote to the Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, asking the latter to arrest Usmani in his home state.

The FIR registered against the complaint of one Anurag Singh, son of Yogendra Singh, at the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow on February 3 lists ten alleged crimes, including sedition, promoting enmity between different groups and outraging religious sentiments.

A study of sedition cases by Article 14 showed that 96% of sedition cases filed against 405 Indians for criticising politicians and governments over the last decade were registered after Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP to power in 2014. Of these, 149 were accused of making “critical” or “derogatory” remarks against Modi, and 144 against Adityanath.

“I don’t believe in self-censoring because something bad will happen to me,” said Usmani. “The state is behaving in such a way that they can get anyone into trouble whenever they feel like it. There are two options. Either we let them bully us or we fight back. I don’t want to let them bully me.”

As for the possibility of going to jail again, Usmani said his first time inside the Aligarh district jail had reminded him of the school he attended in Azamgarh: Hindu and Muslim were civil to each other, but never friends.

Muslims constitute 14.2% of India’s 1.2 billion people but are 20% of the country’s prison population and 19.7% of undertrial inmates.

“I grew up in a Muslim ghetto,” said Usmani. “Jail was like a Muslim ghetto.”

Sharjeel Usmani. Photo courtesy: Sharjeel Usmani’s friends

Preparing a speech 

In 2014, the year that Usmani first arrived at AMU to pursue a diploma in computer engineering, Modi had led the BJP to a sweeping victory in the general election, and the BJP in UP had tried to communalise the legacy of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, a Marxist social reformer, by insisting the University commemorate him as a donor. In 2016, the year that Usmani switched to political science, the Modi government told the Supreme Court that it does not consider AMU to be a minority institution.

Two years on, in 2018, the BJP lawmaker in Aligarh, Satish Gautam, made an ugly row over a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah inside the AMU campus even though the founder of Pakistan was made a life member of its student union before the Partition. In 2019, a violent face-off between the UP Police and AMU students during the protests against the CAA left scores of students injured, with one student losing his hand in a tear gas shell explosion. Last year, the Hindu Mahasabha, whose member Nathuram Godse assassinated Mohandas Gandhi, claimed that the AMU was “a seminary of terrorists.”

Ever since he arrived on the AMU campus, Usmani was determined to get better at public speaking. He joined debating clubs, read a lot of non-fiction, and started writing for media outlets. He became the most vocal student activist on Muslim issues. Although, he now shakes his head at some of the things he wrote in those early days.

“I get reminded of them when a post comes up on Facebook memories. I was such a huge ignorant fool,” said Usmani, laughing.

“When I started out, I was trying to make a point. Now, I’m genuinely fighting for our right to live as equal owners and stakeholders in society. The notion that Muslims should live as second class citizens has been normalised. I know there are many more influential and experienced people who are seeking answers, but I’m also someone trying to seek a solution that will allow Muslims in India to lead a dignified life,” he said.

Afreen Fatima, who studied linguistics at AMU, said that she met Usmani when he was in-charge of the journalist writing forum of the Literary Club. While he taught writing to other students, Fatima remembers him honing his public speaking skills in various debating forums.

Fatima, who is now pursuing her master’s in linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, said, “My first impression of him was that he knew a lot of things and he shared them with us. Like an anecdote from history or things to read. He was not our senior but he had the aura of a senior. He was the wise kid.”

He is also a secretary of the Fraternity Movement, a student and youth organisation which aims to empower marginalised sections to fight against injustice and inequality.

While he was never in two minds about speaking at Elgar Parishad, Usmani thought long and hard about what he was going to say to his first audience with more Hindus than Muslims. He decided to drop the Islamic symbolism and phrases that came naturally when he addressed a predominantly Muslim audience. He spoke with close friends about how he should open, with suggestions like “adaab,” “Inquilab Zindabad” and salaam thrown into the mix. He asked them if there was anything in the speech that should not be said. Three of his friends, who are lawyers, told him that there was nothing “illegal” about his speech.

Prior to the event, Usmani said that he spoke to the organisers of Elgar Parishad about some of his anxieties about addressing a non-Muslim audience. They told him that he should speak freely. Usmani said that he spoke in Hindi to an audience of around 1,000 people. The next day, he woke up to savage trolling on Twitter, with people calling for his arrest.

“I spoke from my own experience about how I see society and what I had experienced in jail,” he said. “There is a rot in society and I showed them a mirror. If it hurts their ego, it is not my problem. As a representative of the Muslim community, in whatever sense I am, it is my responsibility to speak about the anxieties, fears and aspiration of the Muslim society. I don’t have to sugarcoat it. I’m not a qawwal or a ghazal singer.”

Watch | ‘Hyper-Nationalism Making India Intolerant; Muslims Feel Insecure’: Hamid Ansari

Others who spoke at the event included author Arundhati Roy; former Indian Administrative Service officer Kannan Gopinathan, who quit after the Modi government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in August 2019; Aysha Renna, the Jamia Millia Islamia University student who saved a fellow student from a police beating during the anti-CAA protests; Prashant Kanojia, a freelance journalist who has been arrested twice by the UP Police over his social media posts; and Abeda Tadvi, mother of the Payal Tadvi, a Muslim Bhil Adivasi medical student who took her own life after being harassed by upper caste doctors.

Gopinathan told The Wire, “If the same comment had been made by me or some other Hindu, the same action would not have been taken. Rather than what was said, I think the case is being made out against who said it. That is not how the law works.”

Renna recalls a thin crowd and a heavy police presence at the Elgar Parishad event. “FIRs and cases have become normalised when Muslim youths are speaking against atrocities in our country,” she said. “It is expected.”

The date of the Elgar Parishad event, January 30, marked the birth anniversary of Rohith Vemula, a 27-year-old PhD candidate at the University of Hyderabad who died by suicide in January 2016. Its organisers, the ‘Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyan,’ have stuck by Usmani.

In an 11-page statement, they say the “one tiny bit” of his speech – “Hindu society within Hindustan has been rotten” – which has been used to attack him, is 10 seconds of a 26-minute speech, and refers to the collective apathy towards lynchings of people from minority communities.

One organiser, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there was nothing “unconstitutional” about the Elgar Parishad speeches, which are available on YouTube for everyone to hear.

On why Usmani was slapped with two FIRs, the organiser said, “Sharjeel is a target because he is Muslim and he is an assertive Muslim. He has his own opinions, intellect, perspective, and the ability to put his perspective into words. That makes him a soft target for the casteist, communal and Brahmanical forces.”

Sharjeel Usmani. Photo courtesy: Sharjeel Usmani’s friends

Long time in the making

The anger driving Sharjeel Usmani’s politics has been in the making for a long time. While he may have come of age in the era of a virulent BJP led by Modi, Usmani says he was defined by his religion from the day he was born into a lower middle class Muslim family from Azamgarh. The bias, suspicion, and insults – spoken and unspoken, bore into his subconscious for 20 years before he found the words to speak up for himself.

Every city in India has two cities: the city and its Muslim ghetto, Usmani said. His city was Rehmat Nagar, where his father, Tariq Usmani, who has a PhD from AMU, taught geography at the Shibli National College. They lived alongside other Muslims – lawmakers, doctors, engineers, businessmen, craftsmen, butchers, bakers and beggars.

“Ghetto was natural for us. I thought everyone lived like us only. I had that idea for a long time. But when I grew up, I saw the ‘posh’ things of a city. The malls, lavish hospitals and hotels are not in Muslim areas. You will find dirty musafir khanas in our area,” he said.

His father, Usmani said, was a disciplined and health conscious man who never compromised on two things: fulfilling every desire his six children had when it came to eating good food, and ensuring they get the best education.

His father worked very hard to send him to Jyoti Niketan School, a Catholic school which was four kilometres away from Rehmat Nagar and regarded as the best in Azamgarh. When he started going to school, Usmani shared a rickshaw with eight other boys. A few years later, his father bought him a second-hand bicycle.

When they were very young, Usmani said the Hindu and Muslim boys played together in school. But things changed by the time they reached middle school. In classrooms where there was a cross with Jesus Christ mounted on the walls, Hindu and Muslim boys were classmates, not friends.

The school he attended was run by Catholics but Usmani recalled that the teachers were “upper caste Hindus.” He recalled one teacher calling him a “terrorist” when she caught him making a paper gun in Class VII. He recalled teachers telling the Hindu boys to study hard because unlike their Muslim classmates, their families did not own businesses and have jobs in the Gulf and the Middle East. He recalled teachers referring to the Muslim boys as “bad apples who would spoil the others”.

Referring to the terrorist remark, Usmani said, “It was very natural for me at that time. It did not register. It was just one of the scoldings that she gave me. It was only later in college did I realise that it was f****d up.”

The Batla House encounter, which claimed the lives of two young Muslim men and a police inspector on September 19, 2008 in Delhi, made things much worse. The dead men were from Sanjarpur village in Azamgarh. The police said they were members of the Indian Mujahideen, responsible for the three blasts in Delhi that left 67 dead and 200 injured. The encounter took place six days after the terrorist attack. The families of the men who were killed said they were students, living in the primarily Muslim neighbourhood of Jamia Nagar. Human rights activists said the encounter was staged and the two men were summarily executed. Muslim homes in Azamgarh were raided and young men were taken away for questioning. There was a backlash against Muslims from Azamgarh in other parts of the country, with landlords and employees turning them out of their homes and jobs.

Protest rally against the Batla House encounter on October 24, 2008 in Delhi by teachers and students of Jamia Millia. Photo: jamia 040/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

The BJP was not in power then, either at the Centre or in the UP. It was the so-called secular parties which held sway: the Congress party at the Centre, while Azamgarh had an MP from the Bahujan Samaj Party and an MLA from the Samajwadi Party.

Usmani was just 10 years old at the time, but he remembers the media started calling Azamgarh, “atankgarh” — a hub of terror. He recalled families asking young men who were studying and working in other states to come home. He recalled the fear and humiliation that overwhelmed his community.

When his father took his students to Rajasthan on a field trip not long after the encounter, Usmani said they could not find a hotel that would let them stay. They spent one night on a railway platform.

More than ten years have passed since his father was humiliated in Rajasthan, but Usmani says nothing has changed. Earlier this year, when he was paying for a packet of cigarettes using PhonePe, Usmani said the shopkeeper in Noida saw his name and started whispering to the other men, who were milling around. Suddenly overcome with fear, Usmani said that he ran back to the cab.

“There is a trust deficit and it is not from our side. The Muslim community has been carrying the bogey of Ganga-Jamuna tehzeeb, of coexistence and purity and love. The other community does not even want to know about us beyond biryani and kebab,” he said.

Also Read: FIRs vs Free Speech, the Signature Tune of Indian Fascism

A close knit-family

The conversation that he was having with his family before the two new FIRs were registered against him involved his youngest brother, Akbar Usmani, and whether he should join humanities or science after Class X. His teenaged sister, Heba Usmani, had made up her mind about studying psychology. His mother, Seema Usmani, who has a BA degree in Islamic Studies, wanted to know why none of her six children were interested in pure science.

All major decisions were discussed in their family, and as the eldest of five brothers and one sister, his vote always counted, said Usmani.

His siblings had always looked up to him and everything that has happened since the anti-CAA protests had made them fiercely protective of him. Usmani said that he does more than exchange names of shows and Netflix passwords with his brothers. For Rahim Usmani, an engineering student, he hunts for internships. Areeb Usmani is a budding poet whom he connects with other poets. He encourages Aadil Usmani, a law student at AMU, to pursue debate. His sister, Heba Usmani, who he called “the smartest in the family,” is reading Charles Dickens, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Guy de Maupassant, A.G. Noorani and Paul Brass; they have started discussing Muslim identity politics.

His father joined AMU as a geography professor in 2016, around the same time when Usmani was becoming a vocal activist. Even though he was teaching on the same campus, Usmani said that his father did not stop him, but sometimes asked him to use his words judiciously.

Now, after multiple FIRs, Usmani said that his father reads everything about him, and he is the first to know when something gets posted about his son on Facebook or Twitter.

After Usmani was arrested in Azamgarh in July 2020, and stood before his family members with his hands tied and head down, they too were photographed and questioned by the anti-terrorism squad of the Lucknow police.

Learning to live with the perils of challenging an authoritarian regime, Usmani said that his strength comes from the love and support of his family.

“My family is proud of me. My mother once said, “Every family wants a son like Sharjeel, but in the neighbour’s house.” He continues, “It is not a political act. I have chosen this fight for myself. I believe in it. I don’t know if it will do me any good but at least I can say that I genuinely tried.”

Betwa Sharma is an independent journalist who covers politics and civil liberties. She was the politics editor at HuffPost India.

Uttar Pradesh: BJP Leader Shot Dead in Azamgarh

Arjun Yadav, who was also a Kshetra Panchayat member, was attacked by unidentified people on Thursday night.

Azamgarh: A Bharatiya Janata Party leader was shot dead in Haripur village in Powal area in Azamgarh district, police said on Friday.

Arjun Yadav (46), who was also a kshetra panchayat member, was attacked by unidentified people on Thursday night when he was returning home after closing his shop, they said.

He was taken to the hospital by villagers and family members but was declared brought dead, they said.

“Information is being sought from the family… the cause of the murder has not been ascertained yet. Those involved in the incident will be caught soon,” superintendent of police Sudhir Kumar Singh said.

A police force was deployed in the village as tension prevailed due to the killing, he said.