Opinion Deoria, UP, 44 years apart: When caste defines politics

In a retaliatory attack, four members of Dubey’s family were killed. Such disputes are routine matters for police and the revenue administration in the state and they are known to drag on endlessly.

Around 45 km away, Narainpur village (then in Deoria, now in Kushinagar district, on the border with Deoria) was the site of an event that, like the latest incident, had political ramifications that echoed in the Assembly and got the government to scramble for a response.

On January 11, 1980, a bus ran over an old woman and villagers demanded compensation from the owner of the vehicle. With the bus owner, police and villagers failing to reach an agreement on the compensation, tempers ran high among villagers. Then, suddenly, on the night of Makar Sankranti on January 14 (the day Indira Gandhi took oath as Prime Minister), police attacked villagers, allegedly looting, beating up, and raping women, killing at least two. Most of the inhabitants of the village were Scheduled Castes and Muslims.

Disturbingly, it took over a week for the Narainpur incident to reach state capital Lucknow. On February 8, 1980, Chief Minister Banarasi Das told the Assembly that he came to know of the incident on January 23 through a newspaper report. Chief Minister Das and his Janata Party government were already on a sticky wicket as Indira Gandhi had returned to power at the Centre and many of the Janata Party MLAs were leaving to join the Congress. The Narainpur incident couldn’t have come at a worse time for Das.

The CM then directed Mohan Singh, MLA from the nearby Barhaj constituency in Deoria and Minister of State for Small Industries in his government, to visit the village. The matter was discussed in the Assembly thrice under different rules and each time, MLAs of the Janata Party were more aggressive on the subject than those of Opposition parties.

What was interesting was that Mohan Singh, a Rajput, was wholeheartedly with the victims of Narainpur. Similarly, Janata Party leaders Bankey Lal, MLA from Ramkola under which Narainpur fell, and Hari Keval Prasad from Salempur raised the issue in the House. Bankey Lal even expressed his desire to resign as MLA. MLAs of the Opposition Congress too took on the government on the issue, but the ruling party’s MLAs were no less aggressive.

While the victims were Dalits, the MLAs who spoke for them weren’t — Mohan Singh was Rajput, Bankey Lal was an upper-caste Kayasth and Prasad an OBC — yet, they led the demand for action against the perpetrators of the violence.

Mohan Singh made a detailed statement in the Assembly, highlighting atrocities committed by the police of Hata and Kaptanganj police stations. He said, “After listening (to the villagers), I am ashamed that in 20th century, a human being can commit this (atrocity) against other human beings. They were beaten there and brought to Kaptan Ganj police station and beaten again there. Women were also beaten. The Chief Minister ordered their transfer (of the errant police officers) but they were not relieved saying elections were going on.”

Soon, the SSP and DIG of Deoria were transferred, three SHOs were suspended, several sub-inspectors and constables were sent to other districts and a judicial inquiry was ordered.

Politics and political drama ran high as the Congress had returned with a majority only days earlier. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited the village on February 7, 1980. While returning from Narainpur, she said in Gorakhpur that Banarasi Das’s government had no right to exist. She alleged that instead of going to Narainpur, the UP government had accepted the version of the policemen. Later, Banarasi Das defended himself, saying, “I have taken strict action. If I would have visited the village (Narainpur), the Prime Minister would have alleged that I was there to prejudice the inquiry.”

Janata Party leaders rallied around the CM and alleged that Indira Gandhi’s statement should be seen as interference in the state government’s work since law and order was a state subject. Three years earlier, the ND Tiwari-led Congress government in UP had been dismissed by the Moraji Desai-led Janata Party government at the Centre. The Deoria incident served as a ready tool for the Congress-ruled Centre to ‘seek revenge’.

On February 18, 1980, governments of nine non-Congress(I)-ruled states, including UP, were dismissed. The governments of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Orissa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu faced a similar fate.

Now, 44 years after the Narainpur incident, the response of politicians to the Deoria killings are a reflection of the change politics — and the principles politicians stood for — has undergone.

While in 1980 political leaders, irrespective of their caste and party affiliations, stood by the victims, in 2023, MLAs of the ruling BJP, a party that claims to not indulge in caste politics, have been reduced to representing their own caste.

For instance, Deoria MLA Shalabh Mani Tripathi visited the Dubey family frequently, but confirmed to The Indian Express that he did not visit the family of Prem Chandra Yadav, who was the first to be killed. A mere 2 km separate the two homes. Village Fatehpur falls under the Rudrapur Assembly seat, where the BJP’s Jaiprakash Nishad is the MLA. He, too, visited Dubey’s son in Deoria but not the village.

Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Brajesh Pathak visited the Gorakhpur hospital where the injured son of Satya Prakash Dubey was admitted, but did not visit the village. Yogi’s another deputy, Keshav Prasad Maurya, too did not visit the village. Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav visited the village and visited both families, but Dubey’s son refused to meet him.

This is what has changed in UP in 44 years.