Tapping into ‘Brahmin vs Thakur’ narrative, SP takes up the cause of Brahmins in UP

The SP chief claimed that of the 48 Station House Officers (SHOs) and Station Officers (SOs) – who are usually the first responders to incidents of crimes – under the Agra Commissionerate, only 15 hail from the PDA communities while the remaining were “Singh bhailog (Thakurs)”.

Similarly in his home district of Mainpuri, Akhilesh claimed, 10 of the 15 SHOs/SOs were Thakurs. Also citing data from Mahoba and Prayagraj to argue his case, the SP chief claimed that the PDA communities’ share in police posting was only 25% despite their numbers accounting for 90% of the state’s population.

The allegations drew a sharp retort from Director General of Police (DGP) Prashant Kumar, who on Monday termed the claims as “baseless and misleading” while urging political leaders not to draw “hasty conclusions based on inaccurate and incomplete data”. Kumar’s retort  prompted a counter from Akhilesh. “DGP sahab should speak less. At the very least, the CM should address this. We have only revealed the condition of a few districts so far,” the SP chief said on Tuesday.

Uttar Pradesh BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary too refuted Akhilesh’s claims. Alleging that caste-based postings were a thing during the SP’s rule, he said the Adityanath government recruits and posts officers in “accordance with rules and not on the basis of caste”. “OBCs and members from the Scheduled Caste (SC) communities  respectively make up 39% and 18% of police officers posted under the Agra Commissionerate while the numbers are 31% and 19% in Mainpuri,” the UP BJP chief said.

As per rough estimates, Thakurs make up around 7% of Uttar Pradesh’s population while Brahmins constitute around 10%. Both communities are seen to have played a key role in bringing the BJP to power in the state for two consecutive terms since 2017.

The claim of caste bias in police postings is the latest bid by the SP to target the BJP government on its alleged “anti-Brahmin stand”. One of the matters the party has been raising is that of Harish Mishra, a former Apna Dal (Krishna Patel) leader who moved to the SP some months ago. Mishra, a Brahmin, was allegedly attacked by members of the Karni Sena – which claims to represent Rajput interests – over SP MP Ramji Lal Suman’s alleged derogatory statements on Maharana Pratap. Akhilesh has been backing Mishra repeatedly in speeches and posts on X.

On Sunday, Akhilesh brought up the recent Enforcement Directorate (ED) raid on the Gorakhpur residence of the late leader Hari Shankar Tiwari – popularly known as Haata – to slam the government. “Inhe Haata bhi nahi bhata (They can’t stand Haata either),” he said.

Tiwari used to be viewed as the spearhead of Brahmin politics in eastern Uttar Pradesh, and at loggerheads with the Adityanath-headed Gorakhnath Mutt. Earlier this month, the ED arrested Tiwari’s son and SP national secretary Vinay Shankar in connection with an alleged Rs 754 crore bank fraud case.

More recently, the SP has also found a cause in the 2018 murder of Apple executive Vivek Tiwari by two policemen in Lucknow. The party has also made veiled references to gangster Vikas Dubey’s death in a police encounter in 2020, and reiterated its claims that the police had beaten one “Upadhyayji” to death in Basti for providing financial aid to the SP. All three deceased were Brahmins.

Last week, the party staged a protest in Lucknow where its workers were seen with placards that read “Baba ko Haata nahi bhata (Adityanath does not like Haata)” and “Brahmanon par utpeedan band karo (stop harassment of Brahmins)”.

SP spokesperson Abhishek Mishra said Akhilesh has always fought for the rights of the deprived, irrespective of their caste and community. “He (Akhilesh) is of the opinion that those from the upper castes who are backward educationally, economically and in terms of welfare are also a part of the PDA,” he said.

The BJP, on the other hand, has accused the SP of showing solidarity with “criminals”. “Whenever the government takes lawful action against any criminal, the SP brings in the caste angle. It sees Yadav in the case of (gangster) Mangesh Yadav and ‘bhaichara’ in the case of (gangster) Atiq Ahmed’s son. A criminal must be just identified with his crime alone. The BJP has gone after criminals without taking their caste into account,” party spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said.

However, Brahmin leaders in the BJP admit in private “disappointment” with the Adityanath government over failure to get “expected respect and representation”. But, as a BJP leader said, “Ultimately we are ideological supporters of the BJP. Individual Brahmin leaders of other parties can get a few community votes, but in the interest of the nation, we are largely with the BJP.”