Hathras rape-murder not forgotten, Dalits say polls a test if govt for all

Particularly as the accused in the murder-rape are Thakurs, who are seen to enjoy the blessing of the administration under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

“What happened to that girl was unfortunate. We could not sleep for days. This was a nightmare. For Dalits, there are many nightmares anyway. While a lot of work has been done under the present government, this incident really shook us. And there is every reason to believe this will manifest itself in the polls,” says Rajpal Singh, former pradhan of Garha Kasbi, a village with a majority Jatav population.

The constituency where the woman lived, Sikandra Rao, was won by senior BJP leader Birendra Singh Rana last time. The BJP had also won the Hathras (SC) seat (Harishankar Mahaur), while the BSP’s Ramveer Upadhyay had won Sadabad, the third seat in the district. Before that, in 2012, the BSP held two of the seats and the SP one (Sadabad).

All three seats vote on February 20.

During their campaign, allies Samajwadi Party and RLD have been raising the Hathras incident. Both the SP and RLD had camped at the victim’s village and protested for days, and visuals of RLD convenor Jayant Chaudhary being lathicharged on his way to the village continue to generate support for him. Chaudhary at his rallies tells people his fight was for justice.

Rajendra Singh, a BSP supporter, says the incident sent a message, especially to Dalits, “that there is community support for the accused”. “We already felt afraid and marginalised, and the Thakur solidarity has further alienated us. In such a situation, we must stick to those who can preserve our fundamental identity.”

Of the three seats, the RLD has a substantial hold in Sadabad, having won it twice earlier, in 2002 and 2007. However, its candidate this time, Pradeep Kumar Singh, has a formidable opponent in the BJP’s Ramveer Upadhyay. A former BSP leader, he is a five-time MLA, including from Sadabad in 2017 and Hathras constituency earlier, before it was declared a reserved seat.

In Hathras city too, the caste divide runs deep. A Jatav colony in the heart of the city, Tamanna Garhi, questions the Adityanath government’s claims about law and order and employment. “The BJP says it has done a lot for the security of the people. But incidents like Hathras remind us that we are the ‘others’,” says Amar. Besides, he adds, where are the jobs? “This election is a test whether the government really thinks of everyone in society or just a particular section.”

Hathras (SC) was till the 2012 elections a BSP bastion, with the party having won it four times consecutively since 1996. This time, its candidate, a local named Sanjeev Kumar, is up against the BJP’s Anjula Singh Mahaur, the former Agra mayor who joined the party six years ago from the SP.

The BJP argues the gangrape will not be a factor, and that “development” will trump other issues. “The BJP has won before from here and Adityanath thinks of all communities. The alliance (SP-RLD) has no presence in the region except one constituency. The Jatavs have also realised that their leader has not done any work. The BJP has made an outreach to all sections and they are the best option, for roads, law and order, employment,” says Amit Varshney, a Hathras local.