Uttarakhand polls: ‘Outsider’ takes many shades in Kumaon hills

Mohammad Rafi runs a small roadside tailoring shop near Basoli village. From Rampur in UP, he has been working here for over a decade. But this December and January, he felt uneasy. “Young men here would discuss loudly how what was said in Haridwar (at the Dharma Sansad, for which Yati Narsinghanand among others was charged for hate speech) was right and that ‘outsiders’ need to be dealt with.”

K Quraishi, an elderly butcher born and brought up in Almora, also talks about the growing “mazhab pe rajneeti (politics of religion)”. In the last five years, he says, “Bajrang Dal and other RSS outfits have started harassing us.”

But with all three major contenders in Uttarakhand – the BJP, Congress and AAP – focusing on “outsiders” and promising to reserve “jobs for locals”, the issues of the small but diverse Muslim population don’t figure anywhere.

On the other side too, there are concerns. Taxi driver Gopal Singh, an admirer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appreciates the fact that a temple to a local deity, about 3 km from the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary, now has a proper structure, a fence and even a dharmshala for pilgrims. However, he doesn’t like “the way in which the temple has been made a ‘branch office’ of the Gorakhnath temple”. The reference is to UP CM Yogi Adityanath, the head of the Gorakhnath Mutt, who belongs to Uttarakhand.

“The BJP-RSS is trying to take over our faith,” says Pramod Kumar, who lives nearby. While residents talk of temples being constructed with the help of BJP MLAs, workers and the RSS, these come with “conditions”, adds M Kumar, who sells trinkets outside the temple. “At this temple, like everywhere in Uttarakhand, slaughter is banned, but it goes on regardless… Just outside the temple boundary, people slaughter goats during Navratra or other special occasions. (In fact, there is a space to cook the meat within the complex). That is our custom, it can’t be stopped by the law. But now, if some powerful Thakur wants to make trouble for us, he reports us to police,” says Kumar.

Gopal Singh, otherwise a BJP supporter for “national security”, agrees. “Dharm pehle astha ka mamla tha, ab thakurvaad ke adheen ho gaya hai (Earlier, religion was about faith, now it’s subservient to Thakurvaad).”

While officially the BJP echoes the party line, as also articulated by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami recently at The Indian Express‘s Idea Exchange session, about “people incorporating good practices and older traditions ending”, there is some disquiet. BJP leaders admit they are worried about the Dalits (19% of the population) turning away in the long run, over issues like vegetarianism and “young Thakur party workers’ aggression”.

The BJP’s comfort is that the Congress and AAP “are too afraid” to raise these issues.

AAP Almora candidate Amit Joshi says it is unemployment he wants to talk about. Calling it one of the biggest issues in the hills, he advocates that 80% jobs be reserved for locals. Congress leader Manoj Bhandari echoes this insecurity, claiming: “The migrants from UP, Bihar and Bangladesh are taking away the jobs.”

Ironically, it is the same insecurity that helps push the BJP narrative. Deep Joshi, a shopkeeper and a BJP worker, reasons: “Just see how many Muslims have come into the town… First a few move in, buy up property and then they bring scores more. This, when there are no jobs for locals.”

CPM’s Tiwari sees a parallel between Muslims being the target in towns, and Dalits in the villages. “There is an attempt to ‘Brahminise’.”

Mumtaz Mohammad, the head of Almora’s street vendors’ association, accuses the Hindu Mahasabha of targeting Muslim and Dalit traders and saying the Congress too watches mutely. “I, my family, have been here for generations. The ‘outsiders’ are often just seasonal workers, from all religions.”