BJP's chances in 2019 will be marred more by a creeping arrogance than a creepy Opposition
It is an outright shame and highly condemnable that BJP MlA and local strongman from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who was accused by a 16-year-old girl of raping her along with his brother last year, was not booked under the stringent provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act which was specifically enacted to ensure that minors are protected from predatory adults. But it gets worse. Not only was POSCO not invoked, which is a statuary requirement, but no First Information Report (FIR) on the minor's complaint was lodged against the legislator. The complainant, who had alleged a threat to her life and that of her family from the MlA and his supporters who were putting pressure on her to withdraw the court case filed in this regard, had even attempted self-immolation in front of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's official residence in lucknow to protest police inaction but was prevented from doing anything precipitate. In the meanwhile, last week, the minor's father and some of his associates were allegedly thrashed by the Unnao strongman's supporters and, while as is common practice both sides filed complaints against each other, police booked only the victim's father and he was remanded in judicial custody. In a truly tragic denouement, the minor's father was severely assaulted in jail on Sunday night allegedly by the legislator's supporters, and he died in hospital on Monday. All this while, Sengar, who was earlier in the BSP and SP before he hitched his political wagon to the BJP, has been trotting around giving media interviews in which he used the infamous N-word. His accusers were “neech kisam ke log”, the MlA said, among other things, in his defence as he alleged he was being framed.
While the caste of the complainant is not relevant to the issue at hand, surely the BJP cannot have one rule for itself and another for its opponents when the N-word is used. Or have they forgotten the fire-and-brimstone campaign launched by the Prime Minister himself and other party worthies in the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly poll when they latched on to the Congress' resident — and now apparently suspended — loudmouth Mani Shankar Aiyar's use of the same adjectiveIJ Further, while it is not outside the realm of possibility that the MlA's opponents may be trying to frame him, much worse has gone down in Uttar Pradesh politics over the years, that is for the courts to decide. The BJP government cannot hope to redeem itself by belatedly suspending six local cops for not acting as per law on the minor's complaint and making four arrests in the case relating to her father's death. It is patently not just an administrative failure but one of effective political leadership as well.
Additionally, the mood in the country among a section of the Dalit community, which is being whipped up by an unthinking Opposition in the most cavalier manner imaginable and which will we predict boomerang on it, is an issue which the BJP has to address in election year. The arrogance of its netas, from Uttar Pradesh to Rajasthan and Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh, not to mention Bihar (with the honourable exception of Sushil Modi), only feeds into the narrative of those who want an India divided into groups whether caste, community, or class based, whose primary identity is anything but 'Indian' as it makes vote-catching easier. The creepiness on display by sections of the Opposition, however, which has no compunction about playing politics over Rohith Vemula's death in a manner which is facts-light at best, or the contested version of the killing of a Dalit boy for riding a horse/harassing girls, or the illogical and frankly motivated opposition to the Supreme Court order on the implementation of certain provisions of the SC/ST Act which were being misused according to the data collated and the highly unfortunate deaths in police firing of over two dozen protestors in its aftermath, is repulsive to all right-thinking citizens. But for all the good work the BJP/RSS may has done among the Dalits and marginalised, if the misogynist caste bigots within — who are the prime culprits when it comes to displays of hubris too, as it happens — are not made an example of, the country will by default end up being ruled by those for whom power is an end itself.