Ansari surrenders, politics takes over

Are you trying to say that I took along two TV reporters with me in an open jeep to incite violence and let them film me doing it?” Tha...

Are you trying to say that I took along two TV reporters with me in an open jeep to incite violence and let them film me doing it?” That is Mukhtar Ansari, independent MLA, indignantly dismissing charges that he provoked Muslims and Hindus into rioting in Mau town a day after Dussehra that left nine people dead.

And this is Ramji Singh, BJP MLC named in an FIR as having stoked anti-Muslim emotions there: “Are you suggesting that Hindus who are in a hopeless minority in Mau played a role in the riots despite Mukhtar’s might? It was a conspiracy against the Hindus.”

The violence in Mau was over in a day, but its political reverberations are only now being felt. There are three parties that stand to gain from the situation.

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The loser could well be Ansari himself, who surrendered before a fast track court today in a attempt-to-murder case unrelated to the riots and has been remanded to a fortnight in judicial custody.

The immediate gainer is the Samajwadi Party’s Arshad Jamaal, mayor of Mau and a staunch rival of Ansari. But the big winner could be the BJP, whose Hindutva campaign in eastern UP has been reignited by the post-Dussehra violence. Already BJP leaders Kalyan Singh, Kesri Nath Tripathi and Lalji Tandon have talked about it to provoke strong reactions. To add to this, Yogi Aditya Nath, BJP MP from Gorakhpur and the spirit being the Hindu Yuva Vahini, plans a march to the town.

Waiting in the wings is Pravin Togadia, the VHP’s international general secretary who is likely to visit eastern UP—whose gateway is Ayodhya—after Diwali. According to Sharad Sharma, the VHP’s Ayodhya media in-charge, the VHP plans to start construction of the Ram temple in December and Togadia is coming to oversee the preparations and to distribute trishuls and idols.

Naturally, aggression is in the air. At his office in Ghosi village bordering Mau, Ramji Singh contentedly listens to reports of protests by BJP and VHP activists in Ghazipur, Ballia, Bahraich and Basti districts, all headed for panchayat elections.

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By default, if not design, this is good news for the Samajwadi Party, which believes the emergence of the BJP in the region will queer the pitch for Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. “Mulayam doesn’t wield much influence in eastern UP and there are signs that Mayawati will emerge at the top again. So the BJP’s presence here is good for us,” reasons a party insider.

As for Jamaal, the situation allows him to portray himself as a secular leader at a time when the Mau nagarpalika is poised to go for polls. He says that is fight is for Mau, not Muslims or Hindus. He paints Ansari as a Muslim who has brought the community a bad name. The battle between the two Muslim leaders could go in either’s favour, but they are bit players in a political game that has the big boys interested.