We’d rather put our votes in a well

You’d hardly imagine such a drastic scenario unfolding in the deceptively calm picture of a group of greying patriarchs sharing the inevitable hukkah on a charpai admist the relatively less poisonous breeze and the grazing cows at Najafgarh. But it is. The panchayat is extremely angry.

In fact the popular refrain out in the Capital’s rural belt is that the BJP has insulted not just the Jats but the entire Jat-kisan-mazdoor combine. Saree Jat biradari ki pagri uchhali hai BJP ne, angering the highly proud and emotional community, local Jat leaders feel, pointing out that stretching from Shahpur Jat to Narela, the entire rural Delhi is simmering.

“The effects will be felt by the BJP in Rajasthan too which has a sizable Jat population,” threatens Chawdhary Raghunath Singh, Jharoda Kalan’s panchayat representative. The Jats’ famous rustic logic just cannot comprehend why Sahib Singh was made to resign. “Once the elections are announced you cannot remove a constable or a clerk and here the BJP government has removed the chief minister and on what grounds – onions! You tell me does he grow onions in his house or does he horde them? ” bellows Jaildar Amar Singh, another pradhan. What about the dropsy deaths, the dengue, the skyrocketing prices and the worsening law and order situation in the Capital? “Is this only in Delhi? Is the BJP going around sacking the chief ministers of Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu too,” he responds belligerently even as he reaches out for another puff of smoke from the hukkah. Other panchayat members all nod their heads in unison, and obviously there’s no way they could be persuaded to changetheir perspective.

So angry are the Jats in fact that they insist they won’t vote for the BJP even if Sahib Singh asks them to. “We will put our votes in a well but will not vote for the BJP,” declares Bagru Ram Yadav, his caustic words finding instant empathy with the frayed Jat nerves surrounding him. He is not a Jat, but is very much a panchayat representative from village Paprawat. “Ours is not a government made panchayat. Ours is a social panchayat. Made by the people – members of all communities living in the village adhere to the orders of the panchayat. Otherwise they know they will be ostracised. And by removing a Jat chief minister they have insulted the panchayat,” he reasons.

At Palam, the anger is even more palpable. “That man Krishan Lal Sharma (BJP MP from Outer Delhi) was unknown here. It was Sahib Singh who kept his pagri before the maha-panchayat and said it was his honour at stake. We are men who will die for our honour. And by removing Sahib Singh, our honour has been hurt. And Sharma has not said a word. He is so ungrateful. He has not uttered a word. We will beat him with lathis if he dares to return,” vows Ramesh Hooda, a transporter, quite convincingly. His octogenarian uncle Samay Singh is equally appalled. “Congress jhuggi laten hain, BJP Jat vote tod daten hain,” (The Congress establishes jhuggi clusters for vote banks and the BJP is throwing away its firmly established Jat vote bank) he says.

All that the BJP could hope for is that the Jat temper cools down soon. But with less than 40 days to elections, it’s not something many would lay a wager on. The Jats are convinced that Singh’s unceremonious ouster is not just a rural-urban divide but a conspiracy against the entire farmer and labourer fraternity. It’s an emotion that the Congress could only gain from. What remains to be seen is whether Sahib Singh’s persuasive powers, that he has assured the BJP leadership he would put to use, succeeds in salvaging the BJP’s sinking ship in time or not.