The life threatening attack on Dalit leader and Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad last Wednesday has stunned citizens in Uttar Pradesh (UP), a state that is called one of the smartest in the country by the ruling party.
Two bullets were fired at the 36-year-old by unknown gunners in broad daylight near Deoband in Saharanpur district while he was on the road. Azad was rushed to a local hospital where his condition is said to be stable.
One bullet had brushed past Azad’s abdomen and the other went into the seat of a vehicle that was occupied by five people, including Azad and his younger brother.
In a video statement made from the hospital, Azad said that the sudden attack on him will not stop him from fighting constitutionally for the rights of the people. He has appealed to his many supporters to maintain calm.
Who is Azad?
Chandrashekhar Azad is a motorcycle riding, muscular young man with a handlebar moustache, and an indigo blue scarf around his neck. He is a lawyer, a human rights activist and an ardent follower of Dalit icon and father of the Indian Constitution Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.
Azad sees red every time miscreants disfigure an Ambedkar statue with black paint, or Dalits continue to be bullied by those who think that they are superior to other human beings.
Azad belongs to the Ghadkhauli village of Saharanpur in western UP and he was first noticed as a Dalit leader in 2016 after he put up a hoarding on the outskirts of his village that had screamed ‘The Great Chamars of Ghadkhauli Welcome You’.
The word chamar (leather worker) is a name given centuries ago, and used derogatorily for those who work with the skin of dead animals. The poster signified the reclaiming of that name by the Dalit population of the Ghadkhauli village.
In the past, Azad has been arrested in UP, and the Delhi police detained him for several days during the protest march against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. In 2014 Azad founded the Bhim Army to give access to education to the poor and illiterate population of Dalits, providing free lessons in the western UP area.
In the last state elections in 2022, Azad had contested the polls from Gorakhpur in eastern UP which he lost to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The question is who wants to see Azad dead today?
Security and Safety Questions
The ruling party constantly refers to Lucknow, the capital city of UP as a Smart City! The government has recently embarked upon an ambitious plan to develop Lucknow as the country’s eighth ‘Magnet City’ and its plan is to develop the state capital as the country’s first artificial intelligence (AI) city!
A Magnet City is defined as a place that is most attractive for both its citizens as well as its visitors, including investors. To attract investments, the plan is to develop Lucknow, Kanpur, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Varanasi and Prayagraj as a hub for information technology.
According to government spokespersons, the law and order situation has improved in UP in the past six years, as has the infrastructure and connectivity.
However, the reality on the ground is that even after a few hours of rainfall, power supply becomes even more erratic, roads get flooded, pedestrians are often sucked into choked drains without a cover. The havoc that a single day of rainfall makes citizens suffer is a sob story difficult to hide from the world.
Despite the pomp and show of several investment summits and the constant talk of investments coming into UP in mind boggling numbers, the fact of the matter is that the day-to-day life for ordinary citizens in the city is grim. The state of most of the roads, drains, garbage and the River Gomti needs immediate attention.
Added to these woes faced by ordinary citizens is the sky rocketing rate of unemployment, price of petrol, essential commodities and vegetables. From Rs 40 per kilo, this season the price of tomatoes, so essential in every kitchen has shot up to Rs 100. ‘Why?’ a thrifty housewife wants to know.
The Bulldozer
The streets are not quite safe, although pavements are the only home that countless residents in Lucknow have. Some of those who do have homes now live under the threat of it being bulldozed.
In Meerut the Prajapati Samaj organisation took out a 14-km march and staged a protest at the district magistrate’s office in Baghpat recently to oppose the demolition of their dwellings in Basi village of the Khekra area in the same district.
Prajapati Samaj leader Dara Singh Prajapati said that the district administration had demolished more than 50 homes belonging to the Prajapati community without notice. The residents said that they have been living in the area since1952.
The Prajapatis are mostly potters and like to live beside ponds and small lakes. This is a location that gives them the earth needed for making pots. Try explaining that to the politicians and to bureaucrats!
Eid Celebrations
Eid was celebrated on Thursday with most citizens bowing down in prayer in hope for a lot more love and peace in the future. Although known for a generous spread of mouth-watering dishes prepared during the festival, the spirit of the festival demands a lot more introspection.
The feast is just a sumptuous excuse to express generosity towards fellow human beings and what better way to do that than to break bread together. The idea is to keep one’s heart and home open to other human beings and never hesitate to share whatever one has with those who have even less.
While I was preoccupied with trying to put into practice the spirit of Eid-ul-Adha,the festival of sacrifice, reports told me that my CM had presided over a law and order review meeting with officials and was busy counting incidents of illegal religious conversions!
It is suspected by the CM that a big international syndicate is training unemployed youngsters to convert to another religion by offering them money. That alone then is such a good reason to help more youngsters to find jobs in UP, is it not?