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- IN-DEPTH
There is no wave in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh. There is no wave for Narendra Modi. There is no wave for the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. There is no wave for Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). There is no wave whatsoever for any candidate or symbol in Amroha – Lotus, Cycle, Hand, Elephant.
You can’t even see a poll symbol anywhere on the walls. There is no election fever stalking the town at all. It’s as quiet and slow as a laid-back, lazy, friendly, small town of UP can be. There are sweet watermelons everywhere, and the dense smell of ‘ganne ka ras’, sugar cane juice, wafts in the April air.
On the fringes of Western UP, Amroha is famous for its mangos, traditional crafts, carpet industry, and beautifully designed cane ‘moodas’ and armchairs, made with reeds which grows in abundance across the shores of river Ganga in the neighbourhood. The majority population in the town comprises Muslims. The town has had a history of harmony and peace.
It was here that the Mongols were decisively defeated and pushed back in a bloody battle fought in the winter of 1305. Called the ‘Battle of Amroha’, it was fought between the Delhi Sultanate forces and the Mongols of Central Asia.
The sultanate army was led by Malik Nayak. Indeed, it was Allauddin Khilji, who defeated the marauding Mongols on fast-horses, many times over, and stopped their loot, plunder and killing spree. The Siri Fort in Delhi was built by him to stop the Mongols.
As summer sets in, the wheat in the village fields has become ripe, softened-yellow and sun-baked; and farmers, men and women, heads covered to ward off the sun, are busy, since the crack of dawn. Vegetables are growing on the fringes of the road, new flowers are blooming in the vegetable gardens, and the green ‘tori’ (ridge gourd), hanging from the branches, has started to grow in abundance.
For those in Western UP and Delhi, who have travelled on ramshackle roadways buses on pot-holed roads in the past, and on slow, local passenger trains in this sugarcane and wheat belt, one repetitive and relentless message has always been ingrained in their subconscious. This was, indeed, out-of-the-box, smart advertising of the times, perfected in the moffusil and rural belt of this area.
You can still see these messages on trees, fences, half-built brick walls, abandoned structures, and sad little shops selling extra-boiled, extra-sweet milk tea, served with faded, jaded, extra-sweet boondi ‘laddoos’.
The messages strike your eyeballs near railway platforms of invisible stations where trains never stop, at the entrance of stinking, filthy public toilets, near gutters and nullahs, and in the neighbourhood of obscure booze shops, licensed ‘desi thekas’ and ‘English wine shops’.
This great marketing brainwave is the ad campaign for ‘Hashmi Dawakhana’ with eternal shelf-life. It also has a ‘Hashmi Shafakhana’, with hospital services for multiple forms of traditional, indigenous medicine and treatment such as Yunani, and Ayurvedic, etc. Amroha is the headquarters of this influential group.
Over the years, and especially in the past, they have been a highly respected chain of medical care, with solutions for myriad local ailments. However, the dawakhana is more famous, or infamous, because it focuses on a singular and one-dimensional message: “‘sex rogi milein’ (sex patients, please meet us)”.
It promises effective, quick and long-term medical solutions to all kinds of bizarre sex problems and other ‘secret issues’ with its target being rural and small town citizens, especially men.
Indeed, the messages still remain etched on the walls, across the highway, byways and railway tracks, suggesting that some things just never ever change in the rural interiors of UP. Besides, in Amroha, there is a sprawling Hashmi Degree College also, right in the heart of the town.
As for elections, an eerie silence and detachment prevails in this laid-back town on this April weekend, and even the bustling ‘kacheri’ (local court) and the main market is enveloped by a lazy loneliness in this early summer sunshine. Unlike typical UP towns, this is a neat and clean town, there are no open gutters flowing everywhere, nor the ubiquitous UP ‘makkhis’ (flies) flying everywhere, not even in the main market and inner by-lanes.
There are no deep-fried ‘jalebi’ and ‘samosa’ carts perched right next to a dirty, stagnant nullah, with thousands of ‘makkhis’ buzzing all over, while locals would happily gorge on the snacks.
Amroha is a clean town, the people are gentle and soft-spoken, and most of the voters seem to have chosen a tacit silence, not choosing to open their cards, as yet, even though the Lok Sabha polls is round the corner, on April 26,, 2024. So what is happening in this crucial parliamentary constituency, with five Assembly constituencies?
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office near Green Colony is not buzzing with poll fever, or activity. Its candidate, Kanwar Singh Tanwar, a prominent Gujjar politician of the area, is marked by his absence, locals say.
There are no faces of the candidates pasted anywhere, or party banners, posters and flags There are no tempos with supporters shouting slogans, nor autos blaring the propaganda campaign for the candidates, as is so common in small UP towns.
Surprisingly, there is not even one Narendra Modi portrait staring out from hoardings, a common phenomena in Delhi and elsewhere. So whatever happened to the deep-pockets big money power of the BJP election machine? Or, is it too over-confident in a state which propels it to power?
There are no ‘Modi Guarantees’ promised on the walls or on hoardings, there are no saffron flags with a masculine Ram celebrating the ‘pran pratishta’ of the grand Ram mandir at Ayodhya – not on top of the houses, on shops, or on public and private vehicles. It’s indeed eerie and quiet in Amroha Lok Sabha constituency and its neighbourhood, where both Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BJP hold sway.
Kunwar Danish Ali is the Congress and I.N.D.I.A. alliance candidate – he is the incumbent MP. He won last time on a BSP ticket, but the BSP expelled him for no rhyme or reason recently.
No one knows why, but, reportedly, it was yet another move to stay in the good books of the BJP regime which was deeply offended by Danish Ali. he has been an articulate orator in the House, and took on the fight inside and outside Parliament when he and his community was abused by a foul-mouthed BJP MP from Delhi.
Ali took up cudgels in the parliamentary committee in support of Mahua Moitra when she was hounded for taking on Adani with impeccable facts and evidence inside Parliament. Rahul Gandhi went to his house to express solidarity when he was abused right inside Parliament, even while the entire BJP leadership maintained a tacit silence, then and after.
Said Danish Ali in Amroha, “This is a decisive and final battle, to save the Indian Constitution, its secular democracy, the soul of India. Or else, Hindustan would turn into a dictatorship and the Constitution will be dismantled. There will be no democracy left anymore!”
Danish Ali came to participate in a public meeting held in a packed hall at Nisha Palace near the Hashmi Degree College, which also serves as the make-shift poll headquarters of SP and the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. The entire show is run by the SP’s local leadership, which holds sway in the region, and which is leading the fight in the ‘gathbandhan’ with Congress in the fray.
Last time it had backed Danish Ali in an alliance with the BSP, but it soon broke down, even as Mayawati chose to go into prolonged hibernation after the BJP victory in 2019, for mysterious reasons.
This time, at the vehement instance of Akhilesh Yadav, the BSP was not even invited for the I.N.D.I.A. alliance meetings. Hence, Mayawati is going solo. Observers believe, the main purpose of ‘Behenji’ would be to cut into Opposition votes, and, thereby, tacitly help the BJP.
Said Danish Ali, addressing the meeting packed with SP supporters and local opinion leaders, a large number of them Muslims: “I got elected because of the huge lead you all gave me in Amroha. It was because of the unconditional magnanimity and great respect for our eminent leader, Mehboob Ali.
“Without his blessings and your support, I could never have taken up your issues in Parliament and outside. Unfortunately, our relationship broke soon after the poll victory, when the ‘mehendi’ in our hand had still not dried up.”
He continued: “SP leaders and workers here would tell me then, confidentially, that we are not able to openly support you, or work for you, because that might lead to complaints against us to the high command. Even the BSP workers shared this feeling with deep sorrow.
“I have no shame in expressing my deep regret for what happened to the past. There have been shortcomings, and I regret them. I appeal to you to forge all your formidable strength in these elections, and as in the past, I will always remain at your service and steadfastly work for you. This is my promise.”
Basically, Danish Ali, in this emotional appeal to the audience, was pitching for total support from Mehboob Ali and his die-hard SP supporters in and around Amroha. Veteran Mehboob Ali, has been a MLA here since many years, is a famous politician and father-figure, and is revered and followed by the local citizens, including Muslims.
He sat there on the stage in silence, flanked by local leaders, almost all of them from SP (with only one district Congress chief), while speaker after speaker gave eulogies to him in their speeches, paying their respect and obeisance. He has been a minister in the SP government in Lucknow earlier, and has headed several important bodies and institutions.
Every member of the audience was wearing the SP red cap – and it had only one name etched on it – Mehboob Ali. His word is the final command for his supporters in Amroha. And, he is, yet again, backing Danish Ali and the I.N.D.I.A. alliance.
The SP workers narrate how Danish Ali was initially trailing by 30,000 votes in the counting in 2019, until it was finally revealed that Amroha had voted overwhelmingly for him. With 71 percent turn-out, he defeated BJP’s Kanwar Singh Tanwar by over 63,000 votes, thanks to Mehboob Ali and his solid SP support base.
Danish Ali is now contesting on a Congress ticket, part of the 17 seats allotted to the party in the alliance with SP. The Congress candidate got only 12,000 plus votes in 2019.
In his speech, Danish Ali said, “Under this regime there is no justice. They will totally destroy Indian democracy. There was a custody death. Then another leader was poisoned in jail. What kind of a system are they running?”
This struck a deep chord with the audience, which was listening to his rousing speech in rapt attention. He was obviously referring to the latest episode, whereby strongman Mukhtar Ansari died in prison.
It has been alleged by his family that he was poisoned in a Banda jail and that he had raised similar apprehensions in the past. Both Akhilesh Yadav and Tejeshvi Yadav have condemned the circumstances of his death and demanded a high-level enquiry. His funeral was attended by a sea of people in Ghazipur in UP.
A young local contractor said that BSP’s Mujahid Hussain will cut into the votes of Danish Ali and get about 10 to 15 per cent votes. “This might change as the polarisation becomes sharper before the actual polling day. However, clearly, Mayawati is helping the BJP tacitly in Amroha and UP,” said he.
A group of young Muslims were of the opinion that Danish Ali will win hands down, like last year. “He has a good image and is very popular in the area. All communities like and respect him,” they said.
A local academic teaching political science in a Amroha college, who claimed that he was not aligned with any political party, explained the pre-poll silence in the area: “Don’t overestimate this silence. This time the candidates are fighting the poll very differently.
“Danish Ali has a clean image and is admired and liked by the people here. His campaign style is different. He does small street corner ‘nukkad sabhas’. He goes from mohalla to mohalla, door-to-door.
“His campaign is very personal and he reaches out to individuals and communities. And don’t get misled by the absence of huge banners and posters. There is a quiet and effective social media campaign going on, and the BJP is also doing the same.”
He said that the incumbent MP has spent almost all his MP funds for the welfare of Amroha. “His achievements might not be seen so overtly in terms of building of schools and colleges, or hospitals and roads, but he has done something which is unprecedented.
“The entire outskirts of Amroha had a dense web of electric wires running helter-skelter, endangering the lives of locals every day. A truck with furniture got burnt down here because of the wiring. It was a dangerous situation.
“He has changed the entire wiring system of Amroha, spending almost Rs 132 crore. He even approached the prime minister, seeking his help. He has also initiated the project to make drastic improvements in the sewer lines and sanitation systems. These are long-term and effective solutions to issues which no politician takes seriously.”
Observers believe that there is an undercurrent of support for both Danish Ali and Kanwar Singh Tanwar. They both have their silent and steadfast support base.
The BJP candidate also scored 5,28,000 votes in 2019, and gave a tough fight. The BJP has MLAs in the area and strong local leaders in the neighbourhood assembly constituencies like Garh Mukteshwar, where the Ganga flows, and is a holy town for pilgrims.
The Gujjar community will certainly back its candidate since Tanwar is an influential Gujjar. However, there is a catch to this identity politics, which might become a headache for the BJP!
Locals are of the view that there are powerful sections in the other upper caste communities like the Brahmins, Chauhans and Jats, who resent the rise of Tanwar in the BJP hierarchy. “They want their own political space and power. They wanted their candidates instead of Tanwar this time, who lost in 2019. They might work against him in these elections. However, they too are playing their cards very close to their chest. This election might turn out to be very interesting in the mandatory overs,” the academic said.
Meanwhile, news started trickling in on Saturday, April 13, in Amroha. It was bad news for the BJP. Union minister and BJP candidate from Muzaffarnagar in Western UP, Sanjeev Baliyan, and his convoy was attacked by unknown masked men at Madkarimpur village, in the Khatauli region.
Almost 25 cars were damaged and Bailiyan had to escape the area under heavy security. Baliyan’s public meeting was also disrupted by a section which shouted slogans and pelted stones. Their identity remains unknown. Voting in Muzaffarnagar will be held on April 19.
Recently, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and local leaders were invited by a BJP leader for tea in a village in Baghpat Western UP. The tea party ended up with RLD workers reportedly thrashing up the BJP workers badly.
Videos have surfaced of the BJP leaders being beaten up with lathis and chased. Jayant Chaudhury’s abrupt decision to go with the BJP has clearly boomeranged – with majority of the farmers here vehemently against the BJP since the protracted farmers’ struggle earlier, and the demand for MSP recently.
Rakesh Tikait, the unanimous farmers’ leader here, has protested against the decision by Chaudhury, who seems to have landed up in a soup now.
Meanwhile, at the Braj Ghat in Garh Muketeshwar, around one hour from Amroha town, all is as laid-back and quiet on a slow and lethargic afternoon. Very few pilgrims and locals are around in this heat, as the sun becomes scorching in the post-lunch afternoon.
Almost all the shop-keepers selling all kinds of ‘puja samagri’ are BJP supporters. There are some dharamshalas here made by various communities which host the ‘yatris’, including those who arrive from Delhi and elsewhere for funerals and other rituals.
Said old man Morari Lal, freelance sadhu and wanderer, originally from Mathura, his white beard flowing: “Here it is Modi who will win. He built the ghat. He built the road. He will get the vote.”
Morari Lal has a good life, though he has done no work for years. He lives in a dharamshala made by a local lower caste community – where everyone is allowed. He gets free food from all concerned, especially the pilgrims and other Hindus who come to perform various rituals.
“Often, when 11 persons are chosen by Hindus, so as to feed them after the rituals, I am one of them. So food is always available, and it is delicious food,” he said.
Young Sujit Kumar Sharma, with a yellow tilak on his forehead, runs a small tea shop nearby. His bed is perched next to the stove under a ceiling fan. He also runs a guest house on the first floor charging Rs 600 per room, where he said he provides a clean room with clean bed sheets. He is from Moradabad in the neighbourhood, but has a vote here. “Here it is BJP.People will vote for it,” Sharma said.
They are selling puri sabji and tea in ‘kulhars’ clay cups, at the ghat. It’s virtually empty. The boatmen, who would use oars earlier, are now running motor boats. The Ganga is flowing and not so dirty. It’s a huge river here and its shores are far and wide, stretched into the horizon like a vast expanse of shimmering water in the sunshine.
On Amavasya and Poornima every month, the ghat will once again get crowded with visitors and reverberate with life. Especially on the sacred night of the full moon – ‘puranmashi’.
Then the river becomes luminescent in the moonshine, and the boats move in the distance carrying pilgrims and ‘yatris’, like landmarks of an ancient civilization, forever on the move. The river heals. And the hot tea in the ‘kulhad’ is, predictably, too sweet – like the same old story, told many times, sweetened with time.
All photographs by AMIT SENGUPTA
