Gurugram: Every week after six individuals had been killed and a number of other others injured in communal violence that gripped elements of Haryana, the state’s Jat-dominated khaps are divided over who must be blamed for it.
On 31 July, a spiritual procession — the ‘Braj Mandal Yatra’ — within the Muslim-majority Nuh district in Haryana’s Mewat area led to communal violence, which finally spilled over to the neighbouring Gurugram. Two house guards and an imam had been among the many six individuals killed within the arson and stone-pelting.
The violence got here a yr earlier than the final election and the Haryana meeting election, and whereas some khaps see the violence as a bigger “conspiracy to polarise” the state, others help the state’s Bharatiya Janata Celebration-Jannayak Janata Celebration (BJP-JJP) authorities’s transfer to demolish “unlawful” buildings that had been allegedly used within the violence.
A khap is a gaggle of clansmen who belong to the identical gotra, or clan, and hint their origin to the identical ancestors. In accordance with media reviews, the state has over 90 khaps, and so they exert appreciable affect over elections.
Khap representatives who attended a gathering held Saturday at a Jat dharamshala in Hisar, described the Nuh violence as a conspiracy “by the state’s BJP-JJP authorities” and resolved to go to Mewat as soon as normalcy returns.
Over 10 khaps attended this assembly, Balwant Phogat, President of the Phogat khap, instructed ThePrint.
At one other assembly the identical day, held in Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala’s meeting phase Uchana, attendees requested for a ban on organisations just like the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) — which organised the Braj Mandal Yatra — and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, stated media reviews.
This assembly was attended by not solely khaps but in addition farmer organisations such because the All India Kisan Sabha and Sanyukt Kisan Morcha.
“The BJP is pursuing an agenda with the assistance of its entrance organisations like VHP and Bajrang Dal in order that it could actually polarise voters in Haryana on spiritual traces. We won’t permit the BJP-JJP authorities to pursue its communal agenda on Haryana’s soil,” Azad Palwa, a farmer chief from Jind, who was one of many organisers, reportedly stated on the assembly.
This comes at a time when a village panchayat in Haryana handed a decision prohibiting any Muslim from getting into the village for commerce functions.
Nevertheless, not all khaps agree with the stand taken at Hisar and Uchana conferences. Talking to ThePrint, Surender Dahiya, chief of a parallel khap for Dahiyas, claimed most khap teams within the state “nonetheless stood with the BJP-JJP authorities”, particularly with regard to the demolition. The Dahiya khap faction led by Surender wasn’t current at both assembly.
“The true image was that the majority khaps had been of the opinion that the assault on the yatra was unprovoked and so they favoured the best way the BJP-JJP authorities has dealt with the scenario after the Nuh incidents,” Dahiya stated.
In response to the allegations made by khap leaders in Hisar and Uchana, Jawahar Yadav, Officer on Particular Obligation (OSD) in Haryana Chief Minister’s Workplace (CMO), instructed ThePrint that the leaders who attended the 2 conferences had been “rejected” by their very own clansmen.
The assembly, he claimed, was held to satisfy the opposition’s agenda.
“They’re representatives of the opposition Indian Nationwide Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), and aren’t khap leaders. It’s a part of their agenda to oppose regardless of the BJP does,” he claimed. “However I ask them a query. Will they dare to brazenly oppose the strict motion that the Manohar Lal Khattar authorities has taken in opposition to these accountable for Nuh violence within the final eight days?”
Additionally Learn: Gurugram’s is a hard-won financial achieve. However Nuh violence exhibits it’s imploding
Decision to ‘undo harm’
After the assembly in Uchana, farmer chief Palwa reportedly stated {that a} decision condemning the BJP, the VHP, and Bajrang Dal was handed. Attendees had additionally determined to launch a marketing campaign to “undo the harm brought on by these organisations” and assist re-establish communal ties within the state.
Whereas the VHP claims that it was the Muslims that forged the primary stone, Nuh’s Congress MLA Aftab Ahmed has claimed that it was a results of the communal tensions that had been constructing within the district for per week earlier than the precise violence. Specifically, he talked about some incendiary movies that had allegedly been circulated by cow vigilantes Monu Manesar and Bittu Bajrangi.
Manesar, who’s already going through felony fees for having killed two Muslims in February this yr, had allegedly posted warning movies addressing the Meo Muslims within the space. Meo Muslims, or Mewati Muslim, self-identify as a definite socio-cultural ethnic group.
Talking to ThePrint, Balwant Singh Phogat of the Phogat khap, who attended the Hisar assembly, claimed that it was typically agreed on the assembly that the violence was an try and polarise forward of subsequent yr’s elections and it was a results of the movies that had been circulated per week earlier than the violence.
Explaining the stand taking on the Hisar and Uchana conferences, political commentator Yoginder Gupta instructed ThePrint that khap panchayats had been principally dominated by Jats, who had been secular by nature. As well as, Monu Manesar’s potential involvement in ratcheting communal tensions in Nuh has not gone down effectively amongst them, Gupta stated.
For context, Jats type a major a part of Haryana’s whole inhabitants and are among the many state’s most politically influential caste teams.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a name to his occasion leaders to go to Muslim ladies on Raksha Bandhan to get Rakhis tied by them,” Gupta stated. “However what involves a widespread man’s thoughts is that if the (BJP) authorities is seen patronising people who find themselves accused of killing and burning alive Muslim youths, what promise of security would the occasion’s leaders give to Muslim ladies on Raksha Bandhan,” Gupta stated.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Additionally Learn: Almost half of Haryana’s Muslims reside in violence-hit Nuh — district with increased fertility & poverty
