2020 gangrape shadow fades, BJP confident of win in Hathras again

In Hathras, locals refer to the incident as “bitiya kand” and people say the district that was earlier known for its production of heeng (asafoetida), Holi colours and gulal powders, shot to infamy after the incident.

But with the elections underway, no candidate is openly speaking about the incident. While the BJP has fielded state Revenue Minister Anoop Pradhan Valmiki, the other candidates include the Samajwadi Party’s (SP’s) Jasveer Valmiki and the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP’s) Hembaboo Dhangar.

The Dalits and Thakurs number an even 3 lakh each in the Hathras Lok Sabha seat, followed by 2 lakh Brahmins, 2 lakh Vaishyas and 80,000 Muslims. The upper caste votes, apart from the support for it by non-Jatav Dalits, mean the seat has long been a BJP bastion.

The party has won Hathras consecutively since 1991 – in 2009, the RLD won here as a BJP ally. The BSP finished runner-up in each poll between 1996 and 2014. In 2019, when the SP and BSP were allies, the SP’s candidate here was placed second.

Living under the security of CRPF personnel and CCTV cameras still, the victim’s family avoids venturing out into their village. The first house in the village belongs to the family of the accused, who are Thakurs. Separated by a single-lane road, the next house belongs to the victim’s family.

Though the victim’s family does not disclose the party they support, there are two blue flags with slogan “Jai Bheem” at their home’s main entrance, put up on April 14, the birth anniversary of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar. The victim’s caste group generally backs the BJP.

“So many leaders had come to meet at that time for their own political interest. But now no one enquires about my family. We got a compensation of Rs 25 lakh from the Uttar Pradesh government that we use for daily expenses and to pay the fees of lawyers. Other assurances of a house and a government job have not been met yet,” says the victim’s brother, adding that the next hearing of their appeal challenging the acquittals will be heard in the Allahabad High Court in May.

The three other Dalit families in the village are all relatives of the victim. The rest of the village comprises upper-caste Thakurs and Brahmins, and Other Backward Class (OBC) Prajapatis.

Thakurs, who are the dominant community in the village, continue to stand by the accused. Guddu Singh, the father of the main accused Sandeep, says he is a BJP voter and that the allegations against his son are “fake”. “Upper castes here were upset with (then) BJP MP Rajveer Diler because he met the victim’s family. He was a gentleman but got the names of three others included in the case under pressure from his own (Dalit) community. I believe that this is the reason the BJP denied him a ticket,” Guddu says.

Diler, who had not been fielded by the BJP from any seat this time, died on Wednesday following a cardiac arrest.

Yogesh Pachauri, 75, a Brahmin, says he “does not know the reality of the case”, adding: “I have to live here with the Thakurs, who are in a majority. The only thing I can say is that this case has defamed my village and Hathras.” However, Pachauri will vote for the BJP as he did in the last two polls.

BJP district president Sharad Maheshwari says the gangrape case is not an election issue, and that with Hathras “a BJP bastion”, the “Modi factor” will get the party votes across caste lines. “Hindutva is also an issue here. The BJP government has renovated temples, built the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and now people believe the Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura is next,” Maheshwari says. The Hathras constituency is adjacent to Mathura.

Jasveer Valmiki, the candidate of the SP, which is fighting the elections in alliance with the Congress as part of the INDIA bloc, raises the issue of women’s safety in his campaign but avoids a direct mention of the 2020 case. “That incident is a matter of the government’s failure. Koi bhi jaati nahin koi kaam karti, ek vyakti karta hai (A caste does not commit an act but an individual does),” he defends, adding that while the victim was a Dalit, “what happened in Manipur (the naked parading of women)… she was also a daughter of the country. Wrestlers who staged protests in Delhi too are our sisters and daughters. So we have to fight for the entire society.”

He is campaigning on the issues of unemployment, inflation and “the declining standard of education”, Jasveer adds.

Congress city president Vinod Kumar Kardam, a Jatav Dalit, admits candidates are not speaking about the gangrape to avoid upsetting upper caste voters. He also apprehends that Jasveer’s “outsider” status could hurt his chances. “The SP has picked a candidate who is from Deoband in Saharanpur – nearly 350 km from Hathras – and locals do not know him,” Kardam says.

Jasveer counters this, saying his “nanihaal (maternal family)” lives in Hathras and his grandfather is also from here.

The BSP is the main claimant of the Dalit votes, who number a substantial 3 lakh in Hathras. “Behenji (BSP chief Mayawati) and other party leaders are not active like the BJP. The BSP is declining but still I vote for the BSP candidate. It is the only party that takes care of Jatav Dalits,” says Shashi Kapoor, a former village pradhan and resident of Nagla Harikesh village in Hathras.