Why are voters being abused when a Dalit becomes an MP from Faizabad (Ayodhya)?

American scholar Dr. Audrey Truschke, in a message on her Twitter handle on June 6, 2024, quoted paragraph 158.2 of the report of the Liberhan Commission, formed to investigate the Babri demolition, which was presented in the Indian Parliament in 2009, in which it is stated in essence that the common people had no interest in Ayodhya during the Ram Mandir movement. Read this article

Naval Kishore Kumar, (Edited by: Rajan/Anil)

Sonu Nigam, the famous singer of Hindi cinema, needs no introduction. But his full name is Sonu Nigam Singh and he was born in Faridabad (Haryana). On June 4, 2024, when the votes of the Lok Sabha elections held this time in the country were being counted, his eyes were on the Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency of Uttar Pradesh, which is also known as Ayodhya. In a post on his Twitter handle, he wrote, “The government that made the whole of Ayodhya shine, gave a new airport, railway station, built the Ram temple after 500 years, created a whole temple economy, that party is having to struggle for the Ayodhya seat. Shameful to the people of Ayodhya.”

Actually, the main reason for his comment was that Samajwadi Party candidate Awadhesh Prasad was far ahead of BJP candidate Lallu Singh in the counting of votes and it was almost certain that he would be the winner. Then when the final result came out, it was officially declared that Awadhesh Prasad had defeated BJP’s Lallu Singh by a margin of 54 thousand 567 votes by getting 5 lakh 54 thousand 289 votes. Sachchidanand Pandey, the candidate fielded by Bahujan Samaj Party, was in third place, who got only 46 thousand 407 votes. Poem is being written- Tum Kaho Ayodhyawasi

It is worth noting that Faizabad or Ayodhya Lok Sabha constituency is a general constituency and SP has fielded Awadhesh Prasad, who comes from Dalit community, as its candidate here. However, Awadhesh Prasad has been an experienced politician. He became MLA for the first time in 1977. In his political career, he has been MLA 9 times and has been a minister in the state government 6 times. After his victory, a poet from Uttar Pradesh, Amit Premshankar, wrote a poem titled- ‘Tum Kaho Ayodhyawasi’. In this poem, he insults the voters of Ayodhya by writing- “A lone archer standing/He was dependent on public opinion/Raghuvar in his own house/He was defeated only by his own people/All men became Ravana/Women were Manthra’s slaves/What mistake was committed, what mistake was committed/Tum Kaho Ayodhyawasi”. In fact, the voters of Ayodhya are being cursed and insulted by BJP supporters on social media. However, now it has come to light in reports published by several media organisations (including in an analysis titled ‘Not the imaginary Ram, but the people of Ayodhya gave the mandate against the BJP’ published by Forward Press) that there were several reasons behind the defeat of the BJP in Ayodhya, one of which was that lands were acquired from the local people in the name of construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Livelihood of several people was snatched away. MPs of Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency till date at a glance

Year when elections were held Winning party

1957 Raja Ram Mishra Congress

1962 Brijbasi Lal Congress

1967 and 1971 Ramkrishna Sinha Congress

1977 Anantram Jaiswal Janata Party

1980 Jairam Verma Congress (Indira)

1984 Nirmal Khatri Congress

1989 Mitrasen Yadav CPI

1991 and 1996 Vinay Katiyar BJP

1998 Mitrasen Yadav BSP

1999 Vinay Katiyar BJP

2004 Mitrasen Yadav BSP

2009 Nirmal Khatri Congress

2014 and 2019 Lallu Singh BJP

2024 Awadhesh Prasad SP

But the question arises whether the voters of Ayodhya are being cursed and insulted only because of the defeat of BJP or is there a reason behind this that those who are doing this are not able to digest the victory of a person from the Dalit community – that too from a general seat and that too from ‘Ramjanmabhoomi’?

Hindutvaists have not lost only in Ayodhya

This question also arises because BJP has not lost only in Faizabad. In the surrounding parliamentary constituencies such as Basti Lok Sabha constituency, SP candidate Ram Prasad Chaudhary defeated BJP candidate Harish Chandra alias Harish Dwivedi by a margin of 1 lakh 994 votes. Similarly, in Shravasti Lok Sabha constituency, SP candidate Ram Shiromani Verma defeated BJP candidate Saket Mishra by a margin of 76 thousand 673 votes. Whereas in Sultanpur Lok Sabha constituency, SP candidate Ram Bhual Nishad defeated BJP’s strong leader and Indira Gandhi family’s daughter-in-law Maneka Gandhi by a margin of 43 thousand 174 votes. BJP had to face defeat in the Barabanki Lok Sabha constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes at the hands of Congress candidate Tanuj Punia. Punia defeated BJP candidate Rajrani Rawat by a margin of 2 lakh 15 thousand 704 votes.

Manuvadi thinking cannot be hidden: B.R. Biplavi

Obviously, BJP has faced defeat in many Lok Sabha constituencies in this entire region. This is the area which BJP was promoting as a stronghold of Hindutva by calling Faizabad as ‘Ayodhya Ji’. Then why are only the voters of Ayodhya being cursed and insulted? In this regard, the well-known litterateur of Uttar Pradesh, B.R. Biplavi, says in very clear words – “First of all, a myth has been created about Shri Ramchandra Ji for vote politics and in their [Brahminists’] politics about Shri Ram, there is talk of their Chaturvarna Dharma. In this Chaturvarna Dharma, Dalits are at the bottom. Now if a Dalit becomes the king of that place, then this thing is not acceptable to Shri Ramchandra Ji. Ramchandra Ji may be able to digest it, but Ramchandra Ji’s followers are not able to digest the fact that a person from the lowest rung of the ladder and the Ram temple which was created a ruckus all over India, this election result has destroyed that entire ideology. So one reason is that a Dalit won, the second reason is that the winner was the opposition candidate, and the third reason is that he won from the alleged birthplace of Ramchandra Ji. Now these three arrows have hit the upper caste community, so I want to clearly say that the upper caste community, if not all, then I am talking about those people who live in a special kind of mania. I had heard many people on the ground saying and abusing that the people of SP have gone mad to have made a person from the lowest caste their candidate. Instead of this, they should have made a non-Dalit their candidate. Whether they win or lose, they should have made at least one pious man their candidate. So for them, Dalits are still impure. Even if we lie for politics that we want coordination, we want to move ahead together, it is only for statistics so that our vote calculations are correct. That is why Baba Saheb Dr. Ambedkar’s constitution forces us to do this because he has given this arrangement, only then they (people from upper castes) can talk about such things. Otherwise they do not talk about the welfare of Dalits. That is why the abuses being hurled at the people of Faizabad are only due to Manuvadi thinking. Their Manuvadi thinking cannot be hidden anywhere.”

The result of elections is the fruition of humanist movements: Ramchandra Katiyar

On the other hand, Shoshit Samaj Dal’s national president Ramchandra Katiyar says that “First of all, BJP had declared [Ayodhya] as the stronghold of Hindu ideology and Brahminism. And they did so much propaganda that they will win the whole of India from here (Ayodhya). Now that they have lost, they are not worth showing their face. And see that wherever humanist movements are carried out, they definitely bear fruits. You see that in Tamil Nadu, where Periyar’s movement was carried out, BJP suffered a crushing defeat. In Maharashtra, where Baba Saheb Dr. Ambedkar’s ideas spread, BJP has suffered defeat. In Punjab, where the Adi Dharma movement was carried out, the egalitarian religion of the Sikhs

Where the BJP was established, it lost. And in Uttar Pradesh, where the Arjak Sangh movement was carried out, many people like Ramswaroop Verma and Periyar Lalai Singh Yadav fought against Brahmanism, BJP lost. So there is a ground against Brahmanism here. Then this time when the question of attack on the Constitution and reservation arose, the issue of ending democracy came up, people voted by breaking party lines. You must be aware that Lallu Singh, who was the BJP candidate, and belonged to the Thakur (Rajput) caste, had said in an election rally that the BJP needs four hundred more seats so that the Constitution can be changed. Ayodhya has dealt a severe blow to the Hindutva ideology. This is beyond the tolerance of the Hindutvaites. That is why they are speaking nonsense. Avdhesh Prasad ji has been an Ambedkarite from the beginning. Why only Ayodhya, look at Barabanki. The ground there has been socialist. There has also been leftist consciousness there. We can also say that when the westerly wind blew, it wiped out Hindutvaism. They are not capable of showing their face because they were saying that we have brought Ram, so bring us. All this was destroyed in this election. As far as Faizabad is concerned, the movement of Arjak Sangh was very popular here. Three regional conferences of Shoshit Samaj Dal and Arjak Sangh have been held here. Raghunath Singh Yadav from there has been the state president of Shoshit Samaj Dal. Apart from him, Mahadev Verma has also been the state president from there. Currently, its state president Ramniwas ji is also from there. The land of Faizabad has been revolutionary since a long time.”

American scholar Dr. Audrey Truschke, in a message on her Twitter handle on June 6, 2024, quoted paragraph 158.2 of the report of the Liberhan Commission, formed to investigate the Babri demolition, which was presented in the Indian Parliament in 2009, in which it is said in essence that the common people had no interest in Ayodhya during the Ram Mandir movement.

Hatred towards Dalits and resentment of BJP’s defeat: Virendra Yadav

The same thing is said by the famous Hindi critic Virendra Yadav. According to him, “BJP’s defeat in Ayodhya is a very big event. This is not just BJP’s defeat on one seat and India Alliance’s victory, but it is the defeat of the central issue of the election, Ram Mandir. The propaganda being done on social media about the people of Ayodhya after Awadhesh Prasad’s victory, is rooted in their thinking that there is a Ram Mandir there and BJP has lost there, which they are unable to digest. And the biggest thing is that it was a general seat. The victory of a Dalit candidate on a general seat is not acceptable to them in any way. So in the propaganda by them, there is hatred towards Dalits and also resentment of BJP’s defeat. Such an environment is being created due to both of these. I think it is very unfortunate that the people of Ayodhya are being blamed for the results of an election held under a democratic process. These are the same people who do not know the real situation of Ayodhya. What was destroyed in the name of Ram temple in Ayodhya and how many people lost their jobs. They also do not know what the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya means for the residents there. For people from outside, it may be a matter of religious faith. But there are many people there, whose lands were taken away and they were not given compensation, there are many people whose shops were demolished. Overall, there is such an environment in Ayodhya or Faizabad, due to which BJP lost there. It is not that Hindutva forces have lost in Faizabad or Ayodhya for the first time. Mitrasen Yadav kept winning from there even in the years after the Babri demolition incident. The propaganda that is being done on social media now is the ill effect of the poison spread by the BJP about that place. And it is not that BJP has lost only from Faizabad, but it has lost in many surrounding seats. The message is very clear that now the politics of hatred is not going to work for long and for a long distance.

Courtesy : Hindi News