What is feeding the rising Rajput fury against Modi, Shah and BJP

Election season in India throws up many unexpected surprises. One such surprise is the spreading unrest among Rajputs, also known as Thakurs in Uttar Pradesh, known to be part of the ruling establishment, who are gathering in tens of thousands in caste panchayats protesting against their alleged marginalisation and for their samman (self-respect).

The surprise element is that this anger at getting marginalised is despite Uttar Pradesh being ruled by a Rajput, Yogi Adityanath. Though the Rajput anger is widely spread across Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana, the main public display of their angst is concentrated in western Uttar Pradesh.

The Rajput mass gatherings against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) followed one another in quick succession with amazing speed.

Rajput panchayats

The latest event to steal limelight is the Rajput Mahapanchayat organised at Dhaulana in Ghaziabad on April 18, where they even passed a resolution calling upon the members of their community not to vote for the BJP.

Reporting from Dhaulana, Mahendra Mishra of JanChowk news portal said: “Rajputs were openly challenging the Prime Minister from the dais. "No enmity with Yogi, but beware of Modi," they shouted. "We don’t like those who don’t like us!"

Prominent Thakurs like former Prime Minister VP Singh’s daughter-in-law was present at the meeting.

Before that, the first Thakur Mahapanchayat was held at Sardana in Muzaffarnagar falling in Meerut district in March-end. The immediate provocation for this was the allocation of the Muzaffarnagar seat to Sanjeev Balyan, a Jat leader and a Union Minister of State.

Ticket denial

Balyan's rival Sangeet Som, a Rajput and a former MLA from Sardana, was piqued. Their personal rivalry took a nasty turn when Som’s followers attacked the convoy of Balyan and damaged six vehicles.

In solidarity with Som, the Rajputs organised a mahapanchayat at Sardana, where they issued a call to boycott Balyan and the BJP.

The second Rajput panchayat was held at Nanauta in Saharanpur district on April 7, in which nearly one lakh community members reportedly gathered.

Addressing the gathering, Thakur Puran Singh from Muzaffarnagar, a prominent Rajput leader and one of the key organisers of the panchayats at Sardana and Nanauta, openly called upon the gathered Rajputs to vote for the candidate who has the potential to defeat the BJP in every constituency.

Thakur heartland

The third Thakur panchayat was organised at Sisauli area of Meerut district on April 11.

It was the turn of Muzaffarnagar again to host the fourth Thakur Mahapanchayat at Kheda area on April 16. The Mahapanchayat was organised by Thakur notables of the Chaubisi panchayat, a traditional Rajput-dominated cluster of 24 villages covering Siwal Khas (in Bhagpat district), Sardana (Meerut district) and Khatauli (Muzaffarnagar district) Assembly constituencies.

This was the heartland of Rajput power in western Uttar Pradesh. Incidentally, this was also the main theatre of farmers’ protest spearheaded by the Jat peasantry through Jat panchayats in which Gujjars also participated. This also is the area where Jats and Rajputs are locked in a perpetual power struggle for dominance over village and regional politics.

Anti-BJP anger

At the Kheda panchayat too, a call was made to boycott BJP leaders but notably Yogi’s name was exempted under the pretext that he was a victim of the Modi-Amit Shah duo and his voice was not being heard in Delhi.

The irony of history is that it was in the same ground in Kheda that a Jat Mahapanchayat was convened in 2013, in which Thakurs also participated, which triggered a series of attacks on Muslims in Muzaffarnagar.

“Ironically, if the 2013 Mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar led to sharp communal polarisation in UP and paved the way for resurgence of BJP in the state, the 2024 Mahapanchayat would pave the way for BJP’s downfall in UP,” said Awadesh Kumar Singh, a veteran communist leader from Kanpur.

Secular farmers

According to him, the change of mood after the Muzaffarnagar communal carnage in history and the sea-change in inter-community relations had been brought about by the farmers’ protest.

When the BKU (Tikait) convened a kisan mahapanchayat in Bhagpat in September 2021, Maulana Arshad Madani from Mazaffarnagar led a posse of 5,000-6,000 Muslims to participate in the Kisan Mahapanchayat in solidarity. After that, Muslim and Jat notables started embracing each other with warmth in a bhai-bhai spirit.

The Rajput congregation at Ghaziabad was the fifth. It was held on April 18, just two days after the panchayat in Kheda and a day before the start of the staggered Lok Sabha elections.

Rajnath Singh factor

Here the immediate provocation was that the BJP denied ticket for re-election of VK Singh, a Rajput, and gave the ticket for the Ghaziabad Lok Sabha constituency to Atul Kumar Garg, a bania.

This despite the presence of 4.5 lakh Rajput voters in the constituency which was represented, before VK Singh, twice by Rajnath Singh, a Thakur leader and a senior minister in Modi’s cabinet who moved to Lucknow after Vajpayee’s demise.

Not only the Thakurs from all western Uttar Pradesh districts thronged to Ghaziabad panchayat, even Rajput delegations from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh participated in it.

Similarly, Rajput delegations from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan also took part in the Gujarat Thakur panchayat earlier on April 14, indicating the emergence of an all-India network with a good organising expertise that can convert Thakur anger into public displays of protest in a couple of days.

Rajput fury

What are the reasons for Rajputs’ anger against the BJP and what exactly are their specific demands? To get the answers for these questions from the horse’s mouth, The Federal spoke to Thakur Puran Singh, one of the main organisers of the Thakur panchayats in Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur.

Thakur Puran Singh said: “This is a democratic protest. Democracy is all about fair and equitable distribution of share in power. Rajputs have been denied their due share.

"Except for the one constituency of Moradabad where Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar Singh has been given the ticket, Rajput aspirants have been denied tickets in 21 other Lok Sabha constituencies of western UP though they definitely deserve much more thanks to the presence of large number of Rajputs numbering 4 lakh and above in many constituencies like Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddh Nagar.”

Upset with Modi

Mahendra Mishra, a senior journalist who participated at the Dhaulana Thakur Panchayat and talked to many Rajput leaders there, told The Federal that his reading was that while denial of election ticket to many Rajputs was the immediate provocation, the anger has been brewing against steady marginalisation of Rajputs in the power structure over time.

“In the popular perception of Rajputs, there is an apprehension that if Modi returns to power, he might remove Yogi from the chief ministership of Uttar Pradesh as he had earlier sidelined Shivraj Singh Chauhan in Mahdya Pradesh and Vasundara Raje Scindia in Rajasthan. The Rajputs feel that though Rajnath Singh surrendered to Modi, he was not given the key home ministry and after Modi returns to power, he (Rajnath) might be shunted to some inconsequential ministry,” Mishra said.

Agniveer, too

“This kind of marginalisation apart, they feel that the Agniveer scheme of the Modi government has deprived many Rajput youth full-fledged employment in the Army. Also, they're asking why former prime ministers Chandrashekhar and VP Singh have not been given the Bharat Ratna.”

Asked how intense is their anger and whether they would ultimately vote for the BJP despite some emotive protests like the farmers did in the past, Mishra said the Rajput anger was genuine and deep this time and they might vote en masse against the BJP. He said it was a mix of Rajput pride and power projection.

Gujarat spark

“Actually, it all started in Gujarat, when the Rajputs protested against derogatory observations made by Union minister Parshottam Rupala, a Patidar (Patel), who said Rajput rulers were cowards who meekly surrendered their women to Moghul rulers. It was a redux of the Padmavat moment. The Karni Sena of Rajputs became active again. The protest spread to other states,” Mishra explained.

The subsequent flashpoint was denial of tickets to Rajputs. Out the 69 candidates declared by the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, only eight were Rajputs and they feel Yogi has no say in the choice of candidates.

Despite Rajputs comprising 10 per cent of the western Uttar Pradesh population, only one ticket has been given to a Rajput. So, there is some substance to Rajput anger.

Jats vs Rajputs?

Further, Rajputs are incensed at Gujjars appropriating a Rajput hero and historical character, Raja Mihir Bhoj, as someone belonging to their caste.

Will the BJP pit the Jats against Rajputs to erect a major social obstacle to Thakur assertion?

Asked about this, Prem Singh Gehalawat, a prominent farmer leader in Haryana and the National Capital Region hailing from the Jat community, said: “The minor frictions between Jats and Rajputs and their tussle for village power and command over the local power structure will always be there in future, too. The Sangeet Som-Rajeev Balyan tussle is a purely local affair limited to Muzaffarnagar. But these contradictions will be overshadowed by the larger conflict that Rajputs now have with the BJP high command. This is bringing about an objective unity.”

Opinion divided

Thakur Puran Singh endorses a similar view. “There is no major Thakur-Jat rift now. Likewise, the communal tension has abated. There is total peace now.”

But Yashpal Malik, President of All India Jat Reservation Agitation Committee, thinks differently. He told The Federal: “These protests may cause an erosion of 20-25 per cent of votes but that will be amply compensated by Jat votes, as Jats will polarise against the Rajputs. Muslims may, however, come in their (Rajput) support. In West UP, Rajputs are barely 9-10 per cent but Jats are around 15 per cent. So, the loss will be amply compensated.

“This protest is being supported and financed by the opposition in UP — by Akhilesh Yadav. I don’t see any mass collection going on,” he added.

Yogi backs protests?

Vinod Kumar Singh, a labour leader in NCR, told The Federal that many of his Thakur relatives suspect that Yogi has given a wink of approval to Thakur panchayat organisers and these panchayats also have a Yogi’s hand behind them indirectly.

Asked about this, Thakur Puran Singh said such an allegation belittles the spontaneous democratic mobilisation of the mass of Rajputs and dishonours them as mere tools in the power games of big leaders.

“I have personally visited four of the eight constituencies in west UP that went to the polls in the first phase and I can vouch for the fact that 70 per cent of Rajputs have voted against the BJP,” he said.

Ramadhin Singh, the Rajput chairman of a think tank formed by the Uttar Pradesh BJP, an informal group of intellectuals, said: “No, these protests are not being instigated by Yogi. He is no fool. He will not go against Modi now. Only after the elections are over and if Modi becomes weak, he will assert his might.”

Firefighting by Modi-Shah

The Modi-Amit Shah duo is engaged in firefighting to quell the Thakur unrest. Yogi has been directed to pacify the agitating Thakurs and he visited the region thrice and held community meetings with local Thakurs.

Asked about this, Thakur Puran Singh said: “This is more to save his own throne. But he did not show his characteristic aggression against the organisers of the panchayats. He cannot do that as he has to save his own support base."

"Modi himself held a roadshow in Ghaziabad on April 6, one in Pilibhit on April 9 and one in Amroha on April 19. Amit Shah too held a rally in Shahpur in Muzaffarnagar. Yogi visited Kairana and Muzaffarnagar on April 12 to do damage-control and all these direct interventions by leaders could not defuse the situation. There was no thaw in Rajput anger as they demonstrated at the April 18 Ghaziabad rally," Singh added.

Whither Hindu unity?

On his part, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav also held a rally in Mazaffarnagar on April 15 and attacked the BJP for the injustice done to the Thakurs.

Prem Singh added: “Not only Thakurs, even Tyagis (a western UP variant of Brahmins) and Sainis (who claim to be of Kshatriya descent) are also holding their caste panchayats to protest marginalisation. The BJP’s strength in UP was based on the core consolidation of upper castes basing on which they used to win over non-Yadav OBCs. Not only the upper caste consolidation is falling apart, even Jats, listed as OBCs in UP, are turning against the BJP.”

Despite winning elections, the BJP’s Hindu consolidation would soon become a chimera, he predicted.