‘If helping victims of love jihad is communal, then we are communal’

In Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party has been in the eye of the storm since the Muzaffarnagar riots last year. It’s been accused of provoking and inciting communal passions and trying to derive mileage from the prevailing situation, especially in western Uttar Pradesh where the communal cauldron has been on the boil.

Uttar Pradesh’s BJP president, Dr Laxmikant Bajpai, is one of the party’s most vocal leaders. He spoke to Amita Verma about the BJP’s role in the riots and “love jihad”. Excerpts from the interview:

It has been exactly a year since the Muzaffarnagar riots took place, but western Uttar Pradesh is still burning. The general perception is that the BJP is stoking communal fires.
To understand why western Uttar Pradesh is on the boil, you must first understand the reason. When the two Hindu and one Muslim boy were murdered (over an eve-teasing incident) in Muzaffarnagar on August 27, 2013, the accused were promptly arrested and there was no tension in the area. Within two hours, a phone call from Lucknow changed the scenario — the accused were let off and the police officer was transferred. Reaction is bound to take place when a criminal is booked or let off merely because he belongs to a particular community. We sincerely believe that a criminal does not belong to any community and must be treated as a criminal.

But it was your party that provoked reactions to the incident.
It was the Akhilesh Yadav government and not the BJP that provoked reactions. It was the chief minister who sent a state plane to bring local cleric Maulana Nazir (whose speeches incited the Muslim community) to Lucknow for talks. Maulana Nazir was an accused in the riots with nine cases against him, but he was posing for photographs at the chief minister’s residence. What message was the state government trying to give to police officials? Later, senior minister Shivpal Singh went to Maulana Nazir’s madrasa for “peace talks”. The government has been openly taking one side and yet you blame the BJP for being communal.

But BJP MLAs were equally involved in inciting violence.
Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana were booked due to political vendetta, because the government wanted to pin the blame on the Opposition. There was one FIR against them and the government invoked the National Security Act against both. The NSA was later quashed by the tribunal, which vindicates our stand and puts the government in the dock.

After Muzaffarnagar, it was Saharanpur where the BJP again played a visible role. The police alleged that bjp mp Raghav Lakhanpal provoked Sikhs during riots.
Moharram Ali, aka Pappu, has been named as the main accused in the Saharanpur incident according to the local administration.
Moharram Ali visited the chief minister’s house along with Samajwadi Party leader Sanjay Garg before Saharanpur riots and because the administration had named him as the main accused, SP’s Shivpal Singh blamed the administration for the riots. Does this not make the SP’s agenda very clear?

Then a magisterial inquiry was ordered into the Saharanpur incident. Where was the need to send a team of ministers to Saharanpur? Was it not designed to undermine the importance of the magisterial inquiry?

I have been told that the riots began only after Pappu made an announcement during sehri that the Kutubshehr mosque had been demolished. He also demanded money from the Sikhs (to settle the land dispute) and, when they refused, he engineered the riots.

So you are saying that the BJP had no role to play in these incidents?
There is absolutely no doubt that the reaction of the people was against the partisan attitude of the government machinery. Whether it is Saharanpur, Meerut or Faizabad, the partisan role of the UP government has come to the fore. A criminal should be treated as a criminal and a victim as a victim. The caste or community factor should not come in at all.
As political workers, we have sided with the victims and it is the social responsibility of every political activist to help the victim, irrespective of his or her caste. Our legislators have done this and we are proud of them. If someone from your family becomes a victim, will you not stand up for the victim?

And that is why you felicitated those accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots?
Our legislators fulfilled their duty of helping the victims and were implicated in false cases. Why should we not appreciate their behaviour? The SP can have Manoj Paras as a minister and Anoop Sanda as its MLA even though both were accused in rape cases and the government can even withdraw these cases, but no one talks about them. The SP government also tried to withdraw cases against terror accused but not a finger was raised. The BJP gets blamed for everything it does.
In Mainpuri, a school teacher was raped and we took up her case. As a political party it is my right to take advantage of the government’s failure and we will continue to do so.

It seems that the BJP wants polarisation of voters to continue because that will benefit the party in the byelections — just like Muzaffarnagar helped you in the Lok Sabha polls.
It is completely wrong to say this. Yes, we are helping wherever victims need help and it is a coincidence that most victims are in western Uttar Pradesh. Byelections are being held in eastern Uttar Pradesh, central Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand as well, so do you mean to say that we do not want to win there?

But the BJP did not take up the Mohanlalganj and Faizabad rape and murder cases like it did in western Uttar Pradesh.
All I can say at this point of time that we will not let the Mohanlalganj victim go without getting justice. It will take time but we are determined to take the case to its logical conclusion.

Some BJP leaders have been talking of “love jihad” and forced conversion — is this on the party’s agenda or not?
“Love jihad” and forced conversion is not on our political agenda, but if any girl — irrespective of her caste and community — is betrayed, we will support her and offer all help to her.
The state government should get to the bottom of this. Do they know that “love jihad” is actually a cover for human trafficking? Girls go missing, but has the government ever tried to find out where they go? Who is sending them abroad to become a part of a harem and who is getting their passports made?
If helping out such girls is communalism, then, yes, I can proudly admit that we are communal.

But why is there a sudden spurt in the incidents of “love jihad”?
Firstly, boys of one community are feeling emboldened because they know that there will be no action against them by the state government which is happily indulging in appeasement and votebank politics.
Secondly, girls and their families are coming out to report such cases because they have the confidence that someone from the BJP will stand by them.

The BJP is being severely criticised for highlighting such incidents. Do you think this will damage the party’s image?
Mulayam Singh Yadav has already said on a television show that I am spreading anarchy. I want to tell him and his leaders that as long as his government acts in a highly partisan manner, we will not stop and will forge ahead. The day the government begins doing its duty in an impartial manner, we will step back.

Is there any solution to this communal divide which is damaging the state’s social fabric?
Again, coming back to the Muzaffarnagar riots, if the ruling SP wants to repair the damage, it should learn to identify a criminal by his crime, not his caste. If a Hindu commits a wrong, punish him severely, but do not leave a criminal simply because he belongs to a particular community. If this happens, confidence will be instilled in both communities and the gap will lessen.