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GOON
SCHOOL
The rise in political murders in Madhya Pradesh is no coincidence, writes
India Today's Neeraj Mishra who says the youth wings of most parties are
turning into nurseries of terror.
The summer heat has
caused incessant weapon fire in Chambal. A string of murders in Datia
has threatened to turn age-old Chambal style retribution into a caste
conflict of gigantic proportions. Worse, drawn into this net of vengeance
and caste conflageration are an increasing tribe of politicians. Indeed,
Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Mahendra Baudh and Cooperatives Minister
Govind Singh alongwith several district-level Congress and BJP office-bearers
find themselves on a sticky wicket with allegations of their involvement
in the ongoing scuffle. The Thakur-Yadav-Dalit divergence has taken such
a strong hold over the political system that it is creaking under the
weight of murderous assaults. Congress leader Satyendra Singh and four
of his cronies were slaughtered right in front of the Pitambara Peeth
in Datia. There were 12 of them, heavily armed and travelling in two jeeps
but the bullets rained from all directions so they had no escape. Four
including Singh died on the spot. All this took barely three minutes on
a muggy late April afternoon and the police recovered 250 rounds of empty
cartridges from the spot. The assailants were led by Samajwadi Party's
district president Mahesh Yadav while District Congress president Ghanshyam
Singh has also accused his own youth wing president Mukesh Yadav for avenging
the murder of Mahesh's brother Suresh. A few days later in Baudh's constituency
Sevda, Komal Singh Yadav was killed by Dheemars after he allegedly tried
to molest the bride at a wedding. In retribution gangs led by sympathizers
of Govind Singh attacked the home of Diwakar with guns and two people
lost their lives in the gun battle that followed. Of the 24 accused most
are BJP and Congress office-bearers.
In Rewa District Youth Congress President Amit Mishra was returning home
with his father Lallu Lal when their car was intercepted by Padmesh Gautam
and two of his associates. Gautam is the nephew of former district BJP
president Girish Gautam who had contested against Speaker Shriniwas Tiwari
in the last elections. Gautam fired from a desi katta at point blank range
and killed Amit on the spot before fleeing. Amit had severely beaten up
Padmesh's younger brother-a BJYM leader-- during college elections a few
days earlier while the police had remained silent on the matter.
As the game of revenge goes on, the youth wings of the principal parties
in the state are increasingly being infested with people with dubious
backgrounds. It is these youth leaders who later graduate to state and
national level politics.
State PCC president Radhakishan Malviya, for instance, had promoted Inder
Prajapat from the Youth Congress into the state body. Prajapat, a virtual
outsider whom no one really took seriously as a leader with a future proved
himself worthy of his background when one fine morning he fired three
shots into Manak Agarwal, another PCC general secretary. He gave himself
up to the police and is presently out on bail. "The descent into
jungle raj is frightening. If the political class starts settling matters
with the gun, then there is very little hope left,'' says social scientist
and thinker G.K. Prasad. Other youth leaders who have graduated feel that
the criteria for joining politics in Madhya Pradesh have become foggy.
"Anyone with a handful of lumpen followers and a politically correct
caste badge wants to enter politics,'' says Arvind Malviya, a student
leader. He himself finds it strange that from a student leader he has
now become an OBC leader but accepts it as a mere passing phase. Caste
and community considerations alongwith muscle power have become the supreme
considerations for political parties to select younger leaders.
That apart, senior leaders do not seem to bother too much with electing
the right followers. Anyone who can bring in a raucous crowd is preferred.
In all the recent cases, the mentors were also being dragged into controversy.
Radhakishen was blamed by Manak for instigating Prajapat while Amit Mishra
was a follower of Tiwari and had been appointed to the youth Congress
post a few days before his murder. He is being accused of beating up Gautam's
brother severely.
Though Tiwari at no stage interfered with the process of law, Mishra took
advantage of the fact that he was a camp follower and the police kept
looking the other way. Padmesh's rage is being justified by his supporters
as born as much out of Mishra's behaviour as from police inaction. After
Mishra was shot dead, youth Congress workers went on the rampage and burnt
buses belonging to Padmesh's uncle Girish Gautam. There was pressure on
the police to book Gautam as well and for a few days Rewa remained tense
as BJP workers camped outside his house to prevent his arrest for conspiracy.
But his arrest was prevented largely
because Mishra's father Lallu Lal did not name him in his FIR and the
police found no connection between him and Padmesh.
In the Datia case Congress leaders themselves fell out accusing each other
of protectionism. Former Congress MLA and present president of the district
Congress Ghanshyam Singh ignited matters when he accused Baudh who also
belongs to Datia of protecting the killers. Ghanshyam is supposedly an
uncle of the deceased Satyendra Singh. Under his stewardship the district
Congress also passed a resolution condemning those providing protection
to Mukesh and Mahesh Yadav. Baudh's name is being dragged into the episode
because Mukesh was his protégé and became president of the
Datia youth wing after Satyendra Singh went underground in 1999. "It
is a clear matter of revenge killing and both sides knew of each other's
reputation and strength. Why would I try and
protect any one,'' says Baudh.
While accusing Baudh of protectionism, Ghanshyam however may find Satyendra
Singh's actions more difficult to defend. He had been an accused in the
murder of Suresh Yadav while in office as district youth Congress president
in 1999. He went underground either out of fear of being victimized or
out of fear of repraisal. He came back in February this year and was able
to obtain bail within two months of incarceration. On the fateful afternoon
of April 24, he was aware that Suresh's brother Mahesh would try and attack
him. He went to the Datia district court to attend a hearing related to
the case with two jeep loads of supporters carrying four rifles and several
kattas. The police had also been informed and a van was keeping vigil
within the court premises. But the inevitable happened on his way back
home. The undercurrent of caste conflict in all these retribution killings
is giving sleepless nights to Chief Minister Digvijay Singh whose Dalit
agenda seeks to empower dalits but whose own partymen are seeking to overturn
all its political advantages.
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