Violence in Haryana, Maharashtra Sets the Backdrop for Assembly Elections this Year

Communal violence seems to be setting the tone for elections, with Haryana and Maharashtra following Uttar Pradesh in creating the backdrop for the next major electoral fight for the Assemblies in these two states currently ruled by Congress governments.

Muzaffarnagar set a precedent in Uttar Pradesh, with the ruling Samajwadi unable to handle the violence that eventually led to a BJP sweep not just in western UP but the entire state. Maharashtra and Haryana are both seen as important states for political consolidation, with severe incidents of communal violence in both states now creating tensions and divisiveness that a NCP leader said could result in polarisation “if the state governments are not able to handle this properly.”

Gurgaon is still under curfew following a communal clash in which terror took over. An accident in which a motorcycle came under a lorry sparked off the violence, with the lorry drivers being thrashed into trauma by an irate mob that then refused to release the bodies.

Rumours of the incident spread like wildfire, and what should have been just restricted to basic traffic recklessness, assumed communal dimensions within hours. A mob armed with rifles tried to enter the Taru bazaar to retrieve the bodies. Another mob went berserk inside the village, attacking religious places, looting shops and setting these on fire, and molesting and assaulting women of the other community. The police and paramilitary that is now present in full force is patrolling the tense area.

The locals admit that there has been tension in Gurgaon from the time of the Lok Sabha elections that were given a Hindu-Muslim twist that several residents who witnessed the violence are now worried will only intensify in the lead up to the state elections. As one of them told The Citizen this was a bad road accident early morning, and the driver should have been arrested. “And what is worrying is that it acquired a communal colour immediately,” he said. Haryana has 90 Assembly constituencies with the state government under Congress Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The BJP that won seven of the ten Lok Sabha seats is optimistic about sweeping the state, with the Congress getting only one seat, and the Indian National Lok Dal two Lok Sabha seats.

Maharashtra with 288 Assembly seats is, however, going to be the battleground of the forthcoming state elections. Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats the BJP secured 23, followed by Shiv Sena that got 18 seats. Here too the BJP is expecting to sweep the polls, with Congress chief minister Prithviraj Chauhan already under tremendous pressure after the communal violence in Pune where a young Muslim youth was bludgeoned to death by a rampaging mob. This incident that has not drawn a word of condemnation from many political parties, including the ruling parties, has created tremendous tension in the state, with action being taken against the Hindu Rashtra Sena only after three days of communal violence in which hundreds of vehicles were torched and people terrorised.

The NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra is finding it difficult to cope, more so as the Congress is under strain from within. Political leaders who had joined the party when it was in power, are now threatening to leave on some pretext or the other. For instance Maharashtra industries minister Narayan Rane is almost out of the party, as he had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi to remove Chauhan in the wake of the Lok Sabha debacle. Rane’s son Nilesh Rane lost the Lok Sabha elections to a Shiv Sena candidate, and the minister is expected to quit with followers any day following the Congress reluctance to act against the Chief Minister. Sources said that the only reason he has not moved is because the Shiv Sena is reluctant to accommodate him.

The two communal incidents, based on the wildfire spread of rumours and falsehoods, have created considerable tension in both the states. Political leaders are worried about the impact of these on communal harmony between communities at large. The CPI(M) central committee has taken strong note of the spiralling communal violence noting that, “ever since the polling for the Lok Sabha elections ended and the new government assumed office there have been more than a dozen communal incidents across the country. Communal clashes have been reported from Gujarat, Maharashtra, UP, Karnataka and other places. There has been the brutal killing of a young Muslim IT professional by men belonging to the Hindu Rashtra Sena in Pune. It seems the mood of triumphalism has led to communal incidents often targeting the minority community.”

Courtesy: The Citizen

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