It was Holi, just two days after BJP’s resounding victory in Uttar Pradesh. A group of around 50 youth smeared in colour, holding BJP flags and shouting slogans marched through Tanda, in Rampur district. As the car passed, someone sprayed purple colour on the window, someone threw gulal on the windshield and several looked inside with rancour in their eyes at the passengers in speckless clothes. No one inside the car complained. After all, it was Holi, the festival of colours. Like in war and love, everything was fair on Holi.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

The shops and homes along the street were shut in Tanda, which has around 72 per cent Muslim population. Around 50 metres away from the frenzy, there were some Muslims in spotless white skullcaps and clean clothes, standing silently. 

The expressions on their faces could be read as anything-- dejected, jittery or just indifferent. A few cops were patrolling. My mind raced back to the Holi of childhood days in Delhi with friends, including my Muslim neighbours, their colour-smeared faces, the hugs and laughter. By noon, we all looked the same, unrecognisable behind the layers of colour. We were just crazy kids making the most of a festival that gave us freedom to cross barriers of decorum. As for barriers of religion, we didn’t know then that those even existed. 

I wondered what my Muslim friends would be doing this Holi, back in Delhi. Would they be sitting indoors waiting for the festival to end or would their neighbours have drawn them into the celebrations? 

At Tanda, the festival which was meant to break walls of caste, class and religion, seemed to have deepened the lines. At least, on the face of it. The next day, life returned to normal in the bustling town. At a biryani shop, the locals said Muslims there never played Holi in Tanda. So, it had nothing to do with the changing political hues in the state. But, the procession on Holi had apparently left an unsavoury taste. “It was a victory march. Holi was always played here on the streets, but this kind of politicising of a festival has never happened before.” 

An old man, also a Muslim, tried to justify it saying “it must have been the fervour after the BJP’s victory”. 

In Swar Tanda, an assembly segment of Rampur district, nine-time MLA Azam Khan’s son Abdullah Azam had won comfortably, against the run of play in the rest of UP. Khan polled 1,06,443 votes, while BJP’s Laxmi Saini secured 53,347 votes and the BSP’s three-time MLA Nawab Kazim Ali Khan got 42,233 votes. “There has been peace between communities here and we are hopeful it will continue like that,” said Salim Bhai, as he dished out the biryani on to a plate. 

There were hopes and apprehensions, both embedded distinctly in their words. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assurance that the BJP governments would work for those who voted for it as well as those who did not had reached their ears. Hopes had risen. 

The fruits of development would reach them. “Both SP, BSP have ruled here. So now let us give a chance to the BJP,” said a youth. Yet, the procession had left behind a sense of disquiet, a foreboding of the possibility of changing demeanours on the ground, emboldened by the new political regime. Baseless or plausible, the anxiety was real. 

The question that hung in the air, precariously balanced between politics and governance, was whether Delhi or Lucknow would sense their unease, be it inexplicable and mere perception, weeding them out from both sides.Maybe, both need to look within themselves. How long and how far will polarisation and counter polarisation be part of the narrative in elections? 

Rightist political parties exist the world over, but should it lead to a few right-wing elements imposing a psychological insecurity among the marginalised? And, why are Muslims not able to break free from inhibitions that push them into a tendentious mindset? Once these questions become irrelevant, maybe Holi will be free of political colours.

The author is Editor, Political Affairs, DNA.