The UP government has acted appropriately by suspending district magistrates and senior police officials for their failure to enforce law and order and preventing the recent violence in Saharanpur. Tensions erupted there between Dalits and Thakurs. Early action by the local authorities may have snuffed out violence in the region in its incipient stage. The state home secretary and a team of senior police officers visited the place recently. 24 people of the Thakur community were arrested for assaulting Dalits who had gone to attend a BSP rally. The positive steps taken by the government should do the job. Saharanpur has been in a troubled state since 2013. Successive elections caused tensions. The campaign against love Jihad and for cow protection aggravated the crisis. The Yogi Adityanath government has to weed out communal forces of all colours in the region. As a matter of fact, his taking over as chief minister may have accentuated animosities. He represents Hindu hardliners in the BJP. The political agenda of the new government is likely to be aggressive on the lines of Hindutva. At the same time, communities out of power are trying to reassert themselves. The Thakur-Dalit confrontation in Saharanpur exposes the fault lines of society in Uttar Pradesh. The SP and the BSP had empowered the backward classes and the Dalits. The BJP also went for social engineering to capture power in the state.
The Adityanath government has to formulate a firm and forward-looking political strategy. Saharanpur provides an alarm signal. The government should dispel fears about it being opposed to offering even- handed justice and should win the trust of all communities.
