A loudspeaker was installed in a small temple in the Kanth village of Nayagaon Akbarpur Chhendri in Moradabad last Friday. Muslims and Hindus of the village sat together with the local authorities and mutually agreed to install the loudspeaker in the Shiv temple for few days for Mahashivratri celebrations.
What happened in just an hour's discussion in the meeting would have appeared "almost impossible" few month back, point out the villagers of now largely peaceful village. They refer to the "mutual distrust" between the two communities vitiated by the attempt of the political players to polarise the region over the installation and subsequent removal of the loudspeaker from the temple.
After the removal of the loudspeaker on June 25, 2014, Kanth became tense and had seen violent protest by the BJP workers in which the then Moradabad district magistrate Chandrakant lost eye sight of one of his eyes. The administration had removed the loudspeaker on the complaints of a member of the minority community over the loudspeaker being "a new tradition" to the temple.
Residents of the village in which Dalits and Muslims live in a closely knit society told The Hindu that "competitive communal politics" of the political players in the area ahead of the by-polls in western Uttar Pradesh, was "responsible" for the polarisation in the village.
Alok, a scrap seller on the outskirts of the village felt quite strongly about the peace of the village being a "casualty" in the aftermath of the loudspeaker controversy. "The issue of loudspeaker over a temple or a mosque is a simple issue which we could have sorted out, had the political parties not jumped and made it a Hindu, Muslim issue," he said.
Alok, an eight-grade drop out from the local high school said he was "wise enough" to see that the political parties jumped in the controversy to communally polarise the region ahead of the State by-polls which was scheduled in September.
"You must notice the fact that no political leader visits the village once the by-polls were over in September last year. What was an important issue for them to highlight before the polls, is no longer important for them," added Alok, visibly quite agitated over the issue. He said that The BJP Member of Parliament from Moradbad Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar Singh had promised to the Dalit community which worships in the temple, to ensure that the temple gets a permanent loudspeaker.
The Moradabad MP and BJP MP from nearby districts along with the local MLA of Peace Party, a relatively new political outfit, Anisurrahman, were at the forefront of the agitation over the loudspeaker removal which had kept the district on boil for several weeks last year. The BJP had planned to organised a Mahapanchayat over the issue which the local administration banned which led to violent protest by the party workers. Alok maintained that it took several months for the peace to return and situation to normalise in the village.
Vikas, member of the dalit community and who runs a flour mill in the shop adjacent to the temple told The Hindu that every thing was "peaceful now". But Abdul Samad, a resident of the village who was sitting on a cot in his verandah few houses away from the mill, disagreed with him.
" Yeh jhagda abhi chalega . Is mudde par dobara rajneeti hogi. Logon ko chunav ka intazar hai! (this fight will continue as the matter will again be politicised ahead of the UP Assembly elections," pointed out Abdul Samad while indicating the fragility of the "peace".
When contacted, both Anisurrahman, the Kanth MLA and the local BJP MP Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar Singh rejected the allegation of politicising the issue.
