Clashes in Haryana: Is Mewat the next epicenter of communal politics?

With Assembly polls due later this year, the recent violence in Mewat, Haryana, could lead to a highly polarised polity in the coming months, say reports.

According to a report in The Hindu , the recent clashes in Mewat have ended in an uneasy calm in the otherwise peaceful town where a shared culture and history cut across religious lines in the past.

The recent violence also comes close on the heels  of a bitter post-election set of allegations and counter-allegations pertaining to poll-rigging and other election malpractice in the constituency from where Aam Aadmi Party ideologue Yogendra Yadav contested unsuccessfully.

The recent violence seems to have altered the politics and culture of the restive town. “…When leaders arranged to meet the affected people in villages around the town, they only met with people of their own community. Just as Gurgaon MP and Union Minister Rao Inderjit and State BJP president Ram Bilas Sharma met a group of Hindus in Pathrehri village some seven kilometres from the town, Zakir Hussain of the INLD and other Mulsim leaders are visiting only people from their community,” the report says.

AAP leader Yogendra Yadav, he writes, is the only person who is seen going from house to house irrespective of the community the residents belong to.

The recent clashes have driven a wedge between the two communities in Mewat while steps taken to curb violence have only added fuel to the fire. An example of this is the proposal to permanently station central forces in the district.

The report argues: “While that may have a salutary effect on the troublemakers and help prevent overt violence, everyone is unanimous in predicting that the subterranean chasms sought to be created in this fragile society will widen in the coming days.”

Mewat was the centre of serious allegations of rigging following polling day.  “Even in this day and age, women did not cast their vote in Mewat – nor did the youth, the poor and all those placed lower in the social pecking order. They were physically prevented from reaching the polling stations,” Vivek Sharma wrote in a piece that appeared on this website .