In Maharashtra, politicians are far more accountable than MLAs in Uttar Pradesh

My grandfather is a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Lucknow and has been one for a very long time. Before the CAA-NRC protests started, he called me and advised me against getting involved, warning I wouldn’t be safe. I asked him to spell out who would make me unsafe. He kept quiet. I remember telling him that he had helped choose people who would harm me and my friends. But that’s the kind of loyalty RSS has cultivated in him, giving him his lifelong identity.

The way RSS has built its organisation and made inroads into the community has lessons for all. They have foot soldiers everywhere. The RSS has been cleverly working in this field from the very beginning, not just in India but in the US as well. You see that paying off now, when they receive funds from the Hindu American Foundation.

Being a social justice worker, I know UP needs more people from our sector. But I don’t think I can return to UP from Mumbai; because while this place might need me, I too need a safe haven. In UP, I know I wouldn’t be safe after the Sun goes down. I wouldn’t be able to make both ends meet if I work there. I don’t see any job opportunity, any reliable network and connections, any economic progress.

Having lived in Mumbai, I also see the difference between politics in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. In Mumbai, people vote for their local MLAs unlike in UP, where people vote for a party, a leader or a CM aspirant. MLAs in Mumbai are seen working on the ground because people hold them accountable. In Mumbai, you vote for an MLA who you know you can approach whenever you need him; you know where he lives, where he works, or at least you know someone who knows the MLA and how to approach him/ her.

But in UP MLAs are larger than life, aloof and behave like dons. I recall a lawyer once told me that the biggest terrorist force in the country was the UP Police. A bureaucrat admitted that consultations didn’t matter because the CM always had the last word. The Washington Post called Yogi a militant monk. UP is known for gunda-gardi, for police brutality, for its communal and toxic politics. Yogi is the perfect CM for a state like this.

But UP is also so much more than this. UP has so much potential for growth. It has so many promises, talent and opportunities. I think people are beginning to realise that.

I remember seeing a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl decorating a small plant on Christmas, their version of a Christmas tree, in an impoverished area in Chowk. I know it is not the reality of Uttar Pradesh as a whole. The state has always had its share of Islamophobia. But what this BJP government has done is that it has radicalised even those people who were earlier not Islamophobicand did not wear caste on their sleeves.

In 2017, people voted for Modi, not for Yogi. Today, some people would vote for Yogi but back then they probably wouldn’t have. But if people move away from BJP this time, they are actively choosing to not vote for Yogi, it’s a vote against Yogi as CM. I think more people in UP need to be allies--of Muslims, of queer people, of Dalits, of OBCs, of women. But being an ally to oppressed communities today means being called antinational. Calling activists tukde-tukde gang, anti-national etc is all part of the new narrative they’re trying to build. The efforts this government is putting in demonising them, gives me hope that the work of activists matters enough to scare a government.

But honestly, this government is threatened by anyone with a voice. During the anti-CAANRC, Hathras case and farmer protests, I was amplifying voices from the ground. I saw UP Police, MLAs, head of the IT cell of UP Police, the person handling the social media of the UP Police were all watching my Instagram posts from their private accounts. If I was tagging someone, those accounts started watching them too. And if I blocked those accounts, new ones emerged almost immediately. There were threats of rape, violence and trolling. Is that the UP we deserve to live in? NO.

[The writer is a social- justice worker based in Mumbai, who also works with political prisoners. For her safety and at her request, we have changed the name]. (As told to Garima Sadhwani)