Uttar Pradesh: History, 'Rajput pride' and undisguised bigotry

The attack on the motorcade of Samajwadi Party MP Ramji Lal Suman on 27 April drew than it should have. The MP was on his way to Bulandshahr from Agra when he was attacked near a toll plaza. Stones were pelted at the cars, smashing their window panes. Discarded car tyres, collected in advance by the crowd waiting for the MP, were flung in a bid to slow down and stop the cars.

The cars tried to speed up to avoid the hail of stones and tyres, but ended in a pile-up at the toll plaza. “Had we known about his route a little earlier, he would not have managed to escape with only minor damage to a few vehicles,” boasted Okendra Rana of the Karni Sena. Raj Shekhawat, the self-styled chief of the Karni Sena, weighed in to add that attacks must continue.

उत्तर प्रदेश : अलीगढ़ में क्षत्रिय समाज के लोगों ने सपा सांसद रामजीलाल सुमन के काफिले पर टायर फेंके। हड़बड़ाहट में गाड़ियां अनियंत्रित होकर टकराईं। ये सब तब हुआ, जब कुछ ही दूरी पर पुलिस तैनात थी। pic.twitter.com/gbTewA0SJg

— Sachin Gupta (@SachinGuptaUP) April 27, 2025

The vigilante group’s activists attacked the MP’s house in Agra; the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha protested by burning the MP’s effigy and announcing a reward of Rs 1 lakh for anyone who would “cut his tongue”. Death threats followed. The Karni Sena offered a Rs 5 lakh reward for blackening the MP’s face and beating him with shoes. What brought all this on? The Samajwadi Party MP was singled out for what he said in Parliament in March. Responding to BJP MPs who claimed that Indian Muslims carried the DNA of Mughal emperor Babur, Suman pointed out that it was Rana Sanga who had invited Babur to India to attack Ibrahim Lodi. Although historically correct, this was seen as an affront to Rajput pride and an aspersion on their ‘patriotism’, triggering a violent verbal and physical assault on Suman.

What upset the Rajputs and the BJP supporters even more was that the MP went on to point out that descendants of Rana Sanga were occupying places of pride in the BJP governments. Suman complained that the state police had done little to protect him. The administration had been informed of his travel plans, he pointed out, and yet adequate police arrangements were not made. In a belated action, the Uttar Pradesh police did arrest five ‘miscreants’ and suspended two policemen. The arrested, however, were out on bail the very next day and no action was taken against the so-called leaders of the Karni Sena for their inflammatory and and public threats.

The reluctance of the UP police, known to have used bulldozers to destroy houses of alleged stone pelters in the past, stood out in this case. The alarming development of an MP attacked on the street for something said— and not even expunged—in Parliament has been overlooked in the wake of the . Samajwadi Party president and MP Akhilesh Yadav exclaimed, “Is there anyone in the country to take cognisance of the deadly attack on an MP, or will the government of the supremacists go underground in shameful silence because he (Suman) is a ‘PDA (Pichde, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) MP’. Has the bulldozer lost its power or has the UP government surrendered to anarchy? Or is all this happening with the consent of the UP government?”

The BJP, which is believed to have lost several seats in the Lok Sabha election last year when a section of Rajputs in the state turned against it, apparently sought to capitalise on Rajput anger against the MP. Rajputs constitute approximately eight per cent of the state’s population and have traditionally been loyal BJP supporters. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath too belongs to the community.

“By targeting Suman, the BJP wanted to send a signal that Dalit leaders in the Samajwadi Party cannot even protect themselves, so how could they possibly protect the community,” says Shriram Maurya, a Dalit activist. Maurya points out the alacrity with which the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati waded into the controversy; it was because the aggressive reaction of the Samajwadi Party to the attack on the MP threatened to expose the BJP and the BSP. The BJP does not want Dalit voters to shift to the SP or the Congress, he adds, but remain with either the BJP or the BSP. Mayawati, rather than condemn the attack, has been at pains to say that Ramji Lal Suman is being targeted not because of his Dalit identity but because of his politics.

Mayawati has also dismissed SP’s ‘PDA’ front as a facade and described Akhilesh Yadav’s Dalit outreach as “theatrics”. Dalit voters constitute around 19 per cent of the total electorate, with over 9 per cent belonging to the Jatav community. This voter base has already seen notable inroads by the BJP and Chandrashekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party. Contrary to popular political forecasts, a segment of this vote bank shifted towards the Samajwadi Party and the Congress during the Lok Sabha elections. This shift was partly driven by the INDIA bloc’s strategy of fielding Dalit candidates in general constituencies, and the rallying cry of safeguarding the Constitution and constitutional guarantees on reservation.

Having unwittingly delivered ammunition to the Samajwadi Party, the BJP is now looking for a face-saving closure. The fracas however has enhanced the stature of Suman, who in any case is a veteran of many political battles. Emerging from the anti-Emergency movement, he was elected MP from Firozabad at the young age of 26.

He won elections from this constituency four times and served as a Union minister in the Chandra Shekhar government besides being one of the founding members of the Samajwadi Party. The Samajwadi Party’s vociferous support for Suman has understandably unsettled the BSP and the BJP. Akhilesh Yadav is acutely aware that securing even one-fifth of the Dalit votes could pave the way for his return to power in 2027. For the BJP, it is a double-edged sword. If it retreats from attacking Suman, it risks alienating the Rajput community. Conversely, keeping the issue alive runs the risk of strengthening the Samajwadi Party.

Vandalising Ambedkar statues

Vandalising Ambedkar statues is not new or even confined to UP. In the last six months, Ambedkar statues have been vandalised in several states including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. However, a sudden spurt in such acts in UP is drawing attention. In January 2025, the busy Anai–Babatpur road was blocked by an irate crowd protesting against one such act of vandalism. Krishna Kant, a journalist, has now listed several such instances in the month of April, taking care to cite cases reported in local newspapers.

His long post on X cites a statue of Dr Ambedkar in Mainpuri which was carted away by a JCB. The statue on the premises of Allahabad High Court was also vandalised on 25 April. The previous day, a statue in Sultanpur and another one in Jalaun were ‘broken’. Ambedkar statues were disfigured in Kushinagar on 22 April, in Sonbhadra and Agra on 20 April, in Hardoi on 16 April, along with a statue of the Buddha, and in Gazipur and Azamgarh on 14 April.

In some of these places the statues were beheaded.

ये उत्तर प्रदेश में क्या हो रहा है? धड़ाधड़ अंबेडकर की ​मूर्तियां क्यों तोड़ी जा रही हैं? क्या कोई अभियान चल रहा है? ये कौन चला रहा है? कोई कुछ बोल क्यों नहीं रहा है?

कुछ घटनाएं देखिए👇

मैनपुरी में अराजक तत्व बाबा साहेब की प्रतिमा जेसीबी से उखाड़ ले गए।

दो दिन पहले इलाहाबाद… pic.twitter.com/OKdsCSsYtC

— Krishna Kant (@kkjourno) April 29, 2025

In support of his contention, Krishna Kant shared a photograph which had appeared in the Deccan Herald on 10 March from a village in Azamgarh. He lists similar incidents in April in Hathras and Prayagraj. Most of these statues were apparently put up by villagers with modest means. The statues also appear to be made of material that can be damaged relatively easily; no culprit has ever been apprehended because the acts are presumably carried out at night and because the statues are put up on village roads and next to fields at relatively isolated places with no CCTV cameras of course, sometimes not even street lights.

These acts of vandalism have rarely been taken seriously by either the police or the media and are usually dismissed as acts triggered by petty disputes among villagers. They generate temporary tension and occasionally lead to the deployment of police, attracting crowds which disperse after assurances are given and, wherever possible, compensation paid. But their increased frequency and geographical spread are making people sit up and take notice. Could caste or political considerations be acting as triggers?