The old Bhopal and the new: What will prevail?
The BJP announced Pragya Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon bomb blast, as its candidate to take on former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh.
On April 18, something changed about Bhopal and its politics. The BJP announced Pragya Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon bomb blast, as its candidate to take on former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh. Thakur’s name was doing the rounds soon after Singh’s candidature was announced by the Congress. Honestly, no one took it seriously. After all, the BJP has at least two dozen eligible candidates for the Lok Sabha seat including sitting MP Alok Sanjar all of whom would have been tough candidates for Singh. But as Thakur’s candidature is now a reality, what are its ramifications for the city of more than two million people?
Bhopal has had a BJP MP continuously from 1989, and twice before in 1967 a Jan Sangh MP was elected and in 1977 a Lok Dal MP was elected from the seat. In other words, Bhopal is an extremely tough seat for Congress. The incumbent, Sanjar, won by a margin of 3.75 lakh votes against PC Sharma, one of the most popular Congress leaders in Bhopal. But BJP’s control over Bhopal notwithstanding, the city is known for peace and amity between Hindus and the principal minority, the Muslims.
Right from the days of the princely state, the city was very proud of its Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb. In fact, even the successful BJP candidates in Bhopal, except Uma Bharti were never associated with communal politics. SC Verma, who represented Bhopal for four terms, was a retired chief secretary; Kailash Joshi, the ex-CM who won twice is the BJP’s softest face in the state and is in fact called santji (saintly) by his followers. Sanjar is from the Kayastha community which is present in large numbers in Bhopal.
The only blot on Bhopal’s near-perfect record in communal amity is a riot in 1992 when more than 100 people were killed. Even that is blamed on administrative failure more than on anything else. The then government had posted an officer with little district experience as collector. Over the years, Bhopal seems to have learnt its lesson. The city does not seem to be too keen to react to communal situations. A large part of the reason is that the average Bhopali Muslim, unlike his co-religionist in western UP or the Konkan, is not disposed towards violence.
But Thakur’s candidature could change this. The BJP has played the communal card and all pretensions of development-oriented politics have been thrown out. Thakur is not from Bhopal which implies she has no idea about the city’s inclusive culture. Singh is also not from Bhopal but as MLA, minister and CM he has spent enough time in the city to know what its cultural bearings are. Many argue that the demographics of Bhopal have changed immensely over the years. If some element of trust between communities exists, it is only in the old city area.
The divisions and schisms between communities have only deepened. New Bhopal has no idea what old Bhopal is about. What is true is that after becoming the state capital in 1956, Bhopal has witnessed a steady influx of people from all over MP and the country in search of employment. This continues till date, even though there are no government jobs. Clearly, those who decided on Thakur as the candidate in Bhopal had no idea of what it stands for. But the way Bhopal has changed over the years, one may be compelled to think otherwise. The verdict on May 23 will then in many senses be about the idea and culture of Bhopal.