In several recent incidents, police have ordered the removal of the statue saying it had been installed illegally, without securing the mandated permission, or that it was on government land.
On April 10, the residents of Jarbo village in Jhansi erected a statue of B.R. Ambedkar in a park after collectively pooling in Rs 50,000. The six-feet tall figure of the iconic social reformer was to be unveiled at a special event four days later on Ambedkar Jayanti. However, on the night of April 12, police and revenue officials marched to the village and removed the statue from the site – a piece of government land – while the locals were cordoned off.
The police said that the statue had been installed illegally, without securing the mandated permission of the administration. A criminal case – a copy of which is with The Wire – was lodged against 25-30 unidentified persons on the charge of illegally trying to capture government land by installing a statue of Ambedkar. The police also accused the villagers of trying to spread enmity between “various groups and castes” and adversely influence the harmony in the village.
“This act reflected a feeling of enmity among other castes,” police sub-inspector Neeraj Kumar, who was on security duty that day, said in his official complaint.
Jhansi police said that when it reached the spot after getting information about the statue, those who had erected it fled from the spot. The statue was removed and “respectfully” taken to the local police station, as it had no claimant at the site, said police. They also claimed that some of the locals had also opposed the installation of the statue. In the FIR, police booked 25-30 unidentified persons for criminal trespass and promoting enmity between different groups in a place of worship. Village head Saroj Ahirwar, a Dalit woman, however contested these claims. She said that the statue was installed by the villagers themselves, cutting across castes.
“They collected Rs 50,000 and built the statue in the park, which I had constructed. There was no protest by anyone. Thakurs and Brahmins also participated along with Dalits,” Ahirwar told The Wire.
Ahirwar admitted that she did not secure the permission of the administration before allowing the statue to be installed but feels that once the statue was in place, it made no sense to remove it. She also condemned the police case against the villagers.
“All the allegations of land grab are fake. The statue was installed by the villagers after reaching a consensus. So when the officials came here, I requested them to let the statue stay. I told them we would keep the statue covered and only unveil it after I got the official permission. But they did not listen to me,” said Ahirwar.
She also asserted that there was no objection to the statue by anyone in the village, or at least on the face of it. “I don’t know who complained. But there must have been someone who informed the police,” she said.
Not the only incident
The Jhansi episode was not an isolated case. In a little over a week, at least two more such incidents have happened where the administration in Adityanath-ruled Uttar Pradesh removed or tried to remove statues of Ambedkar installed by the Dalit community in their villages in Sitapur and Lucknow. A similar incident also took place in Aligarh in January, escalating into arson and stone-pelting after police tried to remove an authorised statue of Ambedkar constructed by the Jatav (Dalit) community.
In all of these cases, the administration cited a government order from 2008 and directives of the Supreme court in 2013 directing all states to not grant permission for the installation of any statue or construction of any structure in public roads, pavements, sideways and other public utility places, to deny sanction.
Also read: An Ambedkar Statue and a Temple: Why the UP Police was Attacked in an Aligarh Village
The 2008 government order said that no idol or statue of any “sant, mahatma or mahapurush (icons)” could be built on any land, even if privately-owned, without the authorisation of the government. According to the order, the person(s) seeking to install a statue would first need to seek permission from the district magistrate who would be required to carry out a spot inspection and send a report to the state home department. In 2020, the Yogi Adityanath government, eager to install statues of caste icons, saints, religious and political figures, filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a relaxation of its 2013 order.
Clashes
Earlier on March 12, in Sitapur, residents of Vibhrapur village donated money and built statues of Ambedkar and Buddha near the boundary of the village secretariat building. The sub-divisional magistrate of Maholi reached Vibhrapur and informed the villagers that they could not install the statues on public or government land. The SDM issued them an ultimatum to remove the statues. The villagers sought more time and allegedly promised to remove the statues in three days. However, the statues continued to stay in the village, and on April 5, police personnel from three police stations along with revenue department officials went to the village along with the SDM and removed the statues from the spot and took them away in a tractor trolley.
Sub-inspector Devendra Pandey, who later lodged an official complaint, said that as the tractor trolley was taking away the statues, around 100 persons – men and women – surrounded the police from all four sides and pelted stones at them. Around eight police personnel, including a female sub-inspector, received minor injuries, said Pandey, adding that had the personnel not worn helmets or body protectors, they could have lost their lives.
An FIR was lodged against 14 persons on the charges of attempt to murder and other offences, including voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt to a public servant to prevent them from performing their duty, assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from performing their duty and disobedience to a duly promulgated order by a public servant. Sections 2 and 3 of The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, were also invoked for damaging the windshields of police vehicles.
Another FIR was lodged for rioting and other offences on the complaint of government teacher Ram Chandra, who said that he did not take part in the plans of the villagers to install the unauthorised statues. Chandra alleged that the angry villagers pelted stones at police and when the administrative officials left the village, around 4:30 pm, around 15 persons, including women, surrounded his house, locked it from outside and threatened to set it on fire.
Dalit leader and Member of Parliament from Bijnor, Chandra Shekhar Aazad alleged that when the locals, including women and children, protested against the removal of the statues, the police used lathi charge on them. Doors of people’s houses, cots and window panes of vehicles were smashed, he said, adding that half the village was forced to take shelter in the nearby fields. He demanded a judicial probe into the lathi charge, compensation be paid for the damaged property and that the statues be reinstalled.
Aazad said that a letter was written to the administration seeking permission about the statues, which had been installed a month back, but there was no reply. “If there was no permission, then it could have been advised to cover the statues – but is such behaviour with the symbols of respect and devotion of Dalits constitutional,” he asked.
Sitapur police, however, alleged that the statues of Ambedkar and Buddha, revered by Dalit communities, were installed to grab government land. “This was an attempt by the land mafia to illegally capture government land,” said Sitapur police in a statement.
Residents of Jarbo village in Jhansi installing the Ambedkar statue. Photo: Special arrangement
Around 19 persons, including half-a-dozen police personnel, were injured, when locals in a village in Lucknow clashed with the police after the administration tried to remove an Ambedkar statue installed by the gram sabha. The statue was erected on April 10 and two days later police personnel reached the village Khantari in Bakshi Ka Talab area in large numbers to remove the installation, arguing that it was not authorised. While police used lathi-charge and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the crowd, locals pelted stones at the police. Men and women raised loud slogans of “Babasaheb amar rahe, amar rahe,” and “Jai Bhim, Jai Bhim,” as they shielded the statue of Ambedkar from all sides to prevent the police from uprooting it. Senior officers rushed to the village to calm the situation.
Covered up
As things stand on April 15, the statue still stands but it has been covered up. Locals fear that the administration could remove it any moment. Vijay Gautam, a local Dalit resident, said that since 2022 the village head had tried to get an authorisation for the statue but the local officials did not provide permission for it. Kaushal Kishor, then BJP MP from Mohanlalganj seat and a minister in the Narendra Modi government, had also written to the district magistrate of Lucknow requesting that the villagers get the required permission to install the statue on the fallow piece of land. Dalits from Khantari The Wire spoke were baffled why the administration was not allowing permission for Ambedkar’s statue when at the same time the state government was widely celebrating his legacy.
“If we seek permission to build a temple or a mosque, they will get the permission much more easily,” said a local resident.
In September 2022, the village gram sabha and land management committee unanimously passed a resolution to build a statue of Ambedkar. However, the local SDM did not provide permission, citing the 2008 government order and the 2013 directives of the apex court.
Gautam said that there was no overt show of opposition to the Ambedkar statue by the other communities, in particular the dominant Hindu castes. But he suspects it was some people with a “casteist” mentality who flagged the issue to the police. “The statue stood there for two days but nobody raised any objection. Even the village head is in favour of it. But there must be people who secretly oppose it,” he said.
Gautam hopes that the administration lets the statue stay in its place and issues the required permission for its sanction. “After that we will install a camera and build a gate,” he said.
The local MLA, the BJP’s Yogesh Shukla, reached the village and condemned both the stone-pelting and the use of tear gas shells. Shukla said that it was his intention that things get resolved amicably. “Whatever wishes the villagers have, of getting a statue installed, should be done with accord, and on the other, there should not be any controversy either,” said the MLA.
Also read: Behind the Demolition of Ambedkar’s Statues Lies a Fear of Justice
In January, 27 persons, including the husband of a village pradhan and the former pradhan, and 150-200 unidentified others, in a village in Aligarh were booked for attacking the police when they had gone to remove an unauthorised statue of Ambedkar. The incident took place as part of a dispute between members of two Hindu communities – OBC Gaderias and Dalit Jatavs – over the construction of a temple and the installation of an idol of Ambedkar on a patch of gram sabha land (0.098 hectares) in Ibrahimpur.
As the police reached the village to remove the statue built illegally on government land, locals – both men and women – pelted stones at the police team. The locals, irked by the administration’s decision to remove the statue, also set on fire several two-wheelers and damaged the windows of police vehicles. Some police personnel were also injured in the incident.
The incident took place after almost a week of tension in the village between the Dalit and Gaderia communities over a construction on the land of the gram sabha. The Dalits in the village were unhappy after some members of the Gaderia community – traditionally associated with sheep and goat rearing – started the construction of a temple for locally-worshipped goddess Pathwari Devi on a vacant gram sabha land.
While booking the village head, her husband and the former headman for the entire incident, police accused them of not providing any information to the administration about the installation of the statue and the construction of the temple, of which only a boundary wall had been completed. The FIR in the case cited the 2008 government order stipulating that statues could not be installed publicly without prior permission of the administration.
On April 15, some miscreants uprooted an idol of Lord Buddha in a village in Jhansi’s Garautha and placed it somewhere else. Police said they re-installed the idol at its place and are searching for the unidentified suspects who carried out the act.
Reference Link:- https://thewire.in/caste/in-uttar-pradesh-dalits-being-given-ultimatum-to-remove-statues-of-ambedkar-in-villages