My probably wishful theorising last week, that Uttar Pradesh, following Bihar and then Punjab, was now underlining a process in which the voter is moving to the centre, and away from the mandal-kamandal divide, may yet stand the test of time and the final election results in the state. But it did not stand the test of an hour spent at a BJP election rally in Dhampur, close to Bijnor in the state’s fertile western grain-bowl. Or at least not the first half of that hour.

While the rather modest crowd — but that is the norm these days for all parties — waits for party president Rajnath Singh, at the microphone is a scrawny rabble-rouser who, we later discover, is one Ashok Katariya, a Yuva Morcha worker who accounts for very little even in the local power structure. But he obviously “knows” exactly what is wrong with the place.

Hindu women are no longer safe here, nor is national interest. Centres of subversion and training run by the ISI are springing up everywhere. And why is that happening? Because the number of Muslims is going up. At last count, they had reached 41 per cent of the local population, and rising. Now we all know in the divided heartland politics everybody does his own census and nobody particularly wants to be confused by facts. So you can even overlook this as some kind of a mid-afternoon ploy on a 43-degree day to keep the crowds entertained. Until he gets to the real issue.

... contd.