Why ‘Rahulji thoda confuse ho gaye honge’

“Rahulji ne us din bahut kuchh dekha tha,tabhi thoda confuse ho gaye honge. Kisan log koi Govardhan Parvat thodi banaa sakte hain (Rahul saw so many things that day,he must have got a little confused. Farmers cannot raise a Govardhan Mountain),” Lal said.

He said the ash heaps were remains of stacks of cowdung cakes. “Usually,two types are built. The taller ones,which are most common,are 15-16 feet high with a diameter of six to seven feet. The shorter ones are seven to eight feet tall and have a diameter of three to four feet,” Lal said.

In Parsaul,Babita Malik,daughter-in-law of Rajveer Malik who also died in the clashes,said: “No stack was burnt in Parsaul. In Bhatta,lots of stacks were set on fire at the site of the dharna. But none was so huge. Rahulji’s statement must have been distorted. He could not have said that they were 70 feet in diameter,” she said,adding that she was at the site of the dharna and had spoken to Rahul Gandhi.

At the dharna site,remains of 10-12 stacks are visible though residents claimed that policemen set fire to many more during the clashes.”We could see them burning,even along the bypass road. But none was 70 feet wide,” said Gyanendra Singh,a farmer who lives three houses away from the dharna site.

There are villagers who say they believe Rahul Gandhi’s claims about “dead bodies inside” but they admit that none of them has seen any body. Rajpal’s son,18-year-old Montil Kumar,who was at the dharna site during Rahul Gandhi’s visit,said: “There were a lot of politicians,and media people. I could only see a few people I knew from Bhatta. I tried to get close to him but could not manage.”

“People were saying he (Rahul Gandhi) had found skulls and bones in two to three heaps.There was a running commentary,different people said different things. Some said he spread a cloth and packed hundreds of bones. I felt bad because I went there only after a man came to my house on a bike and said Rahul Gandhi wanted to meet me. There were so many faltu (useless) people there. We were pushed to the rear,” Montil Kumar said.

He said he does not know who started the talk of women being raped. “I did not hear anybody talk of molestation or rape. But women did say policemen had used really filthy language,” he said.

Rani,who was present during Rahul Gandhi’s interaction with the villagers at the dharna site,said she had not heard any complaint of rape. “Women complained of police forcefully entering their houses,extorting money. One woman said she was beaten up. But no one spoke of rape,” she said.

There are no official figures of how many people are missing from the two villages. The police maintain that most men are in hospital,or are too scared to return home. In such a situation,there is all kind of talk.

Babita Malik claimed Shafi Mohammad — he lives in a shack at the dharna site in Bhatta — lost three children in police firing. “Shafi’s wife was alone and the police started firing. We heard they killed her three children,but she managed to run away,” she said.

But when The Indian Express went to Shafi’s house,his wife Shabnam said: “I ran out with my one-year-old daughter. My other daughters (aged 7 and 9) also ran out,but I lost them. We found them both the same night on the Jat side of the village. They had been fed and were sleeping peacefully.”