18-year-old Amaan Beg found his shop in Agra's Shahganj market being attacked by a mob one Friday evening. The mob was being led by the officebearers of BJP Yuva Morcha's Agra vertical, who ravaged the market and then went on to surround the local police station and chant slogans of 'Jai Sri Ram'. The genesis of all this was that in the colony right behind the market, a Hindu woman who was married to a Muslim man, was found dead by suicide. How did matters escalate to the point of a communal flare up? Watch to find out.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has claimed multiple times that there have been no riots under his rule in the state. But while traveling across the state, The Quint found that the very nature of rioting has changed under the Yogi rule. Large-scale riots, which require mammoth resources, have been replaced by low-key, low-intensity, but constant, frequent and sustained acts of violence, hate crimes and communal flare ups. Enough to keep the pot boiling, always.
In the run up to the 2022 UP polls, The Quint will bring stories that capture this trend, in a series called ‘Everyday Communalism’. This report is the first in the series.
