Mayawati vs Azad on Meerut protest over Dalit woman's murder: She takes ‘crocodile’ jibe, he says ‘you're not fighting’

BAhujan Samaj company (BSP) chief Mayawati and Aazad Samaj company (Kanshi pound) chair Chandrashekhar Azad on fri publicly sparred over the protests following the murder of a college student from a Scheduled Caste in Meerut, with the two leaders advocating contrasting approaches to securing justice for Dalits.The exchange came even as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), acting on a complaint over the police response to the protests, issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh home secretary and director general of police, seeking a report within 15 days, according to news agency PTI.Mayawati: 'Not via streets'Addressing a press conference in Lucknow, Mayawati urged Dalits and other marginalised sections to fight injustice through “constitutional means” and refrain from taking to the streets. She said BR Ambedkar had laid down the path for securing justice through the law and democratic institutions.“Certain organisations and political parties, driven by narrow political interests, mislead and provoke members of oppressed communities into launching protests,” she said, not naming Azad.“Such organisations, first instigate violence, disturbances and road blockades, and later their leaders visit the affected areas to shed crocodile tears and derive political mileage from the incidents,” she added.“This neither ensures justice for the victims nor helps the affected communities. In the prevailing circumstances, it only aggravates their hardships,” she claimed.Mayawati stressed that if justice was denied in lower courts, people should approach higher courts, including the Supreme Court, “rather than taking the law into their own hands”.Invoking BSP founder Kanshi Ram — whose name and legacy are claimed also by Azad's party — she said he had translated Ambedkar's vision into political action by building the BSP so that deprived communities could obtain the “master key” with the “strength of their votes”.She sought to caution Dalits and other deprived communities against being misled by “organisations seeking political mileage… especially with assembly, Lok Sabha and local body elections approaching”.Chandrashekhar hits backHours later, Chandrashekhar reached Meerut and addressed supporters before saying he would first meet the victim's family and then speak to officials.Defending protests as a constitutional right, he questioned the police action against demonstrators. “If we go to protest, which is our constitutional right given by the Constitution, you can arrest us, register cases against us and send us to jail. But under which law are the police allowed to beat us? I have come here to ask that question,” he said.Repeatedly urging supporters to remain peaceful, he said: “If you create a commotion or raise slogans, nothing will be achieved. Someone standing in the crowd may throw a stone and everything will be ruined. First, we will hear the victim's family and then we will hear the officials.”In an apparent response to Mayawati's remarks, Chandrashekhar said: “Our big leaders think we have come here to shed crocodile tears. Sitting at home, they hold a press conference to say we are here only to shed crocodile tears.”“The truth is that if the Bhim Army and Aazad Samaj Party do not take a stand today, no one will get justice,” he said, referring to the activist group that gave birth to the party.He said his workers were “risking their lives”, getting detained by police and spending their own money while supporting victims.“You are not fighting while our workers are fighting on the ground,” he said, not naming Mayawati.Referring to her appeal to pursue legal remedies instead, Chandrashekhar argued, “They say there should be no protests, that if justice is not received in the lower court, go to the Supreme Court. So when our sisters are assaulted, acid is thrown on them, they are murdered and hanged, should we simply wait for justice ten years later? Should we also sit with folded hands and not fight for justice?”He added, “I respect them and always will. But today they have hurt me. The community is watching. The community will decide who is fighting for it and who only has a relationship for votes.”Murder probe and NHRC noticeThe protests stem from the murder of a 20-year-old Dalit college student.According to Meerut police, she went missing from the city's TP Nagar area on May 15 and her body was recovered in another area on May 17. Police said the principal accused was arrested on May 18 and another accused was subsequently arrested for allegedly destroying evidence.Investigators have since found the involvement of more people and the victim's family had been kept informed about the progress of the investigation, police said.Despite the arrests, members of the victim's family and supporters continued to demand action against “all those responsible”, leading to Wednesday's protest outside the Collectorate.According to police, protesters gathered without permission, blocked traffic for nearly six hours and attempted to force their way into the district magistrate's office after breaking the main gate. Police alleged that protesters assaulted police and administrative officials despite repeated requests to disperse, leaving 11 policemen injured. Seven people have been arrested and more than 30 booked, police said.However, police action drew criticism after videos circulated on social media appeared to show Meerut senior superintendent of police Avinash Pandey slapping a detained man and assaulting someone inside a police vehicle.The NHRC took cognisance of a complaint filed by Bhopal-based Sunil Ahirwar alleging that police had resorted to an “unprovoked, brutal lathi-charge” and that viral videos showed senior officers assaulting detainees.The commission observed that the allegations, if true, “prima facie seem to be violations of the victims' human rights”.A wider political contestThis week's exchange between Mayawati, 70, and Chandrashekhar Azad, 38, comes as the BSP continues its prolonged decline while Chandrashekhar Azad attempts to expand his footprint ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha elections due in about six months against Yogi Adityanath's BJP regime seeking a hat-trick.The BSP, which formed the government on its own in UP in 2007 under Mayawati, has since seen its tally decline to 80 in 2012, 19 in 2017 and just one seat in 2022. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Mayawati's party failed to win a seat in UP despite polling over 9% of the vote, according to Election Commission data.Chandrashekhar, meanwhile, won the Nagina Lok Sabha seat in 2024, giving the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) its first representation in Parliament, though his presence is not yet pan-UP.The main opposition Samajwadi Party has also sought to expand its base by also appealing to Dalits, who form about a fifth of the state's population, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi even demanding Bharat Ratna for Kanshi Ram.The BSP has, over the years, accused Chandrashekhar of dividing Dalit votes and indirectly benefiting the BJP, while Chandrashekhar has sought Mayawati's blessings and argued that the community needed more street-style politics.