By Sushil Kutty
Monu Manesar and MLA Mamman Khan. Cow vigilante and cow smuggler. Temple and Mosque. Guns, rifles, stones, arson and beatings… ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ and assorted other violence – that is the Nuh region of Mewat in Haryana, bordering the National Capital Region of Delhi with Millennial City Gurugram as its jewel in the crown! This is where the BJP and the Bajrang Dal are making a pitch ahead of general elections 2024 and the assembly elections thereafter.
And with Nuh breaking out in unprecedented communal violence, there couldn’t have been a better and more ominous start to the season.
Of course Monu Manesar scares no one. Definitely not the Firozepur Jhirka MLA Mamman Khan who had promised to squelch Monu Manesar – fat, squat and hairy – like an onion if the cow vigilante, whose collection of guns would gladden the hearts of an arms dealer, made the mistake of stepping on Nuh soil. Monu Manesar took note of the warning and didn’t give Mamman Khan an excuse. That didn’t stop Mamman Khan from proclaiming his suzerainty over Nuh/Mewat, some residents of which look up to “Pakistan” for relevance, like “Ahmed Pakistani”, a brash young YouTuber.
Now, post the communal violence, Monu Manesar’s name is the most spoken and most heard in Mewat. The self-proclaimed cow-lover and cow vigilante, both of which are one and the same, is the face of the Nuh violence though the man was not in Nuh the whole time violence was in charge of Nuh. Mamman Khan is a Congress MLA and that does not sit well with the BJP, which gives tacit support to Monu Manesar whose cow vigilantism has brought him a vast following in this part of Haryana.
Monu Manesar is absconding – on the run, allegedly with his collection of guns, which is a little too rich and too hard to believe. More than likely he must be holed up in his village cradling his guns. This much everybody knows – he is wanted in Rajasthan although the Rajasthan Police say they have nothing in the way of evidence to book Monu even after half the world in and around Rajasthan swear Monu Manesar was behind the killings of two Muslim youth of Rajasthan whose charred bodies were found in a gutted SUV – kidnapped from Haryana and killed and dumped in Rajasthan.
Now Mamman Khan and his Nuh cohorts want Monu Manesar to face the law. Mamman Khan’s followers in particular would love to stretch Monu Manesar’s neck if only Monu Manesar hadn’t skipped his date with Nuh on July 31. The BJP have a Congress leader to accuse and blame. Haryana Chief Minister Manoharlal Khattar and Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij accuse the 56-year-old Mamman of “engineering” the Nuh violence months ahead of July 31. Anil Vij’s underlings go so far as to blame Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s “frustrations breaking out in violence” ahead of the 2024 general elections.
The reality is nothing is too far-fetched. The Congress says nothing is beyond the BJP which it says is staring at a 2024 rout. The BJP says the “provocative” statements that Khan made in the Haryana Assembly, specifically targeting Monu Manesar, were behind the violence in Nuh; and why it spread to other parts of the Mewat region, like Sohna and Millennial City Gurugram, which is now emptying of the migrant labour settled there in slum clusters, many of them suspected Bangladeshi infiltrators and alleged Rohingya “refugees”.
Threats from the Bajrang Dal are said to be behind the exodus, most of whom saying they’re returning to their homes in West Bengal and would be back when things cool down. That said, very soon, Gurugram residents would be pining to hear the “Bengali accented Hindi” of these migrants, the majority of them who are Muslims!
Mamman Khan was their leader, too. Khan won an MLA seat in 2019 with 57.62% votes. This was his maiden victory. Khan had made it his life’s mission to nail Monu Manesar’s hide for the “murders” of Junaid and Nasir and he had been demanding Monu Manesar’s arrest. But Monu Manesar has a Robinhood type image and his Bajrang Dal affiliations are pretty stark.
The Bajrang Dal in Haryana is back in action after an interregnum of being out of favour. So close to the general and state elections, the BJP cannot afford to alienate the Bajrang Dal, which has now taken charge of clearing Haryana and Rajasthan of alleged cow smugglers. In Hansi in Hisar an entire market was cleared of Muslim hawkers the day after the breakout of violence in Nuh. Things are getting serious. The next round of high tensions could be around another Hindu festival. So keep an eye on the calendar. Rest assured it always happens. Never fails when there elections ahead.(IPA Service)