Durga Shakti Nagpal shows up the new UP political fault line

New Delhi: The case of suspended Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) officer Durga Shakti Nagpal has emerged as the new political fault line between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress, as both jockey for Muslim votes in Uttar Pradesh.

add_main_imageNagpal was suspended for allegedly demolishing a boundary wall, which she claimed was illegal, being constructed near a local mosque in Gautam Budh Nagar. Ostensibly, the action against Nagpal was ordered on the claims of SP, the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh, that the demolition had threatened a communal clash.

However, analysts say it is a less than overt attempt by SP, which has seen a rapid erosion in its social capital in the state due to bad governance, to try and consolidate its Muslim vote base. NextMAds

Muslims are a key voting bloc in the state, where they account for nearly 18.5% of its population, according to the 2001 census. Muslims can influence the outcome in nearly 40% of parliamentary constituencies. While SP has traditionally been relying on the Muslim-Yadav support base, popularly referred as the MY factor, the Congress party too has targeted this vote bank in its rainbow coalition to considerable advantage in the 2009 general election.

The circumstances of the last election have altered, drastically some would say, following the diminishing political clout of SP and a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the electoral fight in UP has become a close contest. A survey undertaken last month by CNN-IBN TV channel, think tank Centre for Study of Developing Societies and The Hindu newspaper showed that Muslim votes were extremely fragmented.

Clearly the stakes are high for all the main political parties. BJP cannot hope to have a legitimate shot at regaining power at the centre unless it does well in Bihar and UP—the two states with a combined population of 340 million account for 120 seats in the Lok Sabha.

For the Congress, it is critical that it holds on to its impressive tally of 22 seats won in the 2009 election as the newly anointed spearhead of their campaign is Rahul Gandhi. If SP is to continue to matter in national politics and also look to kindle its plans to rally a third front, it has to improve on its existing tally of 22 seats.

Badri Narayan, a Uttar Pradesh-based analyst, puts it bluntly. “The SP wants to send strong signals to the Congress,” Narayan said. “There is a fight for the Muslim vote in the state.”sixthMAds

The public censure of Nagpal, a sub-divisional magistrate, is being viewed exactly as one such strong signal to the Muslim community from SP.

The incident is still under investigation, but it does appear that Nagpal may have unwittingly become collateral damage.

The 28-year-old officer, who was initially part of the Punjab cadre of the 2010 batch of IAS, but shifted after marrying Abhishek Singh, a 2011 batch IAS officer from UP, was understandably ordered by her superiors to investigate the illegal construction of the wall around the mosque in Kadalpur village in Gautam Buddh Nagar.

However, a report by the district magistrate has held her “blemish-free”, Press Trust of India reported on 1 August. The report, quoting an unnamed state official, said the factual report sent after her suspension had not stated anything against Nagpal.

Even as SP came under fire from other political parties, the Congress response was measured. It was only a week after the incident that the party upped the ante with its president and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi firing off a stiff missive to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh where she highlighted widespread concern over the suspension of Nagpal and urged, “we must ensure that the officer is not unfairly treated”.

Gandhi was trying to use the incident to “politically position” her party, according to Jai Mrug, a Mumbai-based political analyst. “The Congress wants to appear as an opponent to the SP and take advantage of the anti-incumbency factor against the Akhilesh Singh Yadav government,” Mrug said. “In an era where everything else is going against Congress, it wants to be seen as someone against misuse of administration.”

Gandhi’s letter seemed to have struck a discordant chord. Not only did SP issue a sharp rebuke, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday served a warning by making an unexpected visit to Bachhrawan village in Raebareli—Gandhi’s constituency—to drum up support for his party.

Simultaneously, SP leader Naresh Agarwal raked up the issue of transfer of IAS officers in Congress-ruled Haryana and Rajasthan. He even questioned why the Congress president did not intervene when an officer was controversially transferred in Haryana after he questioned some land deals involving her businessman son-in-law Robert Vadra.

“By writing on the issue of Durga Shakti, the Congress president wanted to send this message that the Congress is not soft to any party in Uttar Pradesh, especially with the SP, which is increasingly losing its popularity,” A lawmaker from the state said, requesting anonymity.

Regardless, the Congress will have to calibrate its response because there is a risk, especially with the manner in which SP has positioned the debate, of the Congress party alienating Muslims. All the more since the episode is far from over, with the Supreme Court expected to weigh in a public interest litigation on the issue on Monday.

At the same time, support has been growing for Nagpal. The issue has united civil servants across the country and has highlighted the debate on the clash between the political and administrative powers.

“Bureaucrats are answerable only to the Constitution and there cannot be a master-servant relationship with the political class. If that happens, the rule of law cannot be upheld,” Padamvir Singh, director at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussourie, where most of India’s civil servants receive training.

“I hope this case does lead to civil service reforms and is not forgotten.”

A UP cadre Indian Police Service officer, currently posted at the centre, says the crisis will blow over in the next few weeks.

“Young officers are often straight and want to do the right thing. Although I do not have personal knowledge of this case, I think she has become incidental to a political fight. Had this case not got media attention, she would have been served a show-cause notice, been asked to furnish a response within a week, which would then have been accepted, and then she would have been reinstated, perhaps with a transfer,” the officer said, declining to be named. “Even now, I don’t think this will impact her career.”