A False Rape Case In Eastern UP Becomes A Test Of The BJP’s Caste Balancing Act

A man belonging to the Brahmin community committed suicide on 4 June after his son was arrested in a rape case in Uttar Pradesh's (UP) Kaushambi. A week later, UP Police revealed that the rape allegations by a minor girl of the Pal community were false. The Pals come under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community in Uttar Pradesh.

The caste identities of both sides in the case created openings for political narrative-building. Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav was quick to target both of UP's Deputy Chief Ministers (DCM) in the case.

This is because DCM Keshav Prasad Maurya hails from Kaushambi and is an OBC by caste, while another DCM Brajesh Pathak belongs to the Brahmin community. Also, it was Pathak who wrote to the Principal Secretary after the Brahmin man's suicide, directing him to ensure justice and strict action against the culprits.

In a long post on X, Yadav alleged that the two DCMs are trying to provoke the two communities against each other. He accused DCM Maurya of using the Pal community as a pawn and DCM Pathak of showing 'false sympathy' to the Brahmin community.

Yadav was smart enough not to side with any community openly while accusing the BJP of creating caste divides and pitching the two DCMs against each other. At the same time, SP's local leaders split their support for the two sides, depending on their castes and politics.

However, after the UP Police solved the case, all politicians assumed silence.

To fully understand the politics around it, first understand the case.

The case and the suicide

A First Information Report (FIR) was registered on 28 May at Saini police station of Sirathu town in Kaushambi, accusing Siddharth Tiwari aka Dhannu of sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl of the Pal community.

The FIR alleged that when the girl was on her way home from a Ramayana function, the accused abducted her and took her to his brick factory, where he sexually abused her and showed sexually explicit videos.

After the registration of an FIR under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, UP Police arrested the accused Siddharth on 29 May.

The accused's father Rambabu Tiwari claimed that his son was innocent and was implicated in the false rape case due to the family's earlier property disputes with the Pal family, but nobody believed him.

Meanwhile, SP leaders like Kaushambi member of Parliament (MP) Pushpendra Saroj and SP UP president Shyam Lal Pal raised their voices demanding justice for the alleged victim.

When no support came for Tiwari, despite going from office to office, he reached the Saini police station after consuming poison on 4 June. He was taken to the hospital, where he died during treatment.

A suicide note was found in his pocket that accused village pradhan Bhoop Narayan Pal and his aides of abetment to suicide. The police later registered a case against five individuals including the pradhan (village head).

The case witnessed high voltage drama when relatives of Tiwari took his dead body to the National Highway and tried to halt the traffic as a mark of protest on 5 June. After a little scuffle, the police dispersed the crowd.

The entry of Brahmin politics

After the case took a turn with Tiwari's suicide and the matter escalated with the involvement of a social group dedicated for upper castes, Savarn Army, and protests on the highway, a few politicians across party lines started voicing support for Tiwari.

This even included SP leaders like the member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Sirathu, Pallavi Patel, and Shashi Bhushan Dwivedi, along with a few Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress leaders.

Among the most prominent BJP leaders to raise concerns for Tiwari was UP DCM Pathak and it was only after his intervention that police was seen exploring the other angle in the investigation.

Subsequently, two accused were arrested in the abetment to suicide case, while the prime accused, Bhoop Narayan Pal, is absconding and a reward of Rs 25,000 has been announced on him.

Action was also taken against negligent officers. On 8 June, outpost in-charge Alok Raj and rape case investigating officer Krishna Swarup were suspended and Station House Officer (SHO) Brijesh Kanwariya was attached to police line.

Moreover, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to probe the rape case. The SIT took the victim's and eyewitnesses' statements and the victim's medical report into account to arrive at the conclusion that the rape case was false.

Kaushambi Superintendent of Police (SP) said on 10 June, "The investigation found that the said incident was merely a matter of the accused Siddharth slapping the victim. The matter was falsely escalated due to previous grudges."

The SP elaborated, "The victim was playing outside the brick factory with other children, who were throwing stones at the factory. As a result, the accused slapped the victim and the matter was falsely escalated. The accused has been granted bail and released from jail. The negligent policemen including an inspector have been suspended."

The void in Brahmin organisation

While the police have clarified that the rape allegations were false, the incident has resulted in the loss of a man’s life and sparked concerns within the Brahmin community about the absence of political support.

"Brahmin is the biggest backer of BJP in UP. It is the most ideologically committed caste to the BJP," political commentator Vikas Saraswat said, explaining the strong support of the Brahmin community to the ruling party in recent times.

Despite this commitment, incidents like that of Rambabu Tiwari weaken the trust of Brahmins in the BJP. "Brahmins are angry with the government," state in-charge of Savarn Army, Ashutosh Pandey, who was part of the protests for Tiwari, told Swarajya.

"We do not have faith in any political party. Nobody talks about us. The government takes our votes and then we become the target of their action," he added, rejecting SP's outreach to Brahmins and the role of DCM Pathak as a leader of Brahmins.

Notably, while Akhilesh Yadav's pitch is that of PDA (Pichhde, Dalit, Adivasi and Alpasankhyak) to expand the SP's traditional vote base of Muslims and Yadavs, he has also tried to woo Brahmins highlighting the alleged dominance of Thakur raj (rule of Rajputs).

This effort stems from the fact that UP Chief Minister (CM) Yogi Adityanath belonged to the Rajput community before joining the Gorakhnath monastic order. By positioning Brahmins against Rajputs, Yadav sees a scope of getting the former's votes, given the rivalry between the two castes, especially in eastern UP.

At the same time, the BJP is also trying to balance between the two castes with Yogi Adityanath as CM and Brajesh Pathak, a Brahmin, as DCM. However, neither the SP's outreach nor Pathak's position—since he is not considered a mass leader—appears to please the Brahmins.

Are Brahmins not getting their 'fair share'?

Brahmins form about 10 to 12 per cent of UP's population. In the 403-member UP Assembly, there are 52 Brahmin MLAs and among 80 MPs from UP, nine are Brahmins. This means that Brahmins enjoy political representation in proportion to their population.

Moreover, the majority of this representation is provided by the BJP. For instance, of the 52 Brahmin MLAs, 46 are from the BJP. Similarly, of the nine Brahmin MPs, eight are from the BJP.

This means that in terms of representation, Brahmins have little to complain against the BJP. However, with the political narrative increasingly centred around gaining or losing votes from the OBC and SC communities, Brahmins often feel neglected.

Moreover, they feel that they do not have enough street power, like some OBC and Dalit castes. False cases under the 'SC/ST Act' are also a cause of concern.

In such cases—like that of Rambabu Tiwari—Brahmins often find themselves powerless. In this instance, both the village pradhan and the complainant belonged to the Pal community.

Balam Shukla of an adjoining village told Swarajya, "Rambabu Tiwari was a common man and pradhan Pal held grudges against him for not getting Tiwari's support during the Panchayat election. Pradhan Pal earlier too had many cases against him."

In this case, no political party could come out to support Tiwari, until his suicide, because they could not afford to be perceived as siding with the 'offenders', especially in a sensitive case like that of rape, and with complex caste equations to add to it.

Following Tiwari’s suicide and DCM Brajesh Pathak’s intervention, Akhilesh Yadav sought to undermine Pathak's stance, accusing him of maintaining a “convenient silence” on past atrocities against Brahmins and speaking up now only to “save his chair” and remain relevant among the community.

But one should not miss that Yadav himself was not seen lending support to Tiwari, likely because in his estimate supporting the complainant's side was politically more prudent.

Even in the past, Akhilesh Yadav has been observed to support the Brahmins only when it comes to a tussle against the Rajputs.

Understanding regional politics

Kaushambi falls under Eastern UP, where the BJP suffered significant losses in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. It was believed to be the result of the attrition of a significant number of Dalit and OBC votes, especially from the Kurmi, Patel and Pal communities.

In Kaushambi, too, which is an SC-reserved Lok Sabha seat, the BJP lost. SP's youngest candidate, Pushpendra Saroj won from here defeating the two-time incumbent BJP MP, Vinod Sonkar.

Apart from over one-third of the population being Dalit, OBCs form another one-third of Kaushambi's population, while 'upper castes' and Muslims comprise the remaining one-third of the population.

Among OBCs, Yadavs, Patels, Mauryas and Pals are the predominant castes. A big chunk of the OBCs voting for the SP led to the BJP's defeat. The signs of this attrition started surfacing in the 2022 UP election itself.

The BJP could not win any Assembly constituency of the Kaushambi Lok Sabha constituency in 2022. Even DCM Maurya lost to SP candidate Pallavi Patel in Sirathu, the area where the current case happened.

Could the BJP have done anything better?

In such a scenario, it was right for the BJP not to take any sides and intervene only after accurate details emerged.

By then, however, the actions, or inaction, of the Uttar Pradesh administration had already contributed to Tiwari’s death. The lackadaisical approach of the UP Police, allegedly motivated by the money power of those levelling allegations, is said to be responsible for Tiwari's suicide.

If Tiwari's arguments had been given proper weightage by the UP Police in their investigation, probably he would not have committed suicide.

Balam Shukla of the adjoining village alleged, "SHO Kanwariya (who has been attached to police line) was a usual offender of levelling false allegations after taking money from the accusers. It's all about money."

While Swarajya could not independently verify these allegations, their very emergence highlights how the conduct of certain Uttar Pradesh Police officers could be a cause of immense concern for the Yogi government.

Even after Tiwari's suicide, when the Brahmin community tried to protest, they were allegedly dealt with force, showing a lack of sensitivity on behalf of the police.

A member of Savarn Army involved in the highway protests alleged, "The police did lathi charge on our peaceful protest. Even women were hit and the police abused all of us. FIR was also registered against us."

This incident underscores the tightrope the BJP must walk amid Uttar Pradesh’s complex caste equations, where questions of right and wrong often come after a caste-based reading, even of criminal cases.

At such crossroads, the party also faces a seasoned rival like the Samajwadi Party, adept at caste politics. In this case, Akhilesh Yadav sought to pit both communities against the BJP, while keeping his own position ambiguous.

For the BJP, navigating such situations means doing more than just damage control. It needs to build trust with each caste group through focused outreach. And on the ground, the administration has to be better equipped to handle caste-sensitive matters.