BATTLEGROUND U.P.

The road to Delhi, they say, runs through Lucknow—the capital of Uttar Pradesh.

- Kaushik Deka

That well-worn reference to the north Indian state’s clout in national politics is hardly an exaggeration: with 80 Lok Sabha seats, more than any other state, UP plays a pivotal role in determining who forms the government at the Centre. Hardly surprising, then, that the state should have emerged as the main battleground—not to mention the most violent one—in the confrontation between the Union government and irate Indian citizens over the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

The great public outrage against the CAA, not just in UP but across the country, is possibly the biggest political challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP government has faced since it came to power for the first time in 2014. Protests turned violent at several places in UP—a state with 20 per cent Muslims—and the police crackdown was ruthless.

The state administration was initially in denial, but government officials later conceded that 21 died, at least 14 of them succumbing to bullet injuries. Unofficial accounts claim the death toll is far higher.