BJP MLA aide Pravesh Shukla urinated on tribal man in MP last year. Why was he arrested now?

Recorded a year ago at a local phone recharge shop in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district, the video of a man urinating on a tribal labourer has been widely circulated since last week. Now, with the accused Pravesh Shukla finally on his way to Rewa jail after being arrested on the night of July 4 (Tuesday), it is worth wondering from where exactly Shukla derived the authority to indulge in such an activity.

Shukla has been booked under provisions of the SC/ST Act as well as the National Security Act. And his name is making headlines yet again as his illegally-owned encroachments were bulldozed by the local administration today. 

As for the victim, Dashrath Rawat is keeping his silence for his own safety.  A member of the Kol community (a tribe originating from the Chotanagpur plateau that is officially categorised as a Scheduled Caste), Rawat works as a daily wage labourer. Deen Dayal Sahu, the man who first recorded the video last year, told NewsLaundry that Rawat is a simple man who had just come to his phone shop for a recharge. While Rawat was sitting on the stairs, Shukla arrived at the scene and began openly urinating on him. 

Despite Rawat’s pleas, Shukla didn’t stop.

As for Sahu, it’s easy to ask: “Why didn’t he do anything?”

Sahu told media outlets that after recording the video for a few seconds, he urged Shukla to zip up his fly but it was to no avail. Sahu’s side of the story seems convincing given how Shukla is being described as a political hotshot in Sidhi. 

While Shukla himself is no politician, it is his association with local leaders in the BJP-ruled state that gives him considerable leeway in his troublemaking activities. Photographed next to Sidhi MLA Kedarnath Shukla on more than one occasion and even featuring alongside him in posters, the opposition leaders were quick to brand Shukla’s urination as a testament of BJP’s casteism. 

Tribal leader and MP Congress Youth President Vikrant Bhuria told in a press statement, “You can see what kind of a party it is. They do not respect tribals.”

Regardless of the blame being BJP’s to bear or not, it’s clear that Kedarnath wants nothing to do with Pravesh anymore. 

Since the video gained traction, Kedarnath has gone on record to state that while he knows Pravesh, the man is neither a BJP party worker nor his representative in any way. Just moments later, this claim was refuted by Pravesh’s father Ramakant Shukla. 

Speaking to Aaj Tak, Ramakant revealed that his son is very much involved as an aide and party worker for the BJP MLA for the last four to five years. After the video was picked up by mainstream media, Pravesh went into hiding, prompting even his father to file a missing persons’ complaint. 

With Pravesh first booked under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act among other IPC sections, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan even requested the authorities to book him under the National Security Act. Finally nabbed and brought into custody, Pravesh awaits his punishment. 

Pravesh’s act of humiliating Rawat could become public knowledge only when Sahu’s video was shared with a local named Adarsh Shukla who, in turn, shared the video on social media on June 26 this year. The reason behind this video not making it to the Internet initially might stem from the intimidation tactics that Pravesh is known for. 

Referring to him as the source of many local nuisances, Sahu revealed that Pravesh and his associates are feared by the residents of Sidhi and even the police was initially in their favour.

Matters got more complicated when even Rawat was forced to not point any fingers at the perpetrator. If we are to believe Sahu, the Bahri Police Station put pressure on Rawat to write an affidavit on July 2.

This affidavit stated that the video in question was fake and that the video was just made to tarnish the reputation of a person of “political repute” like Pravesh. 

But now, with this certain reputed personality arrested and the video going mainstream, it’s hard for local cops or politicians to back him up anymore. Ramakant continues insisting that his son’s political enemies have conspired against him. But with BJP enjoying a majority of 130 seats in the local assembly, who is Pravesh’s political enemy?

Even without his political affiliations, it’s clear that an upper-caste man like Pravesh could initially get away with what he did because the victim belonged to the Kol community. Despite gaining constitutional safeguards, the Kols are still subjected to stereotypes akin to backward forest tribes. 

Just take the case of some casual stereotyping by a UP policeman in the 2022 India Today Original documentary Indian Predator: Diary of a Serial Killer.  The docu-series delved into the crimes of Raja Kolander, a serial killer who indulged in cannibalistic practices of eating his victims’ brains. While Kolander’s was a rare case, the policeman goes on to add that such manner is not surprising given that Kolander was “a Kol” and "that drinking the brain's juice is typical Kol practice". 

ALSO READ: Netflix Indian Predator Review: The Diary of a Serial Killer aces caste politics

The reason behind Pravesh urinating on the Kol labourer is still uncertain but it’s more than obvious that there is a caste angle behind the crime. The Kol, along with tribes like Bhil, Gond, and Baiga, are often on the receiving end of upper-caste atrocities in Madhya Pradesh. 

As per a 2020 report by the National Crime Records Bureau, 2,401 cases of atrocities against tribal men and women in the single year marked a 25 per cent jump from the crimes in 2019. The state had previously registered 33,239 cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) from 2018 to 2021, representing a drastic increase of 15-20 per cent in the crime figures every year.

The fact that the victim has not reached out to any national media outlet so far goes on to show how he is trying to stay under the radar lest any political enforcers come knocking on his door. 

And yet, Pravesh’s disgusting act has backfired for the very party that he openly represented earlier.

Even though the BJP enjoys a majority in the Vidhan Sabha, it could only win 16 out of 47 seats that are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in the 2018 Madhya Pradesh State Assembly elections. This number fell when compared to the 2013 elections when BJP secured 31 seats.

With the next assembly elections scheduled for this November, BJP’s outreach programs in the ST districts will need to come up with better strategies.