Etawah incident deepens caste divide, sets stage for 2027 political showdown

Viral videos showed two Yadav preachers being tonsured and forced to rub their noses on attackers’ shoes.

An alleged caste-based assault on two kathavachaks (religious storytellers) in Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah has triggered a fierce political storm, transforming a village-level atrocity into a battleground for competing narratives ahead of the 2027 state elections.

What began as a shocking case of public humiliation — with viral videos showing two Yadav preachers being tonsured and forced to rub their noses on attackers’ shoes — has now escalated into a full-fledged confrontation between the BJP government and the Samajwadi Party (SP), with caste identity, cultural dominance, and social justice at the heart of the debate.

The violence unfolded during a Bhagwat Katha in Dandarpur village, Etawah, where two Yadav kathavachaks — Mukut Mani Yadav and Sant Singh Yadav — were allegedly assaulted by upper-caste locals for "hiding their caste identity." Eyewitness videos showed the preachers being degraded, their religious symbols snatched, and caste slurs hurled. The assailants reportedly shouted, “This is your punishment for entering a Brahmin village.”

Protests erupted as hundreds of members from Yadav outfits and the Ahir Regiment besieged the Bakewar police station, demanding justice and release of a fellow protester, Gagan Yadav. While police arrested four accused — Ashish Tiwari, Uttam Awasthi, Nikki Awasthi, and Manu Dubey — they also controversially booked the victims under fraud charges, accusing them of using forged Aadhaar cards to conceal their caste.

Akhilesh’s political pivot: Caste, culture, and PDA

Sensing an opportunity to consolidate his core support base, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav quickly seized on the incident, terming it the “Etawah Kathavachan PDA Insult Scandal.” In a series of pointed posts on X, Akhilesh accused the BJP of importing “planted outsiders” to disturb UP’s social fabric and claimed the assault was part of a larger conspiracy to humiliate members of the PDA — his acronym for Pichhde (backward classes), Dalit, Alpsankhyak (minorities).

“Will the BJP now open UP’s borders for every disruptive element?” he asked, challenging the Yogi Adityanath government to act or risk being seen as complicit. Akhilesh went further, calling the incident a “tal thonkati chunauti” (a resounding challenge) to the state’s peace, warning that continued inaction would show the BJP as a “paper government.”

More significantly, Akhilesh used the moment to revive and recalibrate his PDA political formula, first floated during the 2022 elections. He described PDA not just as a vote bloc but as a "collective awakening of the historically oppressed, who now seek dignity, equality, and representation." He framed the attack on the kathavachaks as an attack on the very identity of PDA — a move designed to galvanize the OBC-Dalit-Muslim axis that once powered SP to power.

BJP’s pushback: ‘Criminals, not castes’

The BJP government, however, has pushed back hard. At a press conference, UP Cabinet Minister Jaiveer Singh accused Akhilesh of giving the incident a "casteist spin" to divide society for political gain.

“A criminal’s only identity is their crime,” Singh asserted, maintaining that the government acted swiftly, arrested the accused, and would ensure punishment for anyone — irrespective of caste — found guilty.

Singh went further, accusing SP of shielding criminals, citing past cases like Umesh Pal and Raju Pal’s murders. He painted the Etawah incident as part of a broader SP strategy to “reignite caste tensions and push the state back to the era of lawlessness.”

Highlighting BJP’s “inclusive” vision of Sanatan Dharma, the minister said, “We respect saints based on values, not caste.” He listed state-funded projects like the Sant Ravidas corridor in Varanasi and the Mahakumbh’s honouring of sanitation workers as proof of the BJP’s social justice agenda.

What’s at stake in 2027?

The political overtones of the Etawah incident are hard to miss. With Assembly elections one and a half years away, Akhilesh appears to have found the perfect flashpoint to re-energise his party’s caste coalition. By framing the kathavachak attack as a symbolic humiliation of the larger backward class, Akhilesh is trying to rally traditional SP voters, woo Dalits, and position himself as the defender of social dignity.

For BJP, the challenge is twofold — controlling the law-and-order fallout while countering the perception that upper-caste hegemony is being tolerated or encouraged under its rule. Yogi Adityanath’s administration has so far responded with police deployments, arrests, and official denials of caste bias. But the decision to book the victims under fraud charges has already stirred unease among OBC groups.

As protests grow and rhetoric sharpens, the Etawah kathavachak incident could become more than just a law-and-order matter — it may turn into a defining moment for UP’s political narrative in the run-up to 2027. Akhilesh Yadav has found his rallying cry in PDA, and the BJP is countering it with promises of law, order, and inclusive development.

With both camps drawing battle lines around caste, culture, and identity, Etawah might just be the first major flashpoint in a long and contentious road to the next Assembly polls.