Just a day after the Uttar Pradesh government said that displaying caste identities on the windshields and license plates of four- and two-wheelers in the state will invite punitive action, a young man was issued a challan in Lucknow because the vehicle he was riding in had ‘saxena ji’ stuck to it.
It should be noted that it has become fashionable to display caste names such as Yadav, Jat, Gurjar, Brahmin, Pandit, Kshatriya, Lodhi and Maurya on windshields or vehicle license plates in Uttar Pradesh and some parts of the country.
An order sent by Additional Transportation Commissioner Mukesh Chandra to all Regional Transportation Offices (RTOs) on Sunday said that all those vehicles should be impounded.
The order was issued by the transportation department on instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The PMO became aware of the matter after a Maharashtra teacher named Harshal Prabhu wrote a letter opposing this culture.
Prabhu wrote the letter to the PMO expressing concern about IGRS, an integrated system designed to redress grievances. In his letter to PMO, the Maharashtra teacher mentioned that the display of stickers highlighting caste is a threat to the social fabric of society.
The letter caught the attention of PMO officials and an instruction was sent to the Uttar Pradesh government, after which the campaign was launched.
“According to our law enforcement teams, every 20 vehicles are found with such a sticker. Our headquarters have asked us to take action against those vehicle owners,” DK Tripathi, Kanpur Deputy Commissioner for Transport, told IANS .
It should be remembered that the practice of people displaying their caste identity on four-wheelers and other vehicles began when the Samajwadi Party was in power in Uttar Pradesh. At the time, writing “Yadav” on vehicles was considered a status symbol.
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When Mayawati came to power in Uttar Pradesh, vehicles with “Jatav” stickers became very common throughout the state. Although the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is no longer in power, these vehicles can be seen even today in Uttar Pradesh.
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