Towards the end of the six-hour-long mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar, UP, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait ascended the main dias with Ghulam Mohammad Jola—once his father’s trusted right-hand man—and a gaggle of other farmer union leaders. Holding hands, he leaned into the mikes and uttered the words “Allah hu Akbar, Har Har Mahadev”. For a brief moment, the audience fell silent, unsure about how to react. Communal scars have run deep in western UP since the 2013 riots, which pundits say broke the long-existing Hindu-Muslim accord in the region and swung the political pendulum decisively towards the BJP, facilitating to a large extent its dominance over national politics since 2014. The significance of the organisers, Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), choosing Muzaffarnagar—ground zero of the 2013 riots—as the mahapanchayat venue was not lost on anyone. On September 5, though, the recovery from the stupor was swift, as the crowd lustily joined in the sloganeering first made popular by Rakesh’s long-deceased father Mahendra Singh Tikait.