How BSP’s uniformed foot soldiers manage crowd

Deoband: Notwithstanding the heavy police deployment, over 200 volunteers clad in white and navy blue uniform and armed with sticks manned the crowd in the mammoth joint rally of SP-BSP-RLD alliance, attended by lakhs of people on Sunday afternoon.

As the upbeat crowd pushed its way to the front, these personnel had hard time persuading and calming them. At times confrontation broke out and they had to use mild force.

“We are mostly deployed in the party’s (BSP’s) programmes to manage crowd and provide security to visiting senior leaders,” said Ravinder Kumar, Shamli district commander of Bahujan Voluntary Force (BVF).

Like police forces, there is a chain of command in BVF as well.

“District commanders wear three stars on their shirt epaulettes. Vidhan Sabha commanders wear two stars, while their juniors wear one,” Kumar said.

Dubbed to be the most loyal foot soldiers of the party, being a BVF is not a full time job for them.

“We don’t get any monetary benefit from the party. We do it out of our own affection for the party. Local unit of the party at times pitches with fund to cover our travel expenses when we are deployed outstation,” says Akshay Kumar, another BVF personnel.