Ignoring law and order, 'insecure' Yogi govt preoccupied in fighting opponents

President Ram Nath Kovind

By Sandeep Pandey*

One would wonder why after such a show of triumphalism at the foundation laying ceremony of grand Ram temple on August 5, in Ayodhya the Uttar Pradesh government would stoop so low to put a lock outside the Aam Admi Party office in Lucknow. What makes it feel insecure?

After all, AAP is an outsider in UP politics. The UP government seems to have been unsettled by comments made by AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh who has described the absence of President Ram Nath Kovind from the foundation laying ceremony for Ram temple in Ayodhya as Bhartiya Janata Party’s anti-Dalit character. Because of this he was complimented by Dalit and Other Backward Caste leaders.
Leader of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, representing the OBC Rajbhar community, which was in alliance with BJP during Narendra Modi’s first term as Prime Minister, Om Prakash Rajbhar even gave an indication of a future alliance of his party with AAP.
Sanjay Singh also said that there was anarchy in the state. Police has no control over criminals and government has lost control over police. What seems to have rattled the UP government most was its description as a pro-Thakur government by Sanjay Singh. Incidentally both Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Sanjay Singh belong to this caste.
If we consider the incidents in the state over the recent past, post-Yogi government’s grand pronouncements after over a hundred criminals were eliminated in encounters, these included abduction of Sanjit Yadav on June 22 in Kanpur, payment of Rs 30 lakh as ransom by his relatives to abductors in the presence of police, with his murder taking place even before this payment was made by throwing his body in Pandu river.
Then, there was killing of 8 policemen on July 3 by dreaded Vikas Dubey, followed by killing of Vikas Dubey on July 11 and 6 of his colleagues in encounters with police.
On August 6 a six years old girl was kidnapped and raped in Hapur. She is now undergoing treatment in Meerut. This was followed by an incident on August 7 when after a 16 years old girl was molested by her nephew Anup Yadav. When a complaint was sought to be registered at Govind Nagar police station in Kanpur, she was asked by inspector Anurag Mishra to dance before him before he registered a complaint.
On August 9, Mukhtar Ansari’s shooter Rakesh Pandey was gunned down in Lucknow. Pandey was described as an accused in BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai’s murder case in which he was acquitted by court.
On August 10, Sudiksha Bhati, student from United States who had returned home in Bulandshahar due to lockdown, died after an alleged incident of harassment as she fell from a motorcycle in Greater Noida.
On August 11 former BJP president of district Bagpat Sanjay Khokhar was murdered when he was on morning walk. Around the same time, BJP MLA Rajkumar Sahyogi slapped SHO of Gonda Police Station in Aligarh after he entered the police station with his supporters and ensuing scuffle after which the SHO was suspended and SP, Rural, was transferred under the pressure of BJP MP Satish Gautam.

Sanjay Singh

On August 13, 12 years old Kartik of Umarpur village in district Shamli was murdered and his naked body found in a field. On August 14, the body of 13 years old girl was found in a field in Pakariya village of Lakhimpur Khiri after rape and murder. On the same day a 17 years old girl was kidnapped, raped and give cigarette burns by two men in Gorakhpur.

On 14 August itself Dalit Gram Pradhan Pappu Ram of Basgaon village was murdered in Azamgarh by upper caste men and then an 8 year old boy crushed to death by a police jeep in the ensuing melee.
And on August 16, advocate Rajeshwar Pandey was murdered on in rural Gorakhpur by his relative in a land dispute, and the same day Dayashankar Mishra and son Anand, was lynched to death by neighbours in a public gathering, called to resolve the land dispute by some lawyers in rural Pratapgarh.
These are just an indication that the law and order has gone for a toss in UP.
An important reason why the law and order has crumbled in UP is because the government was busy targeting its political opponents by lodging false cases against them.
These included sending to jail after filing false cases against Advocate Mohammad Shoaib, UP state President of Socialist Party (India), spokesperson of All India People’s Front and retired IPS officer, SR Darapuri, Congress worker Sadaf Jafar and hundreds of activists and common citizens who were involved in anti-Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens movement.
Additionally they were sent recovery notices for damages to public and private property during protests even before charges were proved in a court of law.
Then, UP Congress President Ajay Kumar Lallu was sent to jail on charges of having provided false papers related to registration of some vehicles that his party had offered to UP government to transport migrant workers during lockdown. President of UP Congress minority cell Shahnawaz Alam was sent to jail later for his participation in anti-CAA, NRC protests.
Also, amidst lockdown, the UP police travelled from Ayodhya to Delhi to serve notice to “The Wire” editor Siddharth Varadarajan as he had raised question on UP government’s willingness to give nod to the Ram Navami fair in Ayodhya amidst lockdown.
And now there are cases against Sanjay Singh for promoting enmity among communities and putting lock on AAP office in Lucknow.
These incidents betray the preoccupations of UP government.
This is now a trend in BJP run governments. They are ever ready to curb fundamental right to freedom of expression by initiating police actions to terrorise their political opponents at slightest of provocation.
Yogi Adityanath must understand that the oft repeated prodigal utopia of Ramraj will not come by building a temple in Ayodhya. As his ‘thok do’ (kill criminals in encounters with police) policy has quite clearly failed he needs to seriously deliberate on how his government can bring some semblance of law and order in the state by ending the prevalent anarchy.
---
*Magsaysay award winning social activist, vice president, Socialist Party (India)

Comments

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857 By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi* This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

Ground reality: Israel would a remain Jewish state, attempt to overthrow it will be futile

By NS Venkataraman* Now that truce has been arrived at between Israel and Hamas for a period of four days and with release of a few hostages from both sides, there is hope that truce would be further extended and the intensity of war would become significantly less. This likely “truce period” gives an opportunity for the sworn supporters and bitter opponents of Hamas as well as Israel and the observers around the world to introspect on the happenings and whether this war could have been avoided. There is prolonged debate for the last several decades as to whom the present region that has been provided to Jews after the World War II belong. View of some people is that Jews have been occupants earlier and therefore, the region should belong to Jews only. However, Christians and those belonging to Islam have also lived in this regions for long period. While Christians make no claim, the dispute is between Jews and those who claim themselves to be Palestinians. In any case...

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Counterview

Search This Blog