• Gaurav Kapoor

The system of ‘Law and order’ has collapsed completely in Uttar Pradesh. This can be gauged from the fact that the present Chief Minister of the state is openly threatening those who disagree with him even slightly. There is an open risk of your property being confiscated if you protest for your rights. Democracy assumes its power when citizens claim their rights and they protest if their rights are violated. Students seeking jobs to secure their future are not violating law and order. The real criminals are roaming about freely.

Uttar Pradesh, with 12 murders a day, tops the list of states with maximum number of murders per day. Crimes against children have increased by 24 percent. There has been a huge increase in crimes against women in UP after the BJP government came to power in 2017. There has been a 107% increase in the incidents of rape of girls in Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh accounts for one-third of the total crimes against Dalits.

When the claims made by the Adityanath government, regarding law and order, started turning out to be hollow, it went on a fighting spree to save its skin. There were encounters of such people where three-fourths did not even qualify as hardened criminals. This was followed by the shooting down of at least 67 people over a period of 2-3 months. Every criminal, for whose capture some bounty had been announced, was labeled a “dangerous” criminal. The government is oblivious to the ground realities still, where murders, rapes and loots are happening unabated even today, as well as open exploitation of the downtrodden and Dalits is being practiced right in the face of the administration.

Adityanath also said that the fake encounters had settled the law-and-order situation and had even issued a press release claiming this to be a “huge achievement”. The dreaded criminals took advantage of this. These criminals are roaming freely in the state. The encounters were praised, and the vigil by the so called ‘Police’ was legitimized. Criminals generally enjoy patronage of someone in the power and thus, law-and-order yields before them; The cost of which is paid by honest officers and our jawans.

Uttar Pradesh has the highest share of crimes against women in the whole of India and its pan-Indian share stands at 14.5 percent. After the BJP came to power in 2017, Uttar Pradesh registered 803 rape cases in just two months. The real face of Yogi Government came to the fore when they dealt with the Unnao rape case, where his government saved the criminals. Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the main accused in the gang rape, was patronized by the BJP and roamed the streets of Uttar Pradesh as if nothing had happened. A teenager even had to commit self-immolation to get an FIR filed. Had the Supreme Court not intervened, the matter would have been brushed under the carpet.

In an incident at Hathras, a 19-year-old girl was gang-raped who later died. An 8-year-old girl was raped in Kasganj the day after the mission to protect women had started and the victim was found, naked and severely burnt, by the roadside of the highway. The Yogi government, which began its term by cracking down on eve-teasing and forming the Anti-Romeo Squad, has been unable to stop violent crimes against women.

The public has been fed a big fat narrative by the media that the ‘Gunda Raj’ has gone down. The ground reality is different as there now exists a ‘Jungle Raj’ in UP. One night when eight policemen were shot dead in Uttar Pradesh, two equally horrific incidents went unnoticed. First, four members of the same family were murdered in Allahabad. Then, a 19-year-old Dalit girl and her father were murdered by her stalker.

UP’s ‘Murder Mafia’ had allegedly killed a local journalist in Unnao after that journalist exposed the illegal activities of the mafia in the state.

There is certainly no dearth of examples of how law-and-order have become stagnant in the state. The law-and-order situation in Uttar Pradesh is at its worst every single day. Extremely shameful reports keep coming up from all over the state with Police being a mute spectator. Cases are not registered in police stations. The police are toying with the idea of law itself. BJP leaders are constantly involved in criminal incidents.

In a state where hardcore criminals enjoy political patronage and political leaders themselves threaten the common man, there is a need for a change in governance. If this is not done, then Uttar Pradesh will enter the blackhole eternally.

The Author is Chairman, Research Department, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee