Referring to the Hathras incident, Yogi came down heavily on those doing politics over the “dead bodies of the poor”. It was soothing to listen to the use of word poor for the Valmiki family by him. He ought to realise that people would visit the house of the dalit. There is no wrong in it. But he being the chief executive officer (CEO) of the state should have been more pro active in dealing with the situation.

The people of India and particularly of Uttar Pradesh cannot expect a decent behaviour from Yogi as this culture of civility and graciousness has been an alien to him. In fact it would be utopian to expect a high level of moral and ethical action from him. Since he claims himself to be soldier of RSS’s Hindutva, one expects he must have read Vedas. Sins resonate and also curse.

Earlier he put forward the theory of conspiracy to malign him and his government. Since it did not work he has come out of his cocoon and started threatening the people who have been standing by the side of the hapless Valmiki family. The Rajdharma demands that he should have adopted a docile attitude and act according to the law. But it is his arrogance that is preventing him. In fact it is not his fault. He owes to his political upbringing; the politics of violence and repression on women he has been practicising.

The Adityanath government has been facing intense criticism over its handling of the murder and alleged gangrape of the 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras. This is not for the first time a rape has taken place in the state. In 2019 alone Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 59,853 cases of crime against women, according to the annual National Crime Record Bureau’s “Crime in India” 2019 report released on Tuesday. Of these large number of cases relate to rape. Indeed it adds to the glory of Yogi. From 2018, the rate of crime against women has risen by 7.3%. Uttar Pradesh also had the highest number of crimes against girl children under the POCSO Act with 7,444 cases.

Yogi must restrain. Instead of threatening the people he must act. It also implies that he has miserably failed to understand the mood of the people. The people of the country have been maintaining silence for last three years. Probably he has presume their silence as the sign of their fear. If it is so, then he is grossly mistaken. The people of India have high degree of patience. They are not arrogant. They know when to speak. Since the people never resented the acts ofrape, probably he nursed the view that this time too people would not speak out. But he was proved wrong.

Addressing a virtual meeting with the BJP office-bearers of the Bangarmau (Unnao) Assembly constituency, which goes to bypolls on November 3, Yogi said, “the faces of those doing politics on the dead bodies of the poor are getting exposed and the government will identify each one of them and deal with them with a heavy hand as per the law of the land.” Obviously this amounted to threat.

His renewed attack on the opposition came a day after he alleged there was a plot to malign his government’s image by whipping up “animosity” in society. He must realise that exposing the heinous plots behind such crimes does not amount to whipping up of animosity. Instead it is exposing the anti people machination of the administration and government.

Moreover it is the democratic right of the opposition to speak out against the government. Regarding the charge of conspiracy, Yogi should approach the judiciary to set up a judicial probe to expose this design as the people have lost their faith in his administration and any CBI probe would lack the credibility. Yogi should be alert enough not provide any opportunity to the opposition for creating hindrance. An alert ruler is the best friend of the people.

His police has already been terrorising the innocent people. Even on the day Rahul and Priyanka visited Hathras, his police and district magistrate were threatening and terrorising the poor parents of the deceased girl. Certainly they must not have done this on their own. Obviously in this backdrop their hope for getting justice rests on the opposition intervention. Yogi’s threat simply endorses the view that since he does not intend to help them he was terrorising the opposition.

Earlier this week, the UP Police filed 21 cases across the state against, among other charges, attempts to “incite caste and communal tension and defame the state government” using social media platforms and public meetings. The charges include sedition, criminal conspiracy and promoting enmity. It is sad that even after pursuing these measures Yogi has not succeeded in enforcing rule of law and maintain peace in the state.

The Adityanath-led government has been facing primarily for his government’s act of hurried cremation of the dead body of the girl without the family’s presence that is in the mid-night. It is unbelievable how could a person or a government which claims to be the flagbearer of Hindutva indulge in anti Hindu act?

It is not that only opposition has been critical of Yogi’s failure. His senior leader Uma Bharati has also condemned his action. For him opposition’s criticism might have been a rhetorical political slogan with no heart for their uplift. But how he will define the criticism of Uma Bharati. Is it that “her stance is also just a business and she stopped low to run her business” as he alleged in the case of the opposition. He must not denounce his responsibility by saying; “They (opposition) view everything through the prism of caste, religion and regionalism. These disruptive elements may resort to any misdeed and disintegrate the social structure in order to keep their vote banks intact.”

One would certainly like to know his view on the Supreme Court calling the Hathras incident “horrible… extraordinary and shocking”. Is it that the apex court was also speaking against his government? The CJI said “please understand that we are in no way condoning the incident.” Significantly the bench of Chief Justice of India S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, hearing a writ petition seeking a probe by the CBI or a court-appointed Special Investigation Team, said it wanted to hear from the parties on the scope of the proceedings in the matter already before the Allahabad High Court and “how we can make them more relevant”.
(IPA Service)