We wonder if it is a fall of a Yogi, a Nathpanthi following a glorious tradition in Indian spirituality beginning from Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath, who made supreme sacrifice of the self for the benefit of the people. The way the campaigns for you and your government are carried out shows you as one person in the government who has uncontrolled or unlimited authority over others. It is the very definition of an autocracy, and in this way your own fans show you as autocratic. It is against the great tradition of a Nathpanthi, who believed in the sameness of the ‘atma’ (soul) of a person and the ‘parmatma’ (the Soul, ie the God) who resides within our body. Whence then come the penchant for extra judicial killing of persons during your four year rule?

Hundreds of people were killed by your police under you in the name of encounter of criminals. Majority of the postmortem reports of those killed show wounds on the dead bodies either from the back or from very close range almost point blank, which proves that the so called encounters were not the acts of gallantry but the acts of cowardice, a kind of cold blooded murder after taking the person in custody. Encounters, by definitions, are the incidents of fight between the criminals and police face to face, and the deaths is such incidents only can be said to be ‘deaths in encounter’. What has been done by the Uttar Pradesh police is clearly extra judicial killings, which has registered phenomenal rise in the state. The official data shows that the Uttar Pradesh police have executed 7791 encounters in the last four years.

How does the government claim it as successful crime control strategy when law and order situation in the state has been deteriorating all along not only disturbing the private life of an individual but also public life in general? Even incidents of rapes have been making headlines. Official crime record of India shows that highest number of crime against women and children are happening in Uttar Pradesh, though Yogi government claims a decline, in other offences such as loot and murder. The state government has also claimed that incident of rapes and molestations have declined more than 45 per cent. There are no takers of this claim, since it is rape and molestation, which have disturbed the public order in recent years. Harassment in the hands of police has become a common thing while the criminals alleged to have political connections with the ruling establishment are roaming freely making the people live in terror from the both.

The state government has no respect for even for the persons who are helping the government in good governance by pointing out the errors of omission and commission of the officials. Whoever points out the excesses and the acts of injustices to the people are treated as enemy of the state and are implicated or even booked on the charges of seditions. Even senior journalists of repute were not spared. It has made the state the top violator of human rights. People are living under fear and avoiding even reporting the cases of corruptions, bribes, grafts, kickbacks, extortion by officials etc.

While living in such miserable conditions how are the people of the state expected to take pride in the four years of governance that is officially claimed spectacular in achievements within so little a time which could not be done in the decades? In fact, the fall in democracy and human rights violations in four years is far worse than in decades. Establishing dominance of one group of people over the others, have been one of the common allegation against the government in which weaker sections of the society have become victims. Democracy is all about equality, not dominance over the weak.

People feel themselves at great pains while commenting like this irrespective of their domicile status, whether Uttar Pradesh or any other state. First, it is because Uttar Pradesh has direct bearing on the fate of India which sends largest number of Members of Parliament. Secondly, the Chief Minister Adityanath’s name has more than once surfaced as next likely Prime Minister with other saffron politicians after Narendra Modi, if the BJP comes to power. It is in this context the whole country, and even the world, is watching the developments in Uttar Pradesh very closely. Despite the state government’s claims of achievements, people are in reality apprehensive about the future.

The hoardings and media advertisements are eulogizing the achievements of the state government, and a 64-page booklet titled ‘Chunautiyon main talashe avasr’ (searched opportunities amidst challenges) enlisting them, though tried to make the image of the government better, they have utterly failed in the purpose, and rather made the people more pensive on account of their sufferings which are yet to be alleviated. The state has asked administrations of all the districts to observe a six-day long official celebration to apprise the people of the measures taken by the Yogi government for “reform, perform, and transform”. People seem not so enthusiastic about such slogans as they used to be in 2017, the year of last assembly election that sprang up Yogi to become Chief Minister of the state. Now the election of the state assembly is only one year away in March 2022. The advertisements and the booklet read more like election campaigns rather than statement of facts. It has rhetoric and hypes about the achievements of Yogi Rule while carefully concealing its failures and excesses, more specifically the bureaucratic and political apathy and insensitivity that was voiced even during the recently concluded BJP state working committee meet.

The propaganda offensive has thus little face value even within. If yogi government does not take this into account, he will find himself in great political trouble until the next assembly election that is to be concluded before March 2022. (IPA Service)