The karyakartas of the RSS and BJP which have been maintaining the façade of being cultured, holder of the great Hindu traditions and ethics, carried out the worst type of despotic action of outraging the modesty of a woman accompanying the woman leader who had gone to the collector’s office to file her nomination for the chairmanship of the block panachayat samiti.

The election to the district panchayat samiti and block panchayat samiti, just 8 months ahead of the state assembly elections, has acquired immense political importance. Only a month back the Samajwadi party had won nearly one third of the panchayat elections in the state emerging as the favourite political party for the 2022 assembly election. In the first tier of the panchayat election, the Samajwadi party could manage to strengthen its base at the ground level.

This was the death call for the saffron brigade. This manifested the changing mood of the people and emerging new alliances at the ground level. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah combine became desperate to resort to any kind of machination to capture the power in UP. They could not fathom repetition of Bengal electoral waterloo.

As everything is fair in love and war, for ensuring their survival they did not hesitate from resorting to worst type of violence in Uttar Pradesh. Modi and Yogi had conspired to capture the district and block level panchayat bodies and that is clearly manifest in their bestowing praise on the state election machinery and congratulating the cadres.

Yogi Adityanath was quite ebullient at the victory and described it as historical amid allegations of violence by the opposition parties. For him the victory owed to the team work as a result of which the BJP bagged 635 of 825 seats of block panchayat chiefs. The CM also praised the state Election Commission for the peaceful and fair polls. He even attributed the success to guidance and inspiration of Narendra Modi.

What has come as rude shock is the eulogy of the state government by Narendra Modi. Instead of showing concern at the large scale violence in 17 districts of the state, he tweeted that the "big victory" is a reflection of the benefits people have received due to the Yogi Adityanath government's policies and pro-people schemes.

The intensity and nature of violence that took place in Uttar Pradesh last week could be gauged from the simple fact that an officer of the rank of Additional Superintendent of Police was slapped by the BJP goons. This incidents simply endorse+ the fact that the officials failed to muster courage to check the wrong doings of the government. The officer, ASP of Etawah, Prashant Kumar Prasad also apprised his seniors over the phone; “BJP workers have also brought bombs."

In Unnao some journalists were brutally thrashed while they tried to click photos of the kidnapping of an opposition candidates by the BJP cadres. It is alleged that chief development officer of Unnao Divyanshu Patel caught hold of a television journalist and beat him up.

Undeniably yesterday’s violence was a curtain raiser of the show that BJP would enact in 2024. For tactical reasons it chose the panchayat election to rehearse. What happened yesterday simply underlined that India has ushered into electoral autocracy and how the democracy has been killed slowly during the last few years. The ruthless use of violence sends a loud message that for Modi winning of an election symbolises a vibrant democracy. To maintain the façade of democracy it is essential for Modi to win elections.

Incidentally a report of the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) said that India is no longer an ‘Electoral Democracy’ but it has become an ‘Electoral Autocracy’. Since the victory of BJP in 2014 and Narendra Modi becoming the Prime Minister, the electoral process is being used as a cover to hide trampling of the democratic government selection process. he report also criticised the Indian government for its frequent use of treason, defamation and UAPA laws. More than 7,000 people have been sued for sedition since BJP came in power in 2014. Many are still behind the bards even after one year of protest and arrest.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav accused BJP workers of perpetrating violence. He described them as “power hungry goons of Yogi” [Chief Minister Adityanath]. Strange enough SP has huge support base at the ground level, but ironically its cadres failed to take the BJP bull by horn.

The SP workers and members will protest against the “murder of democracy” by the BJP government. The party will submit a memorandum to the Governor Anandiben Patel on matters related law and order, inflation, unemployment, agricultural laws and health services. Last week, the BJP had forcefully swept the elections to the posts of district panchayat chief in Uttar Pradesh, winning 67 of 75 seats. But Akhilesh could not rise to the occasion.

Anarchy and violence by BJP leaders and workers during nomination for block pramukh posts is nothing but a mockery of democracy. Members of the ruling BJP are openly throttling democracy and the state administration is a mute spectator to it. Rahul Gandhi, in a tweet in Hindi, said that in Uttar Pradesh, violence has been renamed "masterstroke".

It was indeed a masterstroke of Yogi. Surprisingly it was not the state election commission but Yogi who guided and controlled the entire proceeding. It is also manifest in the fact that Yogi Adityanath “announced” the results of Saturday’s block pramukh polls before the state election commission (SEC) did. Modi also tweeted his congratulations on the BJP’s “bumper victory” about two hours later, but till then the state poll panel had not officially declared the results. (IPA Service)