Modi has made his intentions long clear that he would go to any extent to rig and turn the election results in his favour. Just ahead of the elections, he has been resorting to two mechanisms: redecorating slogan of Hindutva and abusing the police structure for narrow self-interest. The latest decision of the Uttar Pradesh government to make the cops who are on duty at Kashi Vishwanath temple to wear saffron robes instead of their mandated khadi, is a pointer to this design.

For years, cops have been managing crowd inside the temple. But never in the past were they directed to wear saffron priest robes. This is for the first time that it has been done. Cops deployed inside the shrine for crowd management would don red and saffron cloth with tilak and rudraksh to look like priests.

Modi and his lieutenant Amit Shah have left no stone unturned to communalise the police, succeeding tremendously with the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police. The style of operation of the police of these two states clearly manifests their complete saffronisation. Maximum number of anti-BJP people and have been arrested. The Delhi police resorts to ruthless torture on agitators protesting against BJP government. People still have the pictures of their assault on protesting women wrestlers as the latter demanded action against wrestling association chief Brij Bhushan Singh.

The latest incident of police personnel wearing saffron robe is part of the larger design to influence and terrorise people just a fortnight ahead of the D-Day. Modi and his cohort through this action intend to send the message that they are in control of the state, and the communalised police force would not allow the opposition and dissenters to raise their voice.

The most significant message Modi and RSS intend to convey is that UP is the land of Hindus and they must remain united to protect Hinduism. The move no doubt has invited accusations of violation of the police dress code and of being an election gimmick, but the RSS and government are unmoved. The Yogi government has conveniently ignored the voice of protest seeking to know whether the law keepers' uniform can feature symbols of a particular religion in a secular country.

The eight policemen posted inside the temple are in red dhoti-kurta, sporting a white gamchha printed with images of the kalash and the swastika. They have a rudraksh mala around their necks and a tilak on the forehead. Though Varanasi police commissioner Mohit Agrawal justified it saying that it would help crowd management inside the temple, he could not come up with a justifiable explanation as to why then it was not practiced in the past.

Ever since Narendra Modi became the prime minister, the RSS and saffron ecosystem has been resorting to this tactics. In 2021, the then BJP government of Karnataka had asked the police to wear the saffron clothes as part of Vijaya Dasami celebration, but after protests dropped the idea. Even at Bijapur police station, cops had turned up in white kurta-pyjamas and saffron shawls; at Kaup in Udupi they wore white dhotis and saffron shirts, while their women colleagues sported saffron saris.

Under RSS and saffron plan, Amit Shah and Modi desire to have a committed police force. Those who prefer to stick to the secular official norms and rules are disliked. The most glaring example has been the victimisation of policemen in Bengal. Two years back, Shah had expressed his desire to set up a full-fledged NIA office in Bengal for better coordination between the centre and the state. Since then, the BJP leadership has been insinuating that the state and Kolkata police are corrupt.

Only recently, in the wake of arrest of two accused persons in Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Café blast case, the central leadership of BJP had blamed Bengal police for not being too alert to national security. It had triggered a war of words between the BJP and the state's ruling TMC. BJP has even alleged that TMC has turned West Bengal into a "safe haven for terrorists". However, retorting to BJP’s allegations, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee asserted that the accused were arrested due to the state police's prompt action. The accused, Adbul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa and Mussavir Hussain Shazib, were staying in a lodge near Kolkata under assumed identities, a statement issued by the NIA had said.

In retaliation, the TMC spokesperson Kunal Bose said in an X post: "Well done @WBPolice in connection with the Bengaluru-cafe blast arrest. Even @NIA_India has acknowledged it in their statements. Any anti-forces should be strictly dealt with. But let me ask to @BJP4India and their minions - where is this arrest made from? Kanthi. We all know which family and BJP's main leader runs illegal activities from Contai," Kanthi or Contai is the stronghold of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and his family. Ghosh requested the state agencies to investigate the "family's alleged role in the incident”. West Bengal Police also termed the BJP's claims as "falsehood".

It is an open secret that the ruling parties usually use the police force during election. But more than the immediate electoral gain, Modi and Shah have been planning to turn Bengal and Kolkata police compliant to their diktat. In a politically sensitive state, a saffronised police committed to Hindutva, is destined to play a significant role.

Modi while has been accusing Mamata for adopting a lenient approach towards Sandeshkhali incident and has been at the same time targeting the police for non-action. Addressing a rally in Arambagh, Modi said the people of the state were asking whether the votes of "some people" were more important to her than the suffering of women in Sandeshkhali. His was a polarizing sermon.

While attacking Mamata, Modi uses the phrase: TMC means 'Tu, Main aur Corruption'. At election rallies, he asserted that the TMC has become synonymous with "atrocities" and "betrayal". Taking a dig at the arrest of the suspended TMC leader Shahjahan, Modi said: "In Bengal, the police do not decide when a criminal must be arrested, it's the criminal who decides everything for himself". Interestingly, he eulogised women of Sandeshkhali for coming out on the streets to protest against police inaction and years of oppression, violence and harassment.

Modi’s allegation was so caustic that even West Bengal police had refute it. The state police posted on X: “Falsehood at its worst! Contrary to the claims made by @amitmalviya, the fact is that, two suspects in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case have been arrested from Purba Medinipur in a joint operation by the West Bengal Police and the Central Intelligence Agencies. The proactive role of WBP in the matter has been officially acknowledged by the Central Agencies". (IPA Service)