Most Insensitive To Public Plight, People Vow To Vote Such A Govt

In a heart-wrenching Facebook post showing two girls carrying the dead body of their father, people have reacted very angrily and vowed to vote out the most insensitive govt of the Uttar Pradesh headed by Yogi Adityanath. In Indian culture, a true yogi is above wordily chorus and interests. He is most humble and is believed to have achieved inner peace and calm through meditation. But Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is a different man and want to rule by "danda". He has shown gross insensitivity to public plight.

In his latest misdoing, Yogi has threatened to book all those people who speak against shortage of Oxygen. Chief Minister claims there is not shortage of oxygen in the state and such media reports are only to defame his govt. Its clearly an authoritarian mindset. Mrs. Indira Gandhi and sycophant Congressmen used to utter such threatening words. Now its over to the saffron people.

Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister when came to power in 2017, resolved to improve the law and order situation. His 'thok do' (shoot them) policy led to a spate of encounters. He then announced, "Agar apradh karenge to thok diye jayenge'. As such, the state police, became trigger-happy.

And since than the killing of 'hardened' criminals in Uttar Pradesh is listed as a major achievement of the Yogi government. But opposition parties accuse the Adityanath government for the spate of killings that happened in the name of encounters.

The Supreme Court of India in its landmark judgment in "Peoples Union for Civil Liberties vs State of Maharashtra " had observed that this “encounter” philosophy is a criminal philosophy, and had warned policemen that they would not be excused for committing murder in the name of “encounter” on the pretext that they were carrying out the orders of their superior officers or politicians.

However, ‘encounter’ of "hardened criminal", especially of minority community continued unabated in the state. As many as a total of 135 criminals were killed and 3,039 were injured. till March, 2021. Unfortunately, the state government with its support and popular social sanction has succeeded in making the idea of organised killing by the police force as a valid crime control policy in Uttar Pradesh.

The weak investigation system has only helped the authoritarian system. For example in May 2018, NHRC ordered investigation into 17 cases of alleged extrajudicial killings on complaints filed by civil society organisations and victim families stating that “documents prima-facie show that there may be chances of failure on the part of the state to adhere to the guidelines issued by this Hon’ble Court and NHRC and the police authorities exceeding their jurisdiction at the time of the alleged encounter killings,” observed High Court.

Even though two years have passed since the order, the NHRC has not only failed to conduct a proper investigation, but has also failed in providing protection to the family members and human rights defenders supporting the families, against serious reprisals by the police. Lack of robust witness protection mechanisms make the family extremely vulnerable to police persecution, making access to justice a near impossibility in such cases.

The UP government seems committed to not just normalize extrajudicial killing but glorify and celebrate the ‘unlawfulness’ at the very hands of a system created to maintain and guard the rule of law.

But The arrogance of power and state might can't stay there for long.

(Chander Sharma)