Justice thrown under the truck in Yogi’s Uttar Pradesh

The law & order situation throughout the country has gone to the dogs. That's a solid irrefutable statement and anybody saying otherwise should be arraigned for complicity. Whether it be West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat or far below down south Kerala, law & order has taken a beating in all of them and the one thing common is that the chief ministers of all these states, including those not named, refuse to take the blame.

They act coy to begin with, then they try cover-ups, which usually fail, and finally they attempt to slide and slither out of trouble with varying degrees of placations.

You know, like ordering an inquiry with the addendum that the investigation be completed post-haste. This, after a couple of heads are rolled -- cops transferred and suspended, and, in the odd instance, dismissed from service; and in doing all this, the respective chief minister hogs not just acclaim but also limelight.

Take Uttar Pradesh, for example, the headquarters of the ‘Rape Kingdom’. It's a shame, but our fair country carries the notorious reputation of being a rapist's paradise. Even children are not spared.

The law & order situation in Uttar Pradesh is indeed pathetic, in fact, below pathetic. Criminals have become bold and various crime, particularly crimes against women continue unabated. Sure enough, nobody can get into the minds/heads of people and know their criminal intentions, if they have any, but does that mean there shouldn't the fear of the law in the populace, the fear that one wrong step and it could even be the gallows.

In Uttar Pradesh, the law & order scenario is very grim. It's come to the point that in the rural hinterland of Uttar Pradesh, stepping outdoors to gather fodder and firewood is fraught with mortal risk for minor girls.

Yogi Adityanath is not deaf. Like King Solomon, he hears everything that happens in his realm, but he affects like he hasn't heard a thing. And then when he finally does hear, or allows it to be felt that he has finally heard, things would have gone from bad to worse. The killer truck would have by then already come into play. And usually when that happens, a relative of the rape survivor has to come under that truck.

It happened with the Unnao gangrape survivor. Her father was allegedly killed while in custody and then later a marauding truck rammed into a car, killing her uncle and the resultant fear was complete and total. In Uttar Pradesh, intimidation is the key, and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wants to make the state the best ruled state in India!

Unfortunately, Yogi is like all rulers with the authoritarian streak, a control freak, with distrust for a sidearm tied low for the fastest draw. The fact of the matter is that despite his much touted ‘killed in encounters drive’, Yogi Adityanath has failed to put the fear of the long arm of the Uttar Pradesh Police in the scheming head of UP's heartless gangsters.

In the latest case of the minor girl raped and a truck suddenly appearing out of nowhere to kill the girl's father, it's the involvement of a police officer's sons that is at the core of the crime. Of the three rapists, two, Golu and Saraubh, are sons of a sub-inspector in the Kannauj Police, and Deepu is close pal and rape-assist/accomplice. Golu and Saurabh (possibily Deepu, too) raped the 13-year-old and then the truck dashed out of the shadows and ploughed through the minor girl's father.

The Uttar Pradesh Police are now investigating, and if there's a cover-up going on nobody can rule it out because what happens in Uttar Pradesh is not known to anyone, least of all to the Chief Minister.

The reality is that the Kanpur rape survivor's father was killed in a "road accident" the day after he filed his daughter's rape complaint, which puts the responsibility for the death squarely in the court of Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Yogi Adityanath wants to make UP the best most progressive state in India and the other day, International Women's Day, he tweeted on women's safety and now it sounds so empty! The girl's family is still saying they are being threatened by the accused and that the police were complicit in the crime.

In Uttar Pradesh, getting raped is only the tip of the crime. Chances are high that the rapists will not leave a rape victim alive to nail them to the crime. They will silence her with slander and, worse, murder. If that doesn't stop, and if the victim somehow survives, they will put a marauding truck to finish off the rape survivor's father or uncle or brother, all three of them!

(IPA Service)

(Views expressed are personal and not that of the National Herald)