By Sushil Kutty
Millions these days are getting the feeling ‘stop the world, I want to get off.’ The poisonous binaries – far left versus far right, caste versus untouchable, Hindu versus Muslim, right to pray versus prepared to wait and women up against men — do not make the world a wonderful place. Most of all the stunning hypocrisy of politicians, who thrive on conflicts and refuse to acknowledge there are consequences.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is a sitting duck for the allegation. He created the pernicious environment of encounter-killings. Then, when an innocent is killed, he refuses to take responsibility. Stunning hypocrisy. Will he stand up and admit to his insecurities?
The slain Apple executive brought out the orange in saffron in stark relief. But it’s the yellow in the Yogi that set Vivek up for the killing. Don’t forget Yogi Adityanath is the man who wept in Parliament fearing elimination at the hands of UP’s men in uniform. The wanton killing of Vivek Tiwari was waiting to happen from that day on.
Trigger-happy cops should henceforth wear incandescent-saffron to warn of orange-red! The uniformed thugs of Uttar Pradesh with pistols strapped to waists have an incandescent urge to shoot to kill. Take off the Uttar Pradesh cop’s khaki and hat and watch the shaven pate over the saffron garb emerge. He will remind you of someone very familiar.
The two cops who shot to death Vivek last weekend were not at the shooting gallery. They fired point-blank. The two have been dismissed from service but what about the thousands others? For months since the Yogi government came to power it was clear as daylight there’s something wrong in the state of Denmark. But whoever thought luck would run out for Vivek in, of all the places, Lucknow, the state capital!
DGP OP Singh calls it a “criminal act and a clear case of murder” but look for the motive and the Yogi says “this is not an encounter.” Then, what is it? The killer cops in UP streets are his creation! Cops in police vehicles everywhere have the bad habit of parking in dark shadows to ambush drunks and villains in SUVs. In UP, they end up surprising and killing unsuspecting motorists.
Is the Yogi trigger-happy in the head? His ‘zero tolerance for gangsters’ was signal for the uniform to kill at random. For sure Vivek is not the only person who took a bullet in Yogi-land. Tens of gangsters with no contemporaneous crime but a history-sheet have met a police bullet in rigged encounters. And a reward regime for killing ‘wanted gangsters’ fuelled the murderous urge.
In fact, the Henry Fonda classic The Tin Badge with Hindi subtitles should be made compulsory watching for Yogi and his gun-toting cops. The movie is about the rule of law and why the man wearing the badge is sworn to enforce the law under all circumstances. That even the ‘felon’ should get his day in court. For some strange reason, the Yogi doesn’t court that ideal and he seems to have no remorse beyond vacant platitudes.
Men who love the cow should have the milk of kindness in them. But it is the cow in ‘cowardice’ that seems to prevail. It defeats logic why a chief minister with a brute majority should rule with the power that comes through the barrel of the gun. Yogi Adityanath is anything but a communist, least of all an Urban Maoist. In fact, this guy is so bucolic, he could be a pastoral poem!
Shows appearances are deceptive. It goes without saying that Yogi at the helm in Uttar Pradesh is a clear and present danger to the common man. It beats reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah persist with him. What do they see in him? It is not that he is the most valuable player in the state leading up to 2019. People with fear in their hearts will not cast votes in favour of the man they fear. That will be plumb crazy. The villain never gets the heroine!
The BJP is not only facing the combined power of a grand alliance in Uttar Pradesh but also the phalanx of fear that has gripped the citizenry. The flip side is that there are lakhs who admire Yogi for putting the fear of death in the goonda. Why, even the slain Apple executive Vivek Tiwari was an admirer. Now collateral! It is also standard BJP playbook that while the leadership displays sympathy and empathy for the victim, the brown-shirted foot-soldier chips away at his credibility with innuendo and slander. Ask Vivek’s wife Kalpana Tiwari. She, too, is collateral, as is all of Uttar Pradesh. (IPA Service)
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