On March 19 last month, Facebook reminded me of around a dozen status that I had put in praise of Yogi Adityanath, the day he had officially entered into the office of the Chief Minister, overtly endorsing his candidature for the Chief Ministerial post of the most populous Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. Sadly, the posts that I had once put up happily and proudly, no longer retain my delight and proud, rather, it was painful to hark back on it.

I had boldly decided to support Yogi Adityanath becoming the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh not because I was one of his million cheerleaders day-dreaming about the establishment of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, but because, like million others, I too had got extremely exasperated with the then omnipresent ‘GoondaRaj’ in the then State of Uttar Pradesh under the leadership of SP Government, where rapes had become a routine and mundane affairs. Hardly any day was left where the news of some SP activists beating Policemen and other officials would not come. In crux, there was an unending anarchy prevalent there in the State.

The former American President Abraham Lincoln, in his famous letter to his Son’s teacher, writes, ‘Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough’. But, Yogi Adityanath appears to be willing to gently handle the tough and the rough people.

In these situations, Yogi Adityanath engendered hope, for the fact that he was known to have been able to take tough decisions. I too thought his rein shall mark the elimination of crime from the state but, it seems, he is on a spree of eliminating criminals themselves in place of crimes through Police encounters, transgressing all the moral, legal and Constitutional proprieties of the office he holds. But, at the same time, he appears to be furtively standing for the mighty and the moneyed, particularly his own party men blamed to be indulged in corruption and crime.

The recent Unnao rape case by a BJP legislator named Kuldeep Sengar and Yogi Government’s dilly-dallying attitude on the issue till date despite immense Media and Public pressure justifies this assertion.

Recently, Yogi Adityanath was also accused of misbehaving with a Lucknow based resident named Ayush Singhal who claimed that the Chief Minister threw his papers when he met him in his ‘Janta Darbar’ to complaint about the notorious legislator Amarmani Tripathi who, he claimed, had encroached his vast amount of land.


Ayush Singhal crying after meeting with Yogi Adityanath in Janta Darbar


Amidst all these things going on, the reports are coming that the Yogi Government has decided to drop the rape charge against Swami Chinmayananda, the former Union Minister. Yogi Adityanath took oath in March last year but appears to be clueless about the direction in which he is tending to march.

The former American President Abraham Lincoln, in his famous letter to his Son’s teacher, writes, ‘Teach him to be gentle with gentle people, and tough with the tough’. But, Yogi Adityanath appears to be willing to gently handle the tough and the rough people. The Unnao rape case is an epitome of how the entire might of the state covertly comes in the rescue of the well-connected, mighty and the moneyed and completely fails and betrays an ordinary citizen like the rape victim and her father in this case.

The Yogi-Government, after immense Media and Public pressure, has constituted an SIT probe in this serious matter, but I ask, had the accused been a simple person, would the SIT still be constituted? The answer is a resounding ‘No’, of course. Everybody knows that had the accused been an ordinary citizen, he would have been behind the bars by now. He would have been immediately arrested after the registration of the FIR itself. Is this the equality of treatment before the law that our Constitution stands for?

The Police machinery acting under the colonial drafted legislations have still not been able to rise above the colonial mindset, and they are not entirely to be blamed for it, as the existing political system in general and the political parties, in particular, don’t want them to be acting independently as this shall demolish their hegemony over the system. The police in this case, instead of arresting the accused, arrested the victim’s father under concocted charges, sent him to jail, who later succumbed to injuries, inflicted in all probability by the police itself. The video that has surfaced where the thumb impressions of the victim’s father are being taken forcefully while he lies unconscious tells the tale of a system that fails an ordinary citizen in pursuit of justice and is certainly the crescendo of the decline of humanity.


Relatives mourn the death of a child at Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur .

My admiration for Yogi Adityanath had ended the same day, when around 60 children were murdered by his government, by not supplying them the oxygen on time in Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur. Now, I deeply regret all my applause for him and atone all the admirations that I had for him.

Read More: Why Maharashtra needs a dedicated home minister?


The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of thearticle.in. You may have dissent with the author's opinion which can be raised by writing to us and the author.

Rohit Kumar

Rohit Kumar is a law graduate, an RTI activist and a former SBI Youth for India Fellow (2017-18) Batch.

What's Your Reaction?

Favor Favor
6
Favor
Oppose Oppose
1
Oppose
Damn Damn
0
Damn
Lol Lol
0
Lol