If the Satta Bazaar was betting on Vikas Dubey’s encounter, the ‘bhav’ would have been overwhelmingly in favour of his death. Not a thing would have changed post his dramatic surrender-ish arrest at the Mahakaal temple in Ujjain. Such was the layman’s faith in Yogi Adityanath’s resolve. A kin of a martyred cop vouched on camera “When I saw the anger in the Chief Minister’s eyes, I knew at once justice would be served”. Call it his ego, determination or anger, fact is the monk has popped up as a fearless politician who gives two hoots about what others would think. His men were murdered in cold blood. He had revenge on his head. And revenge was served, fuming hot in just about a week. Whether the encounter was fake or real is a different debate but in either case one thing that can be said with certainty is Yogi Adityanath is on a mission to extinguish the gunda-raj from UP and he just won’t cower out.
The countrywide anticipation, the obviousness of the encounter all that “Mae Vikas Dubey hun Kanpur Wala” proved to be of no avail for the dreaded gangster. The entire ecosystem of criminal-rights advocates, the media in hot-pursuit and the moles couldn’t prevent the tumbling of car, the obvious pistol snatching, the escape and the three bullets from piercing that inflated body of Vikas Dubey. Call it barbaric, unjustified and criminal but the truth is this very encounter belittled every single thing gangsters like Vikas Dubey count on to escape from punishment. All that political pressure, moles in the department, hawkish-media, threats, nothing and just nothing worked for Dubey. And it has sent a clear signal to other Mafias –it wouldn’t work for you either, not anymore. Yogi ‘Encounter’ Adityanath is not going to stop.
There is a method to the madness. It just isn’t a random criminal-killing spree. The police department chalks out the perfect plan, properties are sealed, illegal businesses are demolished and the entire coterie is identified and taken to task. The government in UP is plucking out the weed right from its root. There is no symbolic shredding from the top for the votes. It’s sheer annihilation, done with a clearly defined purpose.
Was it a first? Certainly not! Six months into power, the Yogi government had conducted 420 encounters which included 15 fatalities. If you stroke your memory a little bit you might recall how the UP government was targeted by opposition parties and media for its ‘barbaric’ and ‘inhumane’ way of dealing with, say ‘barbaric’ and ‘inhumane’ criminals. The constant bickering in media circles and verbal stone-pelting could have dissuaded any Chief Minister. How did it affect Yogi Adityanath?
Years later in December of 2019, the UP police revealed some astonishing numbers in a sarcastic reply to BSP supremo Mayawati.
The figures speak for themselves. Jungle Raj is a thing of the past. No longer now.
— UP POLICE (@Uppolice) December 6, 2019
103 criminals killed and 1859 injured in 5178 police engagements in the last more than 2 years.
17745 criminals surrendered or cancelled their own bails to go to jail.
Hardly state guests. https://t.co/3Tk8qFLtK3
Read the numbers again for the sake of your own belief. That’s over 5000 encounters in about three years! So did Yogi ever stop? Do the maths. We aren’t doing it for you. If you go around, there is almost a folklore that’s going around on nukkads. People talk how the bahubalis are cowering in fear and surrendering themselves in foreboding of an encounter. If nothing else, the encounters have incited some fear in these hardened criminals. They for once know the politicians are not on their side, at least not the one in bhagwa.
Yes there are courts, as many twitter intellectuals scream their lungs out. But hey, they have been there right from independence. How much of a deterrence have they managed to become? Opting crime to make a livelihood became equivalent to opting a stream at school, once in UP. Dead bodies piled up as numerous gangsters made their way to the top where they could contest elections and no one would bat an eyelid. The courts have been slow. The courts have failed. And that’s the truth. There is a bahubali gangster in almost every district today, hiding in some hole in fear of Yogi. And that’s because the preceding system provided the perfect moisture for these fungi to grow and pervade.
Definitely encounters are not and shall never become the usual procedure. However, while our courts get their things in order, the people gather the courage to speak up and system finds a way to keep gangsters away from men in power, some immediate and effective measures are needed. This fear, this foreboding in criminals is exactly that –a heavy dose of paracetamol to combat this plague-ish condition of the state.
You can’t just wait for the society and the system to reform. They have been in this rusty vessel for so long now that it’s only obvious it’s going to take time. Here’s a simple counter-question to those sitting in Delhi and Mumbai and raising questions on the functioning of UP police –would you prefer the criminals to live in fear or the people? And if the question sounds exaggerated to you, then surely you haven’t lived in the UP governed by SP and BSP.
Once the monk lifts his hand from the shoulder of the police, have no doubts, the criminals would leap to their worst and their worst is quite wretched.
