There was a time, when states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were known a ‘jungle raj’. Robberies and dacoities were common on streets, on trains and any space used by general public.

People would fear going out in the night. Even the police department had a notorious reputation those days since common public who went to stations seeking justice or to lodge a complaint, would never be unsure if they’d return alive. Police officers were under the control of zamindars. Citizens had to fear the criminals on one hand and the police, on the other. In the recent days, looks like this situation has returned and this time around, it has gone from frying pan to the fire.

At a time when general public would be scared of anti social elements; now, even the Bihari police have to fear the criminals. The police who watched the lynching of Akhlaq on the pretext of him having stored beef (which turned out to be a false allegation later) are now the target of criminals. This is somewhat like the story of a tiger who tasted human blood. Those who love the smell of blood won’t decipher between the blood of commoners or that of the police.

As a proof of the fact that Sanghi goondas have completely taken over the law and order system in Uttar Pradesh, another police officer has been murdered. Even when the lynching of one police officer at Bulandshahr is still fresh on people’s mind and the investigation is yet to progress, another police constable has been done to death in an incident of targeted stone pelting.

The constable was on his way home from duty, when death came calling. As usual, the UP CM has hardly spoken about this. This is an open challenge that the goondas have posed to the police department in UP.

Irony is, if they were mere rowdies, they would have been killed in staged encounter by now. The police who could mercilessly shoot and kill the Dalits like stray canines, when they staged protests, killing rowdies is no big deal really.

But they are helpless in UP. Because the ones who killed the cops are not mere rowdies, but political activists in the guise of keepers of culture. And they even have the silent concurrence of the CM of this state. To act against them is to act against the CM or the entire political system itself.

Which is why, saving their own life is a big deal for the police there beyond catching the culprits. This is contributing a lot to the increasing criminal activities in UP. The police are forced to share a very cordial relationship with the criminals owing to the political support the latter possess.

They can move the police to any place if the latter do not dance to their tunes. If that’s not possible, the conventional mode of punishing such as murder, is an easier option for the goondas who are given clean chit by someone as big as the CM Yogi Adityanath.

His statement will not condemn the killing, but merely call it an ‘accident’ and hand it over to the investigating agencies to delay things further. This has given the culprits major boost to continue on killing spree after the Bulandshahr incident.

This indirectly encouraged the next murder both these incidents are warnings issued by the Sangh Parivar to the police department in UP. A report says such blatant ‘cautions’ have increased after the recent killings to indicate ‘this would be the fate of everyone who’d defy us’.

Sangh goondas are getting a major impetus with this and this is working very badly on the morale of the law implementing agencies. How would the police ever perform their job if they are threatened for simply imparting their duties? That the goondas enjoy political support is another matter altogether.  

With these murders, the criminals are on the way to totally take control of the law and order situation in UP. None of the oral instructions seem to be working at all. Recently, retired officers had written to CM Adityanath and had implored him to uphold the duty of public office, by ensuring that the situation is free from threat for the officers to perform their duties.

But considering the political background of Adityanath, these things do not seem to materialize in UP yet. Because the CM himself assumed power by way of hate speech and mob leading mentality. How can he instruct the officers to act against his own men? The President needs to intervene for UP to come under control. Either the CM has to resign, or the government needs to be dismissed and the President rule needs to be imposed.

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Wayanad (Kerala) (PTI): Top Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Saturday comfortably cruising towards her maiden electoral win from Wayanad in Kerala, as she surpassed the lead achieved by her brother Rahul Gandhi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls earlier this year with party leaders and ally IUML predicting a big win for her amid the counting trends.

The Congress-led UDF's candidate from this hill constituency, Priyanka, extended her lead by over 3.8 lakh votes after five hours of counting of the ballots in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, according to the Election Commission.

Reacting to the lead achieved by Priyanka, Congress' ally Indian Union Muslim League and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said she would get more votes than her brother Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls in April this year and will win by a record margin.

"An amazing first trend on counting day is the massive early lead for our leader @priyankagandhi ji in Wayanad, Kerala, by-election. People of Wayanad are surely going to record in victory margins today and Priyanka ji will make Parliamentary debut with a grand win," Reddy said in a post on 'X'.

IUML supremo Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal said that going by the trends, Priyanka will get more votes than what Rahul got and the majority she achieves would also be higher than that of her brother.

A similar view was expressed by IUML's national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty.

On the other hand, BJP leader Anil K Antony, earlier in the day, had claimed that though Priyanka has achieved a good lead, her victory margin would be less than what Rahul got in the 2024 and 2019 LS polls in the hill constituency.

According to the latest EC figures, Priyanka had a lead of 3,82,975 with 5,78,526 votes. LDF's Sathyan Mokeri was behind her with 1,95,551 votes and NDA's Navya Haridas was in the third spot with 1,04,947 votes.

Rahul had got 6,47,445 votes and won by a margin of 3,64,422 votes against his nearest rival, CPI's Annie Raja, in the LS polls this year. In 2019, he had got 7,06,367 votes and had won by a margin of 4,31,770 votes.

After winning from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh as well, in this year's polls, Rahul vacated the Wayanad seat, and the party nominated his sister Priyanka, paving the way for her electoral debut.

The bypoll turnout in Wayanad, which has over 14 lakh registered voters, was around 65 per cent, a decline from the close to 74 per cent in the LS polls held in April this year and much lower than the over 80 per cent turnout in the hill constituency in the 2019 general elections.

The counting of votes commenced at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first.

The strong rooms, where the EVMs were kept, were opened more than an hour before counting began.

The bypoll for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat was held on November 13.

Of the 16 candidates who contested, the main contenders are Priyanka, ruling CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri, a political veteran, and BJP-headed NDA's Navya Haridas.