Uttar Pradesh slides back into the dark ages

The gang rape and murder of two Dalit sisters in Katra Shadat Ganj village in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district has yet again highlighted the deteriorating law and order situation in the State. That the perpetrators even hanged the victims' bodies from a tree only adds to the senselessness of the crime. But what is most troubling is that local policemen were allegedly involved. Not only did they refuse to lodge a ‘missing persons’ report when the victims' family members first complained about the disappearance of the girls — in a clear instance of dereliction of duty — they also reportedly shielded the accused. The victims' family has claimed that caste equations drove the crime; that the accused, who belong to the higher castes, knew that they could get away with the rape and murder of Dalit girls. Irrespective of whether this was a caste crime, there is no denying that certain caste and religious groups in the State seem privileged.

For decades, Uttar Pradesh has been described as the ‘badlands of India’ but it is under the disastrous rule of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, the State's law and order mechanism has all but collapsed. Goonda raj, the defining feature of his father's time at the helm of State affairs, has returned to Uttar Pradesh with a vengeance — so much so, that even the so-called VIP constituencies have not been spared. On Friday, two days after the Badaun incident, another Dalit teenager was gang raped and murdered in Azamgarh. A Samajwadi Party stronghold, Azamgarh is represented in Parliament by none other than party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, who recently had the galls to argue that the death sentence should not be given to serial rapists, for “boys will be boys” and they will make mistakes. A regressive mindset apart, the senior Yadav's statement also reflected his utter disdain for the victims. And this is an attitude that extends not just to women, who are treated like lesser citizens in Uttar Pradesh, but to the marginalised masses in general. The glittering Saifai Mahotsav organised by the Government last year, even as thousands languished in shelters following the Muzaffarnagar riots, was possibly the most obscene example of a State that simply does not care.

The Samajwadi Party regime's criminal neglect of its people has also hurt other aspects of governance. For instance, the power crisis in the State has gone from bad to worse: While the villages never had 24/7 electricity, long power-cuts are increasingly becoming the norm in urban areas as well. In recent days, towns and cities across the State have gone without electricity for more than 10 hours. Some say that this is the Samajwadi Party's way of avenging its poor performance in the recently-concluded lok Saba poll — an allegation that is difficult to ignore given that the few constituencies that voted for Samajwadi Party leaders have been spared the torture. The Government's official line is that there is a shortage of supply. But instead of trying to fix the State's leaking electricity distribution system, the Chief Minister has been blaming the Centre. According to him, Uttar Pradesh is only getting 4,200 MW of power, instead of its demand of 6,002 MW, from the Centre. But as Minister of State (with independent charge) of Power, Mr Piyush Goyal pointed out, the State can buy more power if it needs.