Yogi and Akhilesh Yadav exchange barbs in the Assembly over a broad daylight murder

The verbal duel between Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav in the Assembly on Saturday was quite acrimonious. The acrimony got expressed in a language that doesn’t cover democracy in glory. As the session began, Opposition leaders, including Yadav, attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party Government in the state over the broad daylight murder of the prime eyewitness, Umesh Pal, in the 2005 murder of a Bahujan Samaj Party MLA. This incensed Adityanath who launched a counter-attack: “It was the Samajwadi Party which nurtured and protected the mafia [don] Atiq Ahmed and now, they are raising fingers at us. Mafia ko mitti mein mila dunga (I will eliminate mafias). The Prayagraj incident is very disturbing, but the guilty will not be spared.” He also asserted that his government has a “zero-tolerance policy” against mafia and crime: “Those who are involved in the incident, were they not nurtured and protected by the Samajwadi Party? The Samajwadi Party had made him an MP [Atiq Ahmed].” It may be mentioned here that Pal’s widow has lodged a police case against Atiq’s family members, including his two sons. The UP CM’s assertions were not without substance but these could have been made in a more temperate language—and, of course, without the histrionics of mitti mein mila dunga. Should our politicians indulge in rhetorical excesses all the time?

It is true that Adityanath has largely succeeded in improving the law and order situation. Not that the state has become a Garden of Eden—or to use the phraseology Adityanath would prefer—Ramrajya; but there has been perceptible improvement. A report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which was released in August last year, showed a dip in serious crimes such as rape and murder in the state in 2021, though the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns might have played a role in that. Then there are also reports that industrialists from other parts of the country are exploring the possibilities of investing in UP. There was also a global investors meeting recently in which big corporations showed considerable interest. This is not surprising because, as we mentioned earlier, a good law and order situation is the sine qua non of attracting industry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the performance of UP by saying that it is driving the growth of New India. However, CM Adityanath should also ensure that law enforcement should not be a ham-handed affair in which cops are given enormous powers and innocents also suffer because of the rough behaviour of police. As Modi said on Sunday, policing should be done not just using the strong arm of the law but also with sensitivity. While the guilty should be brought to justice, others should not be made to suffer in any possible manner. Only with such an approach will CM Adityanath be able to eliminate the mafia.