IIn 1987 when Narendra Modi, then a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh publicistTook a political role as General Secretary (Organization) of the Gujarat unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, his first and immediate test was the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation elections. Ahmedabad in those days was volatile with a series of riots in 1985-86, in which the anti-reservation agitation took a communal colour. This period saw the rise of a powerful Muslim underworld led by a gangster named Abdul Latif, who was seen enjoying the patronage of the Congress, as described by Ajay Singh in his well-researched book. The Architect of the New BJP: How Narendra Modi Transformed the Party,
In addition to the innovative strategies adopted by Modi in that election, his cause was helped by the fact that jailed don Abdul Latif – “who saw himself as Robin Hood for minorities” – chose to contest from five wards. decided. Independent candidate. His election symbol was the lion. His henchmen paraded a caged lion during the campaign. “With the scars of the recent violence still fresh, this innovative campaign was an attempt to exploit polarization. However, this played in favor of the BJP, which promised to remove the atmosphere of fear and insecurity among the people of Ahmedabad,” writes Ajay Singh.
When the results were declared, the BJP won a majority in the corporation, winning 67 out of 127 seats. latif won from all five wards But four had to surrender. As per rules, the runner-up was chosen and the BJP ended up with three more seats. The victory of that AMC laid the foundation for the BJP coming to power in Gujarat. It was part of the government three years later.
Yogi Adityanath was barely 15 then. No one knows whether the Ahmedabad municipal elections and the don’s role in it ever attracted his attention. Three decades later, in 2017, when Yogi took over as the chief minister of UP, Latif’s life came into the public domain through a Bollywood film- a Shah Rukh Khan-starrer. rich,
In the AMC elections, the caged lion has re-emerged in the political discourse of UP with different names. The latest is gangster-cum-politician Atiq Ahmed, who was killed by three men in Prayagraj on Saturday, two days after his son Asad was killed in a police encounter.
Incidentally, Abdul Latif was also lodged in Sabarmati Jail in 1995-97, from where Atiq Ahmed was brought to Prayagraj. Latif was killed in a police encounter in 1997 when he was trying to escape. Just as Latif strengthened the BJP as a caged lion in the Ahmedabad civic elections in 1987, many jailed gangsters on the run and ready for encounters are shaping Yogi Adityanath’s politics and governance in UP today. are.
Read also: ‘He did wrong, but was punished’: Mixed emotions, debate and scuffle as Atiq, Ashraf rest
Yogi’s ‘Thok Do’ methods
Since Yogi Adityanath assumed power in 2017, there have been over 10,000 police encounters in which 178 criminals have been killed. The Times of India informed of last month.
His detractors may have a lot of questions about these killings – the non-response of the policemen when Atiq was being shot, the urgency of his medical examination late in the evening, the reason for leaving the vehicle at the hospital entrance, Allowing to address the media there, etc. Many more questions are being raised about Asad being killed in the encounter. Conspiracy theories abound.
Although Yogi Adityanath is probably not going to sleep over this. He knows how the criminal justice system works. Not a single policeman was convicted in the Ishrat Jahan and Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter cases. In the Disha rape and murder case in Hyderabad in 2019, an inquiry commission convicted 10 policemen for killing the four accused in an encounter and recommended that they be booked for murder, No action has been taken against the policemen so far. In the Vikas Dubey encounter case, a judicial commission has clean chit To the police
Yogi Adityanath also knows how opposition parties work. Watch the cautious reactions of opposition leaders to the killings of Atiq and his son. “Law is supreme. Criminals should be given strictest punishment but it should be as per the law of the land. Playing with the rule of law or judicial process for political purposes does not augur well for our democracy,” Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted.
Echoing the same sentiment, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that playing with law and order only creates “anarchy”.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav tweeted, “If someone’s life can be lost in the police cordon, then what about the safety of common people… It seems that some people are deliberately creating an atmosphere of fear.” After Asad’s assassination, Yadav tweeted that “through fake encounters, the government is trying to divert attention from real issues.”
None of these opposition leaders named Atiq or Asad Ahmed or raised any specific questions about the killings. They were largely didactic and philosophical, leaving people to make intelligent guesses and come to their own conclusions. Most other opposition leaders reacted in the same vein. Rahul Gandhi retweeted Priyanka’s tweet.
Yogi Adityanath must be smiling from ear to ear to see his political opponents go through the ruckus. None of them bothered to visit the spot or meet or talk to the families of the deceased.
When it comes to mafias and gangster-cum-politicians, there are too many skeletons in the cupboard of the opposition. Akhilesh had always objected to Atiq Ahmed’s association with the SP, but his father, the late Mulayam Singh Yadav, had no objection to giving him party tickets for the Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
In his book, Bahubali of Indian Politics: From Bullet to BallotRajesh Singh points out that Atiq Ahmed “had the distinction of being one of the musclemen who saved the Manmohan Singh government” when the Left parties withdrew support to the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. “Forty-eight hours before the vote (of confidence in the Lok Sabha) and with little fanfare, the government fired six of the country’s most prominent suspected law-breakers – 100 accused of mass kidnapping, murder, extortion, arson and more were facing more than 100 cases – so that they could fulfill their constitutional duties as legislators. One of them was Samajwadi Party MLA Atiq Ahmed…,” Singh writes.
Akhilesh barred DP Yadav, another Bahubali, from joining the SP in 2012, though he had to bow to his father’s wishes when it came to inducting Raja Bhaiya or Raghuraj Pratap Singh into his cabinet. An MP-MLA court in Ghazipur will sentence five-time MLA Mukhtar Ansari, another don linked to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), on April 29. This will give BJP another reason to please Yogi-“who says who does (He does what he says). A reference to his remarks made in the Assembly last month:I will destroy this mafia,
Yogi’s selective anti-mafia action?
A day after Asad Ahmed’s murder, the SP media cell released a list of alleged criminals who are still “alive, committing crimes and running syndicates”. The list includes Brijesh Singh, Raja Bhaiya, Dhananjay Singh, Brij Bhushan Singh and Kuldeep Singh Sengar, among others, who were released on bail last year.
“Are they special to Yogi ji? Actually, they belong to the same caste as the Yogis. Therefore, they are free to commit crimes…” SP saidTaking a jibe at the Chief Minister.
Yogi government officials denied these claims when I asked them during my recent visit to Lucknow that only Muslim gangsters were being targeted. In response, the officials shared a list, according to which there were 66 “marked mafia/criminals” in UP. Among them, 11 were Muslims including Atiq Ahmed. Officials cited the example of Sudhir Singh, a gangster from Yogi’s home turf Gorakhpur – the police arrested him in 2021 and attached assets worth crores of rupees. He had also cited the police encounter of gangster Vikas Dubey. Dubey though was a Brahmin.
Apart from official claims of impartiality, Yogi Adityanath has been facing severe criticism for his trigger-happy police. “What use is a criminal justice system in a society where murderers are celebrated?” asked All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi in a scathing attack on the UP CM. He gave voice to the concerns of the entire opposition, leftist and liberal intelligentsia. Incidentally, the central leadership of the BJP is silent about the killings of Atiq, his son and their associates. His silence seems strange as top party leaders including Amit Shah had been praising Yogi Adityanath for “finishing off” the mafia in UP only last year.
However, Yogi’s voters have a different opinion. They do not share the opposition’s concerns about the rule of law and the criminal justice system. I called up my friends and acquaintances in UP on Sunday to know their views on the encounter killing and the killing. well done Or good discharge was a common practice. And this—his image as another strong leader with a 56-inch chest—may care for Yogi. As James Madison said, “All government rests on opinion.” Mind you, this is the post-truth era.
DK Singh is the political editor of ThePrint. Thoughts are personal.
(Editing by Therese Sudip)