Badaun gangrape: Why Akhilesh Yadav's UP is a crime den

First the gangrape and murder of two teenage girls in Badaun, then the assault on a rape survivor’s mother in Etawah - women in Uttar Pradesh are living the worst nightmare of their lives ever. Add to that the sharp awareness of the fact that the state government possibly considers the spate of rape and sexual violence as a phenomena that doesn’t need immediate attention. As an article on Firstpost points out, the bigger story about Uttar Pradesh under the Akhilesh Yadav government is summed by one little statistic: In 2013, the state registered 126 rape cases in one week alone. And the attitude of his government is also equally easy to summarise, this time in one quote from his father Mulayam Singh Yadav who said just last month on rape: “Ladke, ladke hain. Galti ho jati hai (Boys are boys. They commit mistakes).” [caption id=“attachment_1550801” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] UP CM Akhilesh Yadav. AFP[/caption] In fact, before he was transferred from Uttar Pradesh following the Muzaffarnagar riots, UP, ADG (Law and order), Arun Kumar had said that they had launched a ‘helpline’ to curb sexual violence against women in the state. “In order to control crimes against women we have come up with the 1090 service, which has been inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. It has been a great success; a number of other states are now trying to replicate the scheme,” Kumar had told a website last year. The relevance and utility of just a phone helpline in the face of the wave of violence faced by women in Uttar Pradesh - especially in the vast rural areas - is obviously debatable. Also, it’s not just a wave of sexual violence that’s washing over Uttar Pradesh under Akhilesh Yadav, various crimes like loot, robbery, murder etc have made the living in the state an ordeal of sorts. One has to point out here that Uttar Pradesh traditionally had a high rate of crimes with its various mafia organisations. The Akhilesh Yadav government was voted to power by the common people with the hope that he’ll be able to curb the rate of crime - however, the situation has only gotten worse. Member of the Samajwadi Party Faizal Warsi told CNN-IBN during a panel discussion, “Whatever has happened is sad, but Akhilesh is working so hard on law and order. We are trying, that is why non-performing officers have been suspended. He has called a meeting and asked people to keep special watch on what is happening across the state.” The government’s complacence when it came to gruesome incidents of rape and murder was further highlighted by the prompt action taken by the police force when minister Azam Khan’s buffaloes went missing. The alacrity with which the security forces acted and the suspension of three police officers for ‘dereliction of duty’ highlights how the police in the state are mere puppets in the hands of the political class and all those they favour. Warsi’s defence sums it up all. He says Khan was entitled to suspend the officers, because, “Well he is Azam Khan and he is a big big man.” When Warsi was further grilled about party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s seemingly misogynistic take on sexual violence, Warsi blamed the media for misconstruing Mulayam’s statement and deliberately painting a negative picture. “The media is doing negative publicity. It has only been two years and Akhilesh has done so much.” Then he did what most politicians and state leaders do to cover up their trail - point an accusing finger at other states. He, like many others of his ilk, suggests that the fact that rapes occur in all other states is a good enough reason to not haul up his own state even when something as horrific as the gangrape and murder of two minors occur in it. Warsi went on to say, “There are rapes across the country but nothing is reported. Most of the media doesn’t show because of TRP. It happens everywhere.” Don’t blame him if he makes rapes sound like power-cuts - he is after all, defending his home state! Given that crimes rates in the state has increased manifold, the question remains as to whether it is just the mindset or the attitude of the government that is to be held responsible. Senior journalist Sharad Pradhan said, “The government has remained in denial mode. It was expected that a young man like Akhilesh with better exposure and education would do good. Since he is surrounded by sycophants he does not see the ground reality. No body wants to show the real picture to Akhilesh and he lives in his ivory tower.” Apart from being a horrifying case of sexual violence, the Badaun rape was also one that underlined the caste discord boiling over in the state. The Badaun victims were poor Dalit girl where as the perpetrators of the crime were high caste Yadav men. Pradhan put the continued oppression of Dalits in context. “Most police stations are headed by members of the Yadav communities and most of them have connections with the ruling family. It is not just Badaun or Etawah, it has been happening across the state.” Agreeing with Pradhan, BSP member Sudhindra Badoria was of the opinion that it was not just the denial, but the attitude of the government that is to be blamed for violence against women. “The cases of rape in any state is indicative of a patriarchal and feudal mindset. But the most important thing is the attitude of the government. While Mulayam said that rape is a minor issue, the chief minister told off a woman jouranlist that she shouldn’t ask him questions since she is safe.” Needless to say, such responses only work in emboldening criminals. Meanwhile, though Akhilesh may be young and educated, it has been said over and over again that the reins of the government are not really in his hands. He has his father and a volley of family members controlling him. Not just that, Pradhan points out, “He has not shown any urge to improve the quality of governance. Law and order should have been his prime concern. No action was taken against the lumpen elements who went amok at his oath taking ceremony, same goes for those who unleashed arsen in the Allahabad University.” Drawing comparisons with the Mayawati government, that has also seen its fair share of crimes, Pradhan said, “In Mayawati’s case she would only patronise gundas to a limit. When the matter went to the media she would spare no one. In Samajwadi Party every joker knows that nothing is going to happen to me.” The root of the law and order situation goes deeper. It is well known that police officers in some way or the other are related to some politician, which in a sense gives them immunity to any action despite poor performance. Former Uttar Pradesh DGP Vikram Singh said, “Over successive years, the police force has gotten tremendously politicised. There is no change of command, there are no drills. No one is pulled up.” Naturally, crime and muscle-flexing thrives as much in the police force as among civilians, say reports. Last year, four police officers had thrashed two women brutally when they tried to stop the policemen from beating up their brother. The incident occurred in Kushinagar.   Apart from being badly policed, Uttar Pradesh is also inadequately policed. While the police-civilian ratio is dismal across the country, it is at its worst in Uttar Pradesh. A Times of India report points out that 65 percent of the posts in UP police lie vacant and there are 71 policemen for one lakh people. The national average is 133. Lawyer Karuna Nandy points out, “This failure is not just in the state of UP. We have complete negligence of such issues in West Bengal and also in MP. This is the time for the Centre to step in and show leadership. The CBI must probe the cases.”