Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath has always emphasised upon the need to maintain law and order in his state. The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) campaign in 2017 for the state assembly elections stressed on the failing law and order situation in UP under the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) rule. The voters of UP welcomed BJP in the state after a long gap of more than 10 years relying on their promises of maintaining law and order and improving the image of the state. The BJP appointed Yogi Adityanath, their star campaigner in the elections as the CM of the newly formed government.
CM Yogi with his firebrand image of an incorruptible person took charge as the CM of the state on the 19th of March, 2017. He delivered what he had promised, from banning use of tobacco products in government offices in the state to the suspension of more than 100 policemen, Yogi looked intent on delivering quick and fair justice. In his very first Cabinet meeting which took place on the 4th of April, 2017 his cabinet decided to waive off the loans of small and marginal farmers of Uttar Pradesh. This was a crucial decision considering the loans cumulatively added to more than Rs. 360 billion in total.
CM Yogi also decided to curb the criminal elements who had been given free reign under the previous governments in Uttar Pradesh. He gave the police full freedom to deal with the high crime rates while warning the criminals to either surrender or leave the state. ‘Operation Clean’ was launched by the UP police and they lost no time in beginning to deal with the most wanted men of the state. There have been more than 1200 police encounters which took place between March 20, 2017 and March 31, 2018 in the state. This has led to the death of 34 criminals, left more than 265 injured and has resulted in the arrest of more than 2744 history-sheeters.
This hard stance on the criminals came under heavy questioning when a BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar along with his brother Atul Singh Sengar from Unnao became the prime accused in the rape of a girl. The case had first been raised in June 2017, but it deteriorated rapidly in April this year, when the girl’s father was beaten by the MLA’s brother and his aides in Unnao. The girl tried to immolate herself outside the CM’s residence on April 8th. What further raised the heat in this matter was the death of the girl’s father on April 9th at the district hospital after he was shifted from jail.
The BJP government had maintained silence on the Unnao rape case issue although the policemen were suspended and magisterial probe was ordered. The bone of contention in this matter was the exclusion of the Unnao BJP MLA’s name from the FIR which was lodged after the incident, although the girl had maintained from the very start that MLA Kuldeep Singh had a big part to play in the incident.
And after a long silence, BJP CM Yogi Adityanath expressed his views on the matter at hand, and we were glad to find out his stance towards crime had not softened just because the accused belonged to his party. CM Yogi has advised the MLA to surrender before the police, he also directed the police to file a FIR which has the name of the accused BJP MLA from Unnao in it.
Now The Yogi government is going to refer the Unnao rape case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for further investigation. CBI is the top investigation agency in the country and will submit an unbiased and uninfluenced report after it completes its probe. The CBI probe will not only investigate the heinous rape case but also the custodial death of the victim’s father and the complicity of BJP MLA Sengar’s brother in the case.
The CBI probe will bring out the truth of the Unnao rape case and justice will be served to the victim’s family. Rule of law would prevail as was promised by the CM Yogi government from the very initial days of its coming to power in UP.