Vikas Dubey had terrorised Kanpur and Yogi hunting him down will cost many seats to SP and BSP

As the dreaded gangster Vikas Dubey with 62 criminal proceedings, including five murder cases, against him met his fate earlier this week, the residents of Bikru village say that a reign of terror has ended. The encounter of the dreaded gangster has been celebrated by the people of Uttar Pradesh, and now Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has acquired the image of a law and order CM. 

What the crackdown and the fateful encounter on Vikas Dubey have also done is that they have poked holes in the narrative that the Yogi government favours the so-called Upper Caste Hindus, and torments the minorities and the Dalits. 

The elimination of Vikas Dubey has created a new narrative which is bound to show its political consequences, especially when the state goes to polls. Five Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh are going to have by-polls later this year, and the elimination of Dubey is bound to give BJP a definite advantage over its opponents- the SP and the BSP. 

Political reactions condemning the encounter as fake and staged do not match the ground-level sentiments. Ramphal, a 55-year old farmer from Bikru said, “It feels as a nightmare has ended. We were in the habit of living in fear.”

Vikas Dubey’s neighbours too have heaved a sigh of relief. Aantu Pandey, one of his neighbours said, “It still seems that he is watching us and will harass us later for speaking against him.”

The Muslim residents of the village too are happy with the elimination of Vikas Dubey. Sabina says, “Majority of the villagers had had a taste of his terror at some point in their life.”

She added, “We are also among the sufferers. He used to thrash my father and uncle mercilessly every now and then over petty issues. We had written to the then CM in 2013, but no action was taken against him.” The 37-year old woman also said that Dubey’s elimination came as a bigger celebration than Eid in her family. 

The parents of the slain gangster have themselves disowned their son. Such is the euphoria over Dubey’s elimination that social workers went on to garland the policemen involved in the encounter, outside the mortuary at the Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital in Kanpur. 

Vikas Dubey had made a stronghold out if the Bikru village near Kanpur since the 1990s. However, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and administration decided to go after him recently. 

The police were looking to arrest him in Bikru itself but eight policemen were ambushed and brutally murdered on their way to arrest him. The police had then launched a six-day manhunt and he was finally arrested from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. 

While the UP Police was transporting the man to Kanpur, the car carrying the gangster reportedly met with an accident, during which he is said to have attempted to flee the scene, and had even allegedly snatched a pistol from personnel and fired shots. This forced the police to put the man down.

The Opposition reaction has been volatile and unconvincing. Before Dubey was encountered, they were crying hoarse about the BJP favouring the Upper Caste Hindus. After the encounter, they changed their narrative to police brutalities. 

Srivatsa, a Congressman tweeted on July 7, “If Vikas Dubey’s name was Kafeel Khan or Umar Khalid, he would have been encountered by now, called a terrorist and Arnab would have ranted about him 24*7. But in New India, Vikas has privileges that Kafeel doesn’t”. 

After the encounter however he however said, “2006: Tulsiram Prajapati. 2020: Vikas Dubey. Eliminated before they spilled the beans on their political masters. Gujarat model is the India model now. Encounters, headline management, incompetency and burial of justice.” 

Meanwhile, SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav said, “Kya nirdosh aadmi ko marna, custodial death ho jana, ye kanoon vyavasta kahenge aap (is killing an innocent man in custody a sign of proper law and order?)” 

Left-liberal elites who claim that they stand for the principles of rule of law and fair trial are now inculcating the policemen of carrying out a fake encounter even without waiting for the judicial process to commence into the encounter.  

Yogi Adityanath has now emerged as the CM trying to rid UP of criminal elements, while the Opposition is confused. When Dubey was arrested Yogi’s critics were alleging that Dubey was being let off lightly because of his so-called caste privilege. Now that he has been eliminated, they are claiming that the encounter itself was fake. 

The elimination of Dubey is a turning point that will have long-term repercussions in UP politics. And it is the opposition parties that stand to lose.