Rattled by the aggressive political response to lawlessness that was hitherto considered routine, the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh on Monday accused the media of “hatching a conspiracy” on behalf of the BJP.
The “deteriorating law and order” situation in UP with a spate of rapes, murders and, on Monday, a shooting incident involving two policemen, has become a major political issue of late.
Buoyed by its spectacular performance in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has taken to street agitations and direct verbal attacks aimed at Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
For Bahujan Samaj Party chief Maywati, it is an opportunity to mobilise cadre demoralised by the party’s decimation in the Lok Sabha polls. Mayawati was the first to raise the demand for imposition of President’s rule after two backward caste teenaged girls were found hanging from a tree following a gang-rape in Badayun district last month.
She followed it up with chants of “jungle raj in UP” during the short session of Parliament last week. The ruling party in the State is clearly unsettled by the aggression of the attacks and resorted to mounting a counter-offensive.
On Monday, SP national general secretary Naresh Aggarwal went on air blaming the media for politicising routine crime incidents.
Crime statistics“Crime cannot be stopped overnight. Such incidents happen in other States as well. Why is the media concentrating only on Uttar Pradesh? It is a well-planned conspiracy sponsored by the BJP and the Central Government against the State Government,” Aggarwal said.
He said the media should collect crime statistics from other States and analyse it in comparison with UP.
“You can compare the crime data of a big state like UP having a population of over 22 crore with the rest of the States to know the reality,” Agarwal said, adding that the SP government had taken stern action wherever incidents of crime had been reported.
Aggarwal’s comments came on a day two policemen were shot dead while chasing robbers in Firozabad, an incident that the BJP has cited as yet another instance of the situation fast spiralling out of control.
“Why is the BJP being blamed for what is clearly a failure of the State Government?” asked BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh.
“We are doing what any responsible political party in the Opposition should do. We are demanding restoration of law and order.
“As you can see from the statements issued by the senior leaders of the Samajwadi Party, the Government has no credible response to offer. How is the media to be blamed if daylight robberies, rape and murder are committed with impunity in the State?”
The BJP, on its part, claims that its workers are being targeted by the ruling party.
Over the past week, there have been several reports of attacks on BJP leaders in the State.
Spate of attacksOn June 15, the police had recovered the body of Uttarakhand BJP leader Rakesh Rastogi on the Baheri-Nanital highway.
Before this, BJP leader Vijay Pandit was gunned down in Dadri, bordering Delhi, while Muzaffarnagar BJP leader Om Veer Singh was killed on Tuesday. BJP worker Puneet Singhal was shot at in Bulandshahr on Wednesday and was critically injured.
Simultaneously crimes against women in the State have also increased. After the rape and murder of two teenaged girls in Badaun, the body of a 19-year-old girl was found hanging from a tree in a village in Moradabad district.
On the same day, the body of a 45-year-old woman was found hanging from a tree in Bahraich in eastern UP. The woman, belonging to the backward caste, was allegedly abducted and gang-raped before being murdered and hung from a tree.