“Yogi destroys Mafia Empire; woke liberals wail”

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s decision to sanitize once tagged as a lawless state seems to be yielding results, if the overall development of the state withover 25 crore population, may be the size of entire Europe. A resolute, Yogi, unperturbed over the criticism from his rivals as well as the legal challenges his government had to face in carrying out his ‘mission’ is also getting acceptance among all peace-loving citizens across the country, barring a few left liberals and Delhi Lutyens, who continue to wail. The recent killings of the most dreaded gangster Atiq Ahmed, who was a former MP representing the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh or Akhilesh Yadav, has yet again posed new challenges to Yogi’s unstoppable fight against the mafia. The demand for an independent probe by the SP or BSP or Congress or other Opposition parties, only shows how rattled they are as these same ‘mafia’ dons have become their major vote banks. Ironically, the majority of the mafia dons either belong to minority Muslims or a predominant caste in the Hindi states. What is more worrying to them is that the Yogi’s ‘war against ‘mafia’ which made him and his party much stronger and that was visible in the form of the BJP’s return to power for the second time with massive mandate, despite the caste, creed, and religious combinations played out by these regional and national parties. And Yogi government is not ashamed of revealing the facts that during their governance (from March 2017) as many as 10,900 police encounters indeed took place in the state. In these encounters, 23,300 alleged criminals were arrested and 5,046 were injured. The number of policemen injured in them was 1,443 and 13 were killed, the data reveals. Of the 13 policemen killed in encounters since March 2017, eight were ambushed in a narrow lane of Kanpur by the aides of notorious gangster Vikas Dubey. Yogi feels proud in saying that his government will not rest till it destroys the mafia in the state. While expressing his grief over the Prayagraj incident in the Assembly ahead of the discussion on the motion of thanks on Governor Anandiben Patel’s address, he assured the House that no mafia would be allowed to flourish in the state. He also said that his government has taken cognizance of it and that the results of his government’s policy of zero tolerance for the crime would be there for everyone to see soon and no one should have any doubts about it. And what has happened during the last week is one to see, not only in UP but also in the rest of the country. Countering the SP and other Opposition party’s criticism, Yogi said the party (SP), which had been nurturing mafia and the main accused don Atiq Ahmed, who was killed along with his brother, when three assailants shot them dead, reminded of giving the MP ticket in the past. Today, he boasts that there is a sea change in perception about the country, and the state, once infamous for the mafia, is now known for “mahotsav”. “Yeh jo pechaan UP ko di gayi thi – gunda raj, mafia raj, jungle raj, parivarwaad – yeh saare shabd ab ateet ke shabd ban gaye hain (gunda raj, mafia raj, jungle raj, nepotism… These identities given to UP are now a thing of the past),” he claimed. Political parties that governed the state in the past nurtured caste and religion-based politics, indulged in corrupt practices, and focused on promoting their family members, instead of the common man, which is an undisputed fact. Interestingly, the Yogi government’s determination to create a ‘peaceful state’ is also evident from the strides it has made in the field of industrial development, in the recent past. The state also boasts of receiving Rs 4 lakh crore worth of investment portfolio in 2018. The state could also secure investments worth Rs 35 lakh crore through the recent global investor’s summit held in February – a nine-fold growth trajectory, which no other state in the country, can boast of. For this to become a reality, his government’s successful acquisition of properties worth Rs 2,819 crore belonging to the listed gangsterswereattached and 175 notorious criminals were gunned down in six years. What does the UP success story of development and weeding out criminals, who became a stumbling bloc indicate? While appreciating and acknowledging the success story of Yogi Adityanath’s government in UP, none can dare shy away from the fact that his party also has a maximum number of criminals in their ranks masquerading as lawmakers.