Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: December 1, 2005
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1313899.cms
Uttar Pradesh is the new epicentre of crime
in the country. The sudden spurt in political murders, apart from the countless
ordinary killings, threatens to hurl the state into a phase of lawlessness
and anarchy, even as the Mulayam Singh Yadav government seems to look the
other way.
Even before the people of UP could recover
from the shock after the murder of Kamlesh Yadav - one of the candidates in
the Allahabad University Students' Union polls - they have been jolted by
the gunning down of BJP MLA from Mohammadabad, Krishnanand Rai and six of
his associates on the Ballia-Ghazipur border in eastern UP.
The issue reverberated in the two Houses of
Parliament today, with the Opposition demanding the state government's dismissal.
The BJP charged the Mulayam regime with trying to communalise the atmosphere
in the state. "Everyone knows the identity of the culprits, but they
have not been nabbed so far as they enjoy political patronage,'' BJP's Lok
Sabha deputy leader VK Malhotra said while raising the issue during zero hour.
Rai had been engaged in a running feud with
controversial independent MLA from Mau, Mukhtar Ansari. Supporters of the
slain legislator have blamed the Ansari brothers for the gruesome killings.
Ansari's younger brother, Afzal, is the Samajwadi Party MP from Ghazipur,
and was defeated by Rai from his traditional stronghold of Mohammadabad in
the 2002 assembly polls.
Another controversial Samajwadi Party MP,
Atiq Ahmed, shot into limelight earlier this year for having masterminded
the murder of the BSP MLA from Allahabad north, Raju Pal. Ahmed's brother,
a prime accused in the case, was later rewarded with the party ticket from
the assembly seat.
The situation, political observers feel, has
become so bad that even relatives of state ministers have not been spared.
In October, the son of Virendra Bundela, a member of the Mulayam government,
was gunned down in front of his house in Lalitpur, allegedly by Jairam Yadav,
said to be a member of the Samajwadi Party. The bone of contention was the
post of chairmanship of zila parishad.
As the state lapses into chaos, the Centre
and the Congress leadership appear to be helpless in taking a tough stand
on the fast deteriorating law and order situation in the state. Even though
the Congress high command has no love lost for the Mulayam Singh regime, and
the BJP and the BSP are also now seeking the dismissal of the state government
like the UP Congress, Mr Yadav's crafty political networking with the Left
leadership seems to be tying down the hands of the Centre.
Yesterday's killing was the latest in a series
of cold-blooded murder of political leaders opposed to the Mulayam regime.
So far, many leaders of the Congress, BSP and BJP have been killed by criminal
elements, allegedly patronised by the SP leadership. The latest incident seems
to have ended, at least for the time being, the alleged secret understanding
between the SP and BJP, built on their common hatred for the UPA and Congress.
Yet, the Congress is wary of doing anything
more than token protests. The party spokesman, as usual, today stuck a helpless
note, deploring the worsening law and order situation and "goonda raj"
in the state, but unable to spell out a political action-plan due to the helplessness
of the Centre and high command. He was not even in a position to explain the
continuance of the "technical support" of the Congress to the state
regime.
Though the SP, which has a powerful presence
of 40 Lok Sabha members, is technically an outside supporter of the UPA regime,
none doubt that Mr Yadav is keen on joining any move to topple the Manmohan
Singh regime. Yet the Congress leadership has been limiting itself to allowing
the governor to do some politically unproductive needling.
Even though a major section of the Congress
would like to see the end of the SP regime at the earliest, the leadership
is wary of Mr Yadav's potential to make the dismissal of his regime a case
of "secular betrayal." He and the Left have been using each other
to periodically whip up the bogey of Third Front, to keep the Centre on tenterhooks.
The leadership is all the more sceptical of
any adventure against the state regime with the backing of the BJP which will
be projected by the CM as a case of 'Congress collaboration with communal
BJP.' Some party leaders do fear that any move to dismiss the state government
would be used by Mr Yadav for an extreme politics of polarisation in which
the SP and BJP could become mutually catering opponents.
