New bullies on the block

Is this the PM’s “New India”?

The setting up of “anti-Romeo squads” was an election promise of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. They were meant to ostensibly curtail eve-teasing and provide greater security to women. However, reports reveal the chilling reality behind the grandstanding: A young woman and man, out in a rickshaw, going to meet friends to watch a movie together, were stopped in Lucknow and questioned by the police. The young woman, interrogated by policewomen, was released after being given “moral teaching”.

Thus, at the end of the UP police’s foray that claims to make the state safer for women — a woman traumatically detained, her friend harassed, even policemen reportedly admitting that the “anti-Romeo squad” had no legal jurisdiction to stop the two. If the police can’t tell the difference between molesters and amicable couples, the squads portend humiliation, extortion and violence on innocent young people in public places. Is this what Prime Minister Narendra Modi was referring to, after the UP win, when he spoke of a “new India”, where “the dreams of the under-35s” would materialise? In UP, after his party took over, the nightmares of the under-35s would appear to be coming true, threatening to empty malls, coaching centres, etc, of young people frightened to venture out.