Botched game plan

The Bulandshahr violence in Uttar Pradesh, in which a police officer was killed, suggests that the politics of communal polarisation through

violence and rioting was at play behind the incident.

THE murder of Subodh Kumar Singh, a police officer, on December 3 in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh during mob violence over an alleged case of cow slaughter sent shock waves across the State, including among Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters. Sumit, a youngster who was later identified in videos as one of the stone pelters, was also shot dead. The incidents that followed have shown how the monster of fascism has matured in India and started devouring its own adherents.

While Hindus have also been victimised in the past in cow-related incidents, this is the first time a member of the police force lost his life in such targeted violence. The 47-year-old officer’s son, Abhishek Singh, condemned the murder and told reporters: “My father lost his life in this Hindu-muslim dispute. Whose father is next?”

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was reportedly watching a soundand-light show when the incident took place. While he ordered a probe into the alleged cow slaughter, he made callous statements regarding the officer’s death and called it an accident and not a case of lynching.

On the morning of December 3, as Rajkumar was sitting in his dairy in Mahav village, he received a call that cow carcasses had been found on his field, which is at the end of the road from the village and in the centre of a Jat-dominated area. With the onset of the harvest season, farmers were often out in their fields, and Rajkumar had been in his field just the night before. He had seen nothing suspicious, his wife, Priti, told Frontline. Immediately upon reaching his field that morning, Rajkumar informed the police, who advised the farmers to bury the remains and keep the peace. A policeman who was present on the spot told Frontline that the scene appeared set up. The skin was hung up on the sugarcane crop as if on display and the heads were scattered in various directions. The slaughter of 20-25 cows (the number claimed by the Bajrang Dal) would have led to a lot of blood being spilled on the fields, but there was not nuch blood there. This was corroborated by women of Mahav