THE UNNAO CHALLENGE FOR YOGI SARKAR

The BJP is in danger of going the Congress way. In fact, some will say it already has. Corruption and criminality had come to define the Grand Old Party which ruled the country in the early two decades after Independence. The BJP in power may be fast acquiring the character of the party it replaced. The case in point is the Unaano horror. In this mid-sized UP town, a minor girl was sexually assaulted by the local BJP MLA Kuldip Singh Sanger and his brother Atul Singh in a village not far from the town. The victim and her tormentors are residents of the same village. Despite her father trying to lodge an FIR, no police station was ready to do so, such being the clout of the MLA. Nine months after the rape incident, the police were finally forced to write the FIR at the behest of a local court. Since then, the family of the victim has come under further threat. Her father was waylaid while returning from the court, beaten so severely that he collapsed. He was taken away by the police and a case under the arms act registered against him. He died under mysterious circumstances while in judicial custody. The local SHO and four other policemen were suspended. Yet, the State Government was reluctant to proceed against the MLA and his brother until the young girl threatened to immolate herself outside Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s house in Lucknow. The arrest of Atul Singh followed soon after. The resulting hue and cry in the media forced the Yogi Government to announce the constitution of a Special Investigating Team. Now, the police say they have evidence against the MLA’s brother. Why it did not a) lodge the FIR when approached first by the victim nine months ago, and, b) how about the MLA himself, who too, is accused of raping the victim? Of course, it does not absolve the BJP a wee-bit because the MLA in question had joined the party on the eve of the last Assembly election. Sanger had been a two-term SP MLA and one term BSP MLA before he joined the BJP ahead of the last Assembly poll. Justice demands that the MLA, too, is booked for rape as alleged by the victim and is shown no leniency by the authorities. This is the least the Yogi Government can do to justify his claim that the BJP is a law and order party and will not brook any criminality even if the perpetrators are its own legislators and other leaders. Merely by going after the bad characters and other criminals who had tormented the people in the earlier regimes, the Yogi Government cannot bring about real change. For that change to be realistic and meaningful, the saffron-robed CM will have to rid his own party of rogue elements. Ensuring justice for the Unnao rape victim is a challenge which he should accept and pass to counter the charge that the BJP is another Congress, albeit with a different name.