Political
Diary
New Delhi, 14 July 2020
Bahubali-Khadi
Nexus
CRIME IS NOW POLITICS
By Poonam I Kaushish
The
sordid saga of dreaded gangster Vikas Dubey of Kanpur with over 60 cases to his
name came to a grisly end Friday when he was shot dead in an ‘encounter’ with
the police trying to escape enroute from Ujjain to Kanpur. A tale of an ambush wherein
8 policemen were killed to an encounter which culminated in his killing in eight
days!
Only someone dimwitted lacking common sense would believe that
Dubey was killed by police in ‘self-defence’ as he fired at them trying to
flee. This explanation is so ludicrous and hackneyed it raises more question
than answers. How did he get past Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan’s sealed borders
and police who were on his lookout? Was
his surrender staged? Why wasn’t he handcuffed? What explains his audacity to
kill eight policemen on duty?
Importantly, was the ‘encounter' to save political ‘big fishes’?
Was his killing a conspiracy to destroy evidence linking him to certain Parties
and politicians? Who wanted their secrets to be buried with Dubey? Why haven’t
his call records been made public? How does one explain the car discrepancy,
one crossing a toll booth near Kanpur and another with the gangster overturning
on the highway? Why were media stopped by the police minutes before the
encounter?
Undoubtedly, nobody is willing to speak about his crimes and the
leaders who protected him. While some suggest that
Dubey knew too much about the men in khadi
and khaki and he had to be liquidated for those dirty secrets to remain masked.
This is corroborated by slain DSP’s March letter to Kanpur SSP warning about
this nexus and the gangster’s mole within.
Others aver it was a Brahmin-Thakur tussle for caste hegemony in
the State headed by ‘Thakur’ Yogi Adityanath wherein he was considered the Robinhood who held an over 1 lakh Brahmin vote bank in several constituencies in Kanpur.
Think.
Dubey has been controlling his village Bikru’s panchayat for over 18 years
first as head followed by family members as members. His wife is a member of
the Samajwadi Party. He has been photographed with politicians and top Government
officers. In a 1990 murder case, all witnesses, most of them police personnel,
turned hostile. Ditto in 2001 when he was acquitted for killing a BJP State
Minister in front of two dozen policemen, strangely the BJP Government did not
appeal the verdict.
In
2006 with 50 cases against him he was released on bail. He was arrested in 2017
for murder but was set free in 2019 due to no witnesses. Oddly, his name does
not figure in the STF list of over 30 top criminals in the State list or the
top 10 in the district even though he has criminal cases registered against his
name.
He
gained his dabang political stature
in 2001 under BSP patronage, followed by the Samajwadi in 2012 and was
presently reportedly rooted to the BJP and was readying to fight the next
Assembly polls in 2022.
Clearly,
the Dubey case has all the markings of a corrosive political culture and the
troubling inter-linkages between politicians, criminals and policemen which is
an integral part of UP and Bihar’s political landscape. Of Bahubalis who have the brawn and financial muscle to “deliver” to their
political mai baaps across Party
lines in lieu of patronage and protection. Many like Maharashtra Arun Gawli
become MLA’s and boast of their “bullet proof” jacket.
Thanks
to a weak police and legal system which ensures that mafia-turned netagan get away with murder. They rule by law: use force with impunity, collect
protection money, settle disputes unlike the State bogged down in legal
wrangles and use loads of money to muscle out honest candidates. A milieu of jo jeeta woh sikander, a vicious circle
of you scratch my back, I scratch yours!
Alas, today, Parties
are brazenly nominating criminals as candidates resulting in racketeers and
murderers filling the rogues' gallery of power and fame. Worse is the criminal
content in States. Rough estimates aver that in any State election 20%
candidates are criminals. In UP 143 (36%) of 403-MLAs, Bihar 142 (58%) of 243
MLAs face criminal charges of whom 70 (49%) have already been charge-sheeted.
Arguably, with such legislators, how can we expect to remove crime from the
country?
Scandalously,
criminal are crowding out honest candidates at the national and State level.
According to a recent report 45.5% ‘criminal’ candidates win against 24.7% with
clean backgrounds. Thus, in this self perpetuating system the growing Indian
middle class is not averse to electing criminals if they can become their
patrons and deliver goods.
In a milieu where power
translates into a numbers game, there are no surprises why mafia dons invest
large sums in getting a neta’s tag.
It is a ticket to continue extortions using political power, gain influence and
ensure that cases against them are dropped. Besides, the returns on political
investments are so high and profitable that criminals are disinclined to invest
in anything else.
From criminalisation
of politics to politicisation of crime, India has come full circle. Whereby mafia
dons get away like escape artists, thanks to legal delays, often abetted by
political pressures, making convictions rather rare. Resulting in the number of
mafiaso-politicos rapidly multiplying in legislatures ushering in a new don
(read dawn) wherein yesterday’s mafia dons are today Right Honourables a law
unto themselves and all-powerful. Wherein an MP-MLA tag, acts like a magic
shield from police, encounters and rivals. Hence, our system has unwittingly
created huge incentives for criminals to enter politics.
Bringing things to
such a pass that our jan sevaks dance
to the tune of their underworld benefactors at the cost of the people.
Consequently, with apradhi-banne-netas
democracy is being boxed in three stages --- mafia box, cartridge box and
ballot box! It is this mutual benefit and camaraderie between the criminal-Party
nexus which is the cause célèbre for
our netagan.
One
could dismiss this politicization of crime as an evolving phase of our
democratic process. But the tragedy is that our democratic system has been
usurped by criminals. Be it a petty thug, dus
numeriya or a mafia don. The only thing that matters is on whose side the
criminal is. His or ours? They are all the same. Only the degrees differ.
Kudos to the Election
Commission which is all set to implement the Supreme Court order February directing
Parties to give reasons for nominating candidates with criminal cases instead of a decent citizen to voters in the
forthcoming Bihar Assembly polls. And that it was not the candidate’s “mere
winnability” which goaded it to give him a ticket to contest elections. More, it should explain to people through
published material how the “qualifications or achievements or merit” of a
candidate, charged with a crime, impressed it enough to cast aside the smear of
his criminal background.
True, Dubey’s death
might be the full stop of one Bahubali’s story but it heralds the time has come
for a broader investigation into the trend of gang lords thriving with impunity
and should help trigger a much needed change in police and electoral laws to
tackle criminalization of politics, act independent of partisan pressures to
usher in corrective qualitative change in political principles. An overhaul of the complete theatrization of Constitutional
democracy.
Indeed, Dubey’s
killing is a test case for not only the Yogi Government but also other States
on how it handles the Bahubali’s case against the backdrop of the polity vowing
to clean-up crime and restore law and order. Our rulers need to answer two
questions. How many murder charges are required before a criminal is held
guilty? And will politics be ever de-criminalised ? Else, today’s criminal
king-makers may be tomorrow’s kings! ---- INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)
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