The badlands of UP

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The badlands of UP

Friday, 09 October 2020 | Ajoy Kumar

The badlands of UP

The Hathras case shows that the actions of the State are far beyond lawlessness and are firmly sacrilegious. The girl’s cremation itself is worthy of judicial action

I have previously written on how policing developed around the world. It is often believed, though incorrectly, that the police and investigating agencies have been around forever and that they were always set up with the aim of maintaining law and order. History, however, is rarely this linear and the history of policing even more so. In the United States, for example, policing in the 17th and early 18th centuries was different for the North and the South. In its early form, policing was mostly a for-profit venture, where people were hired to protect business interests, including ventures of gambling and prostitution. Ironically enough, these policemen were typically criminals or thugs. In the South, these “police” forces were typically employed as “slave patrols”, who took strict and swift action against slaves who tried to protest against their owners. These private police forces eventually took the form of a public-funded police force, but even this step was prompted by merchants and people in power to subsidise the cost of protection. The police forces, in effect, were funded by many but became agents of the few.

As time passed and democracies flourished, with more people participating in the law-making process, the police was reined in through an elected Government that passed laws to regulate its conduct. The judiciary ensured such laws were adhered to and the Press highlighted the abuse of power. At least, that is how a functional democracy is meant to work. However, as the horrific Hathras rape-murder case shows, a different standard seems to apply to Uttar Pradesh.

In Hathras, a small village in UP, a 19-year-old girl from the Dalit community was reportedly gang-raped with her body left broken into pieces. Instead of standing with the victim of this heinous crime, allegedly committed by members of the “upper caste” society, the pain caused to the poor girl’s family has only been compounded by the mishandling of processes by the UP Government. Even a cursory glance at the events that have followed since this horrific incident shows that while one may be aware of the pathetic state of affairs in India’s largest State, one didn’t realise just how lawless and perhaps more significantly apathetic Yogi Adityanath’s Government is.

Let us first deal with the complete absence of law and order. There has been no clear explanation or rationale provided by the State Government on why exactly the police and the authorities, who were present there, ensured that the body of the deceased was cremated before dawn. The victim of this tragedy was not only the poor girl, whose body was charred, but also the parents who were not even allowed to cremate their daughter in peace. Why was this done? The explanation given by the State is that this move was imperative to ensure that “law and order” was preserved in the State. This would mean that the police can tomorrow stop you from cremating your loved ones as per your tradition because it believes it’s good for law and order. The actions of the State are far beyond lawlessness and are firmly sacrilegious.

This act, in and of itself, is worthy of strict judicial action. One would think that the pain and horror inflicted on the poor family would stop here. However, the State Government once again showed us that when it comes to abuse of due process and blatant disregard of the law, its imagination is not inhibited by the boundaries that mere mortals like you and me are constrained by. Only under the present UP Government can the victim’s family be asked to undergo a narco-analysis test. A practice that involves drugging a subject to reveal certain facts while he or she is in a semi-conscious state. A practice that has been declared to have no legal validity even when administered on an accused of a crime, forget the fact that the Government wants to conduct this test on the victim’s own family.

Now, let’s examine the spellbinding television interview given by UP Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Prashant Kumar, where the officer of the law told us that the forensic report showed that the victim was not raped as the samples had no semen. Someone needs to inform the woefully unaware or blissfully compliant ADG that the law on rape does not actually require any semen to be found and since the Nirbhaya rape case, the law has been explicitly changed to include circumstances where any form of non-consensual penetration of a woman can be classified as rape. Last I checked, the Indian Penal Code applies to all of India, including UP, though with each passing day I am proved wrong. The ADG is also possibly unaware that the samples from the victim on which he sought to rely were received by the forensic authority 11 days after she was hospitalised and that as per the Centre’s own guidelines, the likelihood of finding such direct evidence is greatly reduced after 72 hours.

The problem with statements like this from the police or the conduct of the administration, like the Hathras District Magistrate, is that people actually rely on declarations made by individuals who hold such authority. When a police officer or a bureaucrat says that something is legal or illegal on national television, your default instinct is to believe him. Unlike people’s trust in politicians, which tends to vacillate, their trust in the administration, which they (perhaps naively) believe acts in accordance with the law, is still strong. This places a greater responsibility on the bureaucracy to act in accordance with the law and the Constitution. A responsibility that has been unashamedly abdicated in this case. 

But how much can we blame the administration if it is made to fit the mould that the party in power sets? The cues given by the BJP through its conduct are embarrassing. Like the head of the IT cell of the BJP, who shares videos of a rape victim without blurring her face even though this is clearly against the law and who talks (without provocation) on national television about phone-tapping by the State of reporters as if it is a given.

It is increasingly apparent that the BJP thinks that the citizens of this country are stupid and are like sheep who will follow where they are led by the most incompetent of shepherds. This is why its leaders throw the most ridiculous conspiracy theories at us, expecting us to believe that a reported incident of caste violence and rape in Hathras is actually a foreign conspiracy. There are almost 10 cases of rape in UP every day, so as per the UP Government, is only this one a foreign conspiracy or are all of these rapes conspiracies too?

Enough is enough. The time is now to tell the shepherd that we are not sheep who will sit idly by as the rule of law is sacrificed to protect the BJP’s image. We need to say it loud and clear that the same laws that govern the rest of India apply to UP and to each citizen, irrespective of caste. Sooner or later, they will get the memo. 

(The writer is a former IPS officer, a former MP and currently a member of AAP)

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