How Adityanath’s police raj is backfiring on the BJP in Uttar Pradesh
Party workers and allies say they are powerless to address voter grievances, as government officials listen to no one.
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In September, an unusual scene played out in Naugarh, a town in Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharth Nagar district.
Vinay Verma, a legislator from the Apna Dal (Soneylal) party – an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party – sat on a public protest against his own government.
He said he resorted to the demonstration to force the police to act.
“The sand mafia in my constituency murdered a boy from the Chamar community last month, but the police have refused to nab the culprits,” Verma told Scroll. “The mafia is in cahoots with police officials.”
Verma said he wanted the superintendent of police transferred out of the district, along with the station house officers of three police stations in his constituency, Shohratgarh. “The superintendent of police has sold out the police stations.”
Nearly 50 protesters sat with Verma. Some were party workers, but others were citizens with similar problems. One had his bike stolen, another was assaulted by thugs who robbed his home, and a third had his relative’s jewellery snatched in broad daylight.
“There is no redressal from the police,” said Manoj Soni, 32, a protester whose sister-in-law had been robbed in July, but the police investigation into it had been dormant for months. “Nothing moves in the police stations until you pay...
