UP government has been regularly harping on its success in improving the state’s law and order by eliminating mafia, which has resulted in greater employment and investment in the state.This “achievement”, credited to the double engine government of BJP, is a major poll plank.
In 2020, Yogi Adityanath deployed the bulldozer for the first time to provide instant justice and make an example of a criminal. It was used to bring down the allegedly illegal properties of gangster Vikar Dubey in Kanpur’s Bikaru village, where he and his henchmen opened fire on policemen during a raid. The action saw divided reaction, some hailing the CM as a firm decision maker while others questioned the legality of the action.
Subsequently, the bulldozer was deployed on numerous occasions to provide instance justice, earning the CM the moniker of ‘Bulldozer Baba’. So popular has this action become among supporters of BJP that it was also used in states like Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and even in Delhi, and has been used in tableaus in the US by BJP supporters.
“There are some things which Yogi Adityanath introduced, like bulldozer action. Then there was implementation of court orders or older laws but in which Yogi took the lead over other states. That is why the UP model of law and order is now being quoted everywhere. By the time anyone else started implementing similar action, Yogiji had already established UP’s lead there,” said a senior BJP functionary in Lucknow.
The other action taken by the government, which the CM has quoted multiple times from the stage, are the encounters. “Mafia ya to pradesh chhod chuka hai ya unka Ram naam ho gaya hai (Mafia have either left the state or have died),” the CM has famously said multiple times.
As per official data, there have been 10,902 encounters in the past seven years since Yogi Adityanath came to power, in which 197 persons were killed. Even as these actions have been questioned on the basis of human rights, BJP has used these to establish for itself an image of a firm, decisive government with zero tolerance for crime.
In fact, the state’s law and order have been a matter of great pride for the ruling party, with even Prime Minister Narendra Modi having mentioned it on various occasions to commend the government’s work.
In Nov 2020, state government came out with a law to curb the alleged practice of ‘love jihad’ and forced conversions under which around 900 persons have been jailed so far. This saw various other BJP-led states follow suit, which included Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Haryana, MP and Jharkhand.
His action against loudspeakers after a court order, especially in religious places, also made headlines. Under fire for allegedly targeting the minority community through this order, government brought out testimonies of several Hindu and Muslim religious leaders who claimed to have followed the order on their own, with no coercion from government. Among the first major decisions announced by the MP CM Mohan Yadav after he took oath in December 2023 was the prohibition of loudspeakers at religious places which were used beyond permissible decibel levels.
