Of power, politics and patronage in the Vikas Dubey case

Out of power for three decades in UP, Congress slams power patronage to criminals

The encounter killing of gangsters even in controversial circumstances has not been a new phenomenon in the badlands of Uttar Pradesh but the heat and dust Dubey’s encounter has generated is different.

And it is partly due to his persona, partly due to his political associations of past and partly due to politics of future.

Dubey was closely associated with BSP before he grew close to SP with his wife, having joined it and he spoke fondly of the support some BJP leaders offered him in the past.

Dubey episode has brought to fore crime- cops-political nexus is back in debate, which has always been an inseparable part of political discourse in UP, which saw the rise and fall of dons like Shri Prakash Shukla, Brajesh Singh, Munna Bajrangi, Mukhtar Ansari, Atique Ahmed and the list just goes on.

READ: UP gangster Vikas Dubey, accused in the killing of 8 cops, shot dead while attempting to flee

Congress, which has been out of power for 31 years in UP, has sensed an opportunity and pressed on with ‘jungle raj’ charge against Yogi Adityanath government in UP, a campaign latching on to which BJP had brought down the Akhilesh Yadav-led government in the state in 2017.

Congress stands at a vantage point in raising the issue of political patronage to criminals, not because it has had no role in the past but mainly because it has been out of power in the state for 31 years and hence has not been in a position to directly patronise such goons in the last three decades. Hence for Congress raising the charge is less risky than the Samajwadi Party, which finds many of its own skeletons tumbling down if it goes too offensive on the campaign about crime in the tenure of Yogi Adityanath rule.

As soon as Akhilesh Yadav tweeted “in fact this car has not turned turtle but the government has been saved from turning turtle”, a twitterati posted a screenshot of Samajwadi party membership receipt of Dubeys’ wife Richa Dubey and posters Richa and her husband with Mualyam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav’s pictures.

Moreover with Priyanka Gandhi, who is now leading the Congress charge in the state, already having brought a lot of new leadership, the past linkages of some old leaders with such elements in distant past, may not have much of a consequence when the political blame game begins.

The Poorvanachal, which is electorally very important for all parties, also had this faultline of Thakur-Brahmin rivalry not only in politics but also in gangwars. Apparently seeking to accentuate it further, former MP and dalit leader from Congress Udit Raj tweeted “Had Vikas Dubey been meted out the same behaviour had he been a Thakur.” In the complex caste dynamics of the state—Thakurs and Dalits have traditionally not been on the very best of the terms in their social relations.

In past many Congress leaders had attempted to highlight the Thakur community identity of UP Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath, an attempt trashed BJP which has said being a monk Yogi Adityanath belongs to all and has no particular caste identity.

The state has been ruled in the last three decades by BJP, SP and BSP and during the tenure of each of them this charge of patronage to criminals was raised. Even Dubey flourished during the regime of all these parties. Though Maywati also demanded a probe by a retired Supreme Court judge into the encounter, the fact also remains Dubey was very close to a BSP leader in the nineties while he was rising in the rank of UP crime world.

Here lies the comfort of Congress, which may not find itself at the wrong end of the campaign at least on this count in the state.

However, BJP supporters are hailing the encounter and feel the image of a ‘strong governance model’ and a muscular policy of ‘zero tolerance towards crime’ is deepened with this incident and could pay them well in 2022.