“As the king, so are the subjects,” goes the famous proverb. It stands true perhaps now more than in the times of kings and kingdoms. Over time, monarchy did not sit down well with its subjects and we witnessed uprisings across the world. In a largely democratic world order now, this proverb seems to stand more true.
Systemic violation of democratic values has led and continue to lead the institutionalisation of anti-social elements; all happening in the name of Opposition and dissent by political parties. The problem is not new but is becoming the new normal. Take the case of the Ajmer mass gangrape scandal of 1992.
On 20th August, 6 Islamists guilty of committing mass rapes of Hindu women in Ajmer were sentenced to life in jail. The crime, which came to be known as the largest sex scandal in the country, was committed in 1992 and a sliver of justice has been served 32 years later. Notably, the main accused, Farooq Chishti was the President of the Ajmer Youth Congress; Nafees Chishti was the Vice President of the Ajmer Indian National Congress and Anwar Chishti was the Joint Secretary of the Ajmer Indian National Congress.
The culprits had the protection of their name – the Chishtis, the Khadims of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, which houses the tomb of their ancestor Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, a Sufi saint. The Congress party were leeched on to the Chishti family, who represent the obvious electoral vote bank. The result? State-enabled criminals institutionalised to walk free for 32 years after raping at least 250 girls and blackmailing them with their videos and photos.
In 2022, Gauhar Chishti, another Khadim of the Ajmer Dargah from the same line had threatened to behead those who insulted Prophet Mohammad. He managed to escape the police and fled to Hyderabad. He was arrested in July 2022 and acquitted on 16th July this year.
How do criminals become political representatives and get away with it? How do they find legal and political support to the extent that they do it again and again and again? When a State lets them, amongst many other corrupt factors. When Yogi Adityanath uses the term ‘Mafia raj’ and ‘Goondaraj’, it is not political, it is a fact; an ugly fact that continues to bob its head even today when the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh is out of power.
2nd June 1995, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the late Chief of Samajwadi Party was the CM of Uttar Pradesh. In the Mirabai Guest House in Lucknow, Mayawati was chairing a meeting of BSP MLAs to withdraw from the BSP-SP alliance in UP when Mulayam Singh sent over 200 goons. Casteist slogans were raised when the goons surrounded the room number 1 where Mayawati was, while the then Superintendent of Police OP Singh was seen smoking a cigarette.
Mayawati fell prey to mafia Mulayam’s goondas. She was abused, harassed and eyewitnesses say her saree was torn too. Mayawati never wore a saree ever since. How does a sitting woman politician come to be attacked by goons? Because these goons were deployed by the head of a state government and the entire law & order machinery was channelised towards the Lucknow Mirabai Guest House.
Because crime and criminals were institutionalised to the extent that the mafias continue to be emboldened today even with bulldozer action against them. The statement by current SP Chief and son of Mulayam Singh, Akhilesh Yadav trying to give clean chit to Ayodhya rape accused Moeed Khan is case in point.
Unfortunately, in the case of West Bengal, the use of criminal and anti-social elements for political muscle flexing is being made by a woman head of state. Who is to say that what happened with Abhaya was not a consequence of the institutionalised violence that Bengal has witnessed for decades? Political goons used in poll violence, giving position of power to anti-social elements for appeasement politics to the extent that cases like Sandeshkhali are allowed to happen right under the nose of Mamata Banerjee. And when the system and procedures are breached and violated like in Abhaya’s case, what else does it mean if not that criminal elements are being protected and by extension encouraged by the state machinery?
Just like the Chistis have reigned Ajmer freely for 32 years, just like SP’s top most goons have evaded justice for decades giving UP a bad name, the cadre that has been built under Didi’s reign in Bengal ready to kill at the snap of her fingers especially around elections shows how Bengal has been plunged into a perpetual state of violence.
And as long as crime and criminals continue to get a free and, moreover, thrive with political representatives at the helm of affairs, radical non-state actors will be institutionalised seeping into every social infrastructure till the concept of a state ceases to exist on ground and remains only in theory. The cost of such a politics will be paid by the common man as always, the innocents who will face the brunt of it all.