The nation’s most-wanted fugitive, gangster Vikas Dubey, has finally been arrested – after he effortlessly travelled all the way from Kanpur to Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh via Faridabad in Haryana and Kota in Rajasthan; and in a car carrying the UP number plate. The murder of eight policemen in an ambush in a village near Kanpur was the last most heinous crime that he and his men committed a week ago, thereby creating a national outrage. Clearly, he has political patronage. The murder of eight policemen was a dare-devil act and he is bound to face the consequences if only influential politicians do not come to his help.
The incident again brings to the fore the kind of lawlessness prevailing in some states in this country even after 70 years of rule by ‘desi’ leaders. Another state notorious for criminal activities is Bihar. In both these states, gun-running is common in most districts, and almost everyone who is someone carries with him a gun, other than ministers of course. Ministers move around with their gunmen and so are several politicians and crooks who seek police protection if only to demonstrate their importance. Even the capital city of Chandigarh that caters to the states of Punjab and Haryana from what is a Union Territory has gun-wielding cops accompanying most politicos and even relatively insignificant people.
SP stalwart Mulayam Singh carried a gun with him for most part of his life until he got gunmen from the government. That has been part of the feudalistic culture in Uttar Pradesh for long. Successive governments have not been able to make a positive difference to this scenario. Outlaws are part of the politics in UP and Bihar. The scenario was worse under Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam as CMs in these states. Mayawati reined in the outlaws to a large extent when she ruled UP, and they re-surfaced after her exit. If there is a modicum of law and order in Bihar of late, that is thanks to Nitish Kumar, who as CM rounded up criminals on a large scale when he first headed the state government. In other words, he put all of Lalu’s outlaws behind the bars. Yet, overall, these states remain as best examples of lawlessness.
Bifurcation of erstwhile Bihar and Uttar Pradesh was envisaged to change things for the better with more administrative reach, but the Vikas Dubeys are still on the prowl. India cannot be called a civilized nation if no significant improvements are brought about to such situations across states and law and order is implemented in the breach.