‘They have come with bombs as well; BJP wale, the MLA and district president’ – Etawah SP’s panicked call during a confrontation with a mob during Block Pramukh elections in Uttar Pradesh, on July 10, went viral on social media. The video of an IAS officer beating up a reporter who was trying to do his duty was widely circulated too. One wonders what training is being imparted to the young officers that they develop such a callous attitude and start behaving as if they are in a WWE ring, not the IAS! Be it the use of government vehicles to ferry voters for the BJP or the manhandling of a woman in the Block Pramukh elections in Lakhimpur Kheri, the state machinery in UP appeared to have been complicit – often overtly – in all-out rigging to ensure a win for the BJP in the recent Zila Panchayat (ZP) President Polls and the Block Pramukh elections.