However, Uttar Pradesh has now acquired another distinction,of a rather dubious nature—it is the state which has contributed the maximumnumber of historysheeters to the 11th Lok Sabha.
A peculiar combination of economic stagnation, feudal mindsetand rampant casteism has made the state a fertile breedingground for criminal-politicians. Points out B.K. Joshi, director, Giri Instituteof Research and Development, Lucknow: "The subversion of Uttar Pradeshpolitics was visible in the 1996 general elections when 400 of the candidates inthe fray had some kind of police record."
Police sources say 70 per cent ofthe members of the 180 to 200 mafia gangs active in the state are office-bearersof political parties. At the district level, these 'dadas' act as petty 'thekedaars'(contractors) and bulldoze officials into giving them contracts. They survivethrough political patronage, in return for which they provide money and muscleto political parties. Some, in need of a political 'jama'(cover) whichconfers respectability and provides immunity from the law, jump into the arena.To cite one example of the criminal-politician nexus: when the Lucknow citypolice raided the state guesthouse last week, they nabbed notorious gangsterswho put up in rooms booked in the names of politicians.
In the industrial beltof western Uttar Pradesh a Bombay-like extortionist mafia specialises inkidnapping for ransom and extracting 'hafta' from factory-owners. They alsohave a stranglehold on the transport unions and the 'bhattis' or brickkilns. Land and liquor mafias hold sway throughout the state.
Additional Director General of Police (Crime) K.L. Gupta identifies threemain factors which foster criminal elements: over-population,lack ofindustrialisation and consequent unemployment and illiteracy. Also, UttarPradesh's long and porous border with Nepal encourages arms and drugsmuggling. Nepal MP Mirza Dilshad Beg's smuggling operations have long beenthe despair of the Uttar Pradesh police. Likewise, many an absconding criminal—suchas Babloo Srivastava—has found a safe haven in Kathmandu.
Gupta is seconded by sociologists. SaysJoshi: "In recent years economic indicators in Uttar Pradesh have shown adisturbing trend. There has been no programme for socio-economic development. Interms of the human development index, it is at the bottom of the heap. Suchdecay fosters a grab-as-much-as-you-can attitude and the distinction betweenends and means no longer exists."
Seen against the backdrop of feudal attitudes the state isyet to outgrow, it appears as if the criminal class fills the vacuum left by theend of the zamindari system, he speculates. For a while, the state undertook toplay the role of 'mai-baap' or godfather. Now, local dadas have taken over.They have been helped by the increasing use of caste and communal appeal inpolitics. Social institutions have been corrupted as well, says Joshi. TheLucknow University Students' Union is a training ground for futurepoliticians, as exemplified by office-bearer Abhay Singh who was recently injail. The legal profession, police and bureaucracy are tainted too.
Misbehaviour by elected representatives is frequent. MLA DinaNath Bhaskar rode into the Lucknow secretariat building on his motorcycle,reportedly inebriated. Mirzapur MP Phoolan Devi allegedly commandeered a trainand threatened to burn the office of a weekly. Mulayam Singh and his cohorts, asdescribed in the Ramesh Chandra Committee report, attacked and abducted BSP MLAs.
Indeed, it was Mulayam Singh Yadav's blatant use of musclepower in politics that prompted D.P. Yadav to part company with him, the westernUttar Pradesh 'don' says, without a trace of irony. As things stand, anyfight against the criminalisation of politics should ideally begin in UttarPradesh.
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