By Sushil Kutty
India has the most number of gangsters-turned-politicians and one of them is Atiq Ahmed of Prayagraj, who is petrified he will go the way of Vikas Dubey, another gangster of the same neck of the woods, who was killed after the police jeep bringing him to Uttar Pradesh from Madhya Pradesh overturned en route and Dubey was shot dead by the cops “while he was attempting to escape”.
“It could happen to me,” Atiq Ahmed has told the Supreme Court, seeking protection from the Yogi Adityanath government, chiefly from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself; who, believe it or not, is shaping up to be the most dreaded Chief Minister of independent India.
Gangsters of the most odious type, however, brutally inclined in theory or practice they were or must be, literally lose their appetites when the monk-turned-politician from Gorakhpur is in a killing mood. Like he is these days, for example, courtesy the Atiq Ahmed Gang.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is mad that his state is back to being counted among the lawless, again. And this, soon after he successfully convinced scores of national and international business leaders that Uttar Pradesh under his watch was peaceful with a capital ‘P’, and a fit place to invest and prosper with a capital ‘P’.
And what does mafia don-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed do? Atiq’s gang organizes a gangland-style killing of the prime witness in a murder case featuring Atiq Ahmed, no less. And two UP cops, assigned to guard the prized eyewitness, are also killed in the attack on the eyewitness.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath could have swallowed an entire magazine of bullets. That was how pissed off he was. So, he ordered his police to avenge the deaths of the two cops, and avenged with no mercy. Yogi Adityanath is, perhaps, the first Chief Minister in India to stand up in a state legislative assembly and shout vengeance.
His precise words: “I will ground this mafia to dust.” Said in Hindi, “Mitti Mei Mila Denge’, the impact is like 10 tonnes of rocks dropped from atop a 100-feet high cliff. Besides, when cops avenge their own, it’s an altogether different level of retribution. Everything then is fair and square, except shooting yourselves in the feet!
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is angry. Very, very angry. Boiling mad. Six straight years the Yogi has been ruling Uttar Pradesh and yet there’s a law and order chaos. There was not a dent on the ‘Mafia’ rule made, and here was he, all-powerful Chief Minister, who thought it was Yogi Rule!
Even Union Home Minister Amit Shah thought Uttar Pradesh was under an iron fist, the iron fist of the steely ‘Yogi the Monk’! As also the all-powerful, and all-seeing Prime Minister, who also missed it that the Yogi perhaps wasn’t actually totally in control; that Uttar Pradesh still had a law & order issue.
And, now, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath very much a frustrated and angry Chief Minister, there’s even more concern; not least because of the sight of bulldozers trundling from gangster home to gangster home, steel claws unsheathed like fangs!
They call Yogi Adityanath ‘Bulldozer Baba’ and he carries the title as easily as a badge of honour. Truth be told, however, the majority of UP’s population loves this ‘Bahubali Yogi’ that they have for a Chief Minister. To them, a bulldozer bringing down a gangster’s two-storey home is two-litres of adrenaline coursing through their arteries!
And now Atiq Ahmed is shivering in his salwar-suit, scared his jeep too will overturn just like Dubey’s in 2020. Atiq can think of only his life. Atiq’s wife ShaistaParveen, however, cannot forget that the cops are gunning for the entire Khan klan. Two of her five sons are in jail; one is on the run, and two “minor” sons have “vanished”!
Shaista herself is being “hunted” and her party, Mayawati’s BSP, has no clue as to her whereabouts. Mayawati says action will be taken against ShaistaParveen if she is found to be part of her husband’s gang. The long and short is, the Atiq Ahmed mafia family now only has the Supreme Court to turn to and what finally the learned judges decide, is to be seen. (IPA Service)
