Will Subodh Kumar Singh Finally get Justice From Uttar Pradesh Government?

The Indian state has so far endorsed and nurtured the Gau Rakshaks, the Hindutva fascist terrorists who’ve been instrumental in perpetrating brutal violence and oppression on minority Muslims throughout India. Now when the same Gau Rakshak terrorists lynched one of their own man, Uttar Pradesh Police Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh in Bulandshahr, a shockwave passed through the veins of the very system that reared these venomous serpents at their backyard to use as a weapon in persecuting the Muslim community.

While despite their incredulity, one section of the state machinery became wary of the situation, the other took no shame in blatantly lying while sweeping this grotesque crime beneath the carpet to appear nonchalant. This sheer contradiction within the state machinery is visible due to a kerfuffle resulting out of the police inspector’s death resulting out of the belligerence shown by these very preservatives of the system towards the myriad incidents of cow terrorism so far. A Hindutva fascism-incensed state can’t do justice to the Muslim, Christian, Dalit or tribal victims of Hindutva terror, which is understood by many, however, the fact that it can’t even do justice to those who are their ‘own’- Hindu and policemen, couldn’t be digested by many.

Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, according to his family members and colleagues, wasn’t a Hindutva fanatic despite being a religious man. He happened to be the first investigation officer in the Muhammad Akhlaq’s lynching case in Dadri, which happened in September 2015 and shook the conscience of the whole country as it was the first infamous case of ‘beef lynchings’ in India. This lynching widened the fissure between the communities in Modi-fied India and opened the floodgate of beef lynchings and cow-related atrocities against Muslims, Christians, Dalits and tribal people throughout the country.

During the investigation into the lynching case, the proactive role played by Subodh Kumar Singh helped the police to nab the accused and he was also instrumental in sending the meat in Akhlaq’s freezer to a forensic laboratory before it could be tampered with. His labour paid off, at least for some time, as the laboratory report claimed it was mutton and not beef. Though even if the meat was beef, it couldn’t have legitimised the killing of a human being, however, as the meat was proved to be mutton, it punctured the Sanghi propaganda and showed how vitriol against a community can result into such ghastly crimes.

Observing Subodh Kumar Singh’s proactive approach in solving the case of Dadri beef lynching and his uncompromising attitude towards the Hindutva fascist terrorists, the Uttar Pradesh government, even under the so-called ‘secular’ Samajwadi Party, didn’t take much time to remove him from the case and transfer him elsewhere.

Subodh Kumar Singh was transferred from the Dadri beef lynching case in November 2015, and then onwards the state government simply diluted the police case against the accused from the Bisada village of Dadri where Muhammad Akhlaq used to live. Following the ascension of Hindutva rabble-rouser, rioter and hate monger Yogi Adityanath to the helm at Lucknow, it’s unlikely that the perpetrators of the crime will be punished by the state.

During his tenure as the investigating officer of the case, Subodh Kumar Singh played a crucial role in dispelling the mistrust that was built to divide the Hindus and the Muslims of the Bisada village. He even assured the Muslim people of all type of assistance and requested them to not flee the village. Under his protection, one of the Muslim families in the village could arrange for the wedding of their daughter amidst the prevailing tension.

It’s said that his uncompromising attitude, his diligence and his dodging of the Hindutva trap by sticking to the textbook of policing, made him a foe of those in power, those who use Hindutva fascism to seize, retain and consolidate power. The Gau Rakshak terrorists operate under the patronage of the police and thus, they never shoot at the police. When the pattern was broken in Bulandshahr, it clearly indicated that the picture has many sublayers than what appears to the naked eyes.

A video is in circulation, which shows few men, running towards and then standing beside the car from which Subodh Singh’s severely wounded body was hanging outside, upside down; one man asked others whether Subodh Kumar Singh was the ‘same officer’, without clarifying more. Then they ran away from the site. This video is raising the doubts about a foul play behind this murder.

There are allegations from many that the killing of Subodh Kumar Singh is a signal to the Uttar Pradesh Police and the state machinery that even their men aren’t immune from the wrath of the Gau Rakshaks or the Hindutva fascist terrorists, should they try to investigate crimes or take any action against these feral mobsters. The burly BJP ministers, MPs and MLAs are unapologetically behind these criminal nincompoops who are enjoying an aggrandizement under the combo rule of Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath, thus, the scope of any legitimate action by the state has shrunk considerably.

Probably the entire plot of the cow carcass been found in Mahav village of Bulandshahr was a ploy by the Bajrang Dal and the RSS to attack the police substation and thereby bring Subodh Kumar Singh into the scene, where he could be killed easily amidst the ruckus. However, the biggest question isn’t about how the conspiracy was hatched by the chief accused – Yogesh Raj of the Bajrang Dal, but the question is what will happen to the perpetrators of the crime now?

Can the police nab them and bring them to justice? Will justice be delivered to Subodh Kumar Singh and his family, whom the chief minister met, promised a huge compensation and implicitly asked to withdraw agitation against his murder? Can the policemen of the state, notorious for their fake encounters, show an iota of courage for their slain colleague and take on the Hindutva terrorists? Can they ‘find’ Yogesh Raj fleeing and then engage him and his Bajrang Dal co-accused in a real ‘encounter’ and call the media to film it as well?

Yogi Adityanath’s regime is infamous of providing immunity to hardcore Hindutva fascist terrorists and upper-caste thugs while killing arbitrarily innocents from Muslim, Dalit or OBC communities. Now that the chief minister has himself termed the case ‘an accident’ and not a crime of ‘mob lynching’, the chances are bleak that the state and its servile criminalised and bigot police force will take a single concrete step to deliver institutional justice to the kin of their own man.

Taking the accused to the court and having them punished for their deeds is a tedious and impossible job in a communally polarised Uttar Pradesh, where officials of the government don’t shy away from showing their political and ideological allegiance to the Sangh Parivar. The utmost Brahminical, feudal, patriarchal and bigot police force can’t shed its prejudices and execute its duty like it’s expected to. Moreover, there is no grief within the force over the killing of Subodh Kumar Singh, except few rough policemen who have repeatedly attacked the houses of the non-powerful accused in Mahav and carried out vandalism to vent out their anger and frustration.

Even if the likes of Yogesh Raj and others are arrested (most likely they will surrender as per the RSS’ modus operandi), the state will definitely book the culprits under different sections of the IPC, however, it will also take care that more emphasis is given on the case of a purported cow slaughter. Even during a meeting with the officials over the Bulandshahr issue, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath didn’t speak about the murder of Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, but only focused on the case of the cow slaughter, which isn’t proven but still can be used as a political weapon to whip up communal frenzy by the BJP and other RSS offshoots in the politically volatile western Uttar Pradesh.

The police force is primarily investigating the purported case of cow slaughter as reported by Yogesh Raj and other thugs of the Hindutva fascist camp, Subodh Kumar Singh’s murder case will remain in the back burner for the time being. While the Bajrang Dal goons named in the FIR, except few small fishes and an army man (shows how intrinsically the state and Hindutva are connected), are still on the run, the police arrested few Muslim men, including those who didn’t live there or weren’t present at Mahav on the day of the ruckus. The police even called two young boys of 11 and 12 years of age for questioning but didn’t bother to raid the houses of the RSS and VHP goons who are sheltering Yogesh Raj and his allies

Even those who will be charge-sheeted will have a majority of Dalits and OBC members rather than their instigators, the upper-caste feudal elements, who will eventually go scot-free. The killing of Sumit (21), who was present at the spot will also draw straws as the youth, who wasn’t part of any mob as per his family but a bystander is claimed by the BJP as their own men. There will be an inquiry into the death of Subodh Kumar Singh to connect Sumit with his murder, and then there is a probability that such a report will blame the slain youth for the death of the inspector and close the case by announcing the rest of the accused as innocent.

The Yogi Adityanath government is wary of the fact that the communally polarised Hindu society in western Uttar Pradesh has begun showing cracks, as a large number of poor people, especially the Jat farmers, are realising whose interests the BJP-led governments at centre and state level serve. They’re realising it through their bitter experience as sugarcane farmers aren’t getting their dues back, the rising price of diesel, withering of government subsidy on fertilisers, mounting burden of debts and a severe agrarian crisis that’s throwing the Jats and other agricultural communities into an abyss of utmost pauperisation.

Fearing the loss of this crucial vote bank, Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government has been trying to heighten the fierce communal polarisation drive through the liberal usage of emotive tugs like Ayodhya, cow slaughter, ‘love jihad’, etc. in western Uttar Pradesh. The Hindutva fascist terrorists are instructed to stir up as much as trouble possible, which will eventually lead to far more Bulandshahr type incidents in the near future.

It’s evident, Subodh Kumar Singh’s family may get compensation, which would be used to muffle their voice, but they will be denied justice. It’s not that the policemen don’t know about this inevitable outcome, however, due to their inclination towards Hindutva fascism, they won’t fight against the evil designs of the Yogi Adityanath’s regime or the Hindutva terrorist organisations. Their loyalty will help the Yogi Adityanath regime to allow more immunity to the Hindutva terrorists and its reign of terror on the poor, oppressed and marginal people will continue to thrive.

Expecting the utmost corrupt and communal police to rebel against the injustices of the Yogi Adityanath regime will be a sheer infantile fantasy. The police force, which subscribes to the same Brahminical, feudal and patriarchal thought process alike the Bajrang Dal or RSS men, can’t go against the very government that has legitimised their acts of violence and atrocities on Muslims, Dalits and OBC communities.

For the Uttar Pradesh Police, few more officers like Subodh Kumar Singh can be considered expendable and they may be sent before the RSS and Bajrang Dal terrorists whenever the opportunity knocks the door. In return, the police will get the assurance to carry on its reign of terror, extortion and crime unbridled.

To deliver justice to Subodh Kumar Singh, a large contingent of common people, who must see this murder as a threat to their own existence, come out on the streets to build up a democratic and secular resistance against Hindutva fascist criminal enterprise of Yogi Adityanath and Narendra Modi. Rallies, demonstrations and an uncompromising struggle for justice and liberty will definitely turn into a massive outrage against the government. Subodh Kumar Singh’s spectre will keep haunting the conscience of the Hindutva fanatic Yogi Adityanath and his cohorts as the demand for justice will become stronger and an awakened poor of the state will definitely lit the funeral pyre of Hindutva fascism soon.