UP's 'Operation Langda': Maiming justice for political ends

Politically, extra-judicial killings have always invariably garnered public admiration all across the country.

“Tough on crime” seems to be the image which the Yogi Adityanath government wants to go with for the Uttar Pradesh (UP) state assembly elections. There has been yet another spate of police shooting alleged criminals--invariably between the ankle and the knee, rendering them crippled for life. In the first twelve days of August, according to the Indian Express, four wanted criminals have been shot in the leg under the so-called “Operation Langda (cripple)”. The police claimed to have fired in self-defence.

Extra-judicial killings by the UP police under Adityanath are popularly seen as part of a “Thok do (Kill them)” policy, so named after a statement made by the Chief Minister on TV. Since 2017 when the Adityanath government came to power, 3,302 criminals have been shot and injured in 8,472 police encounters, leaving 146 dead.

The unusual number of police encounters led the National Human Rights Commission to investigate 17 deaths, with the Supreme Court also taking note. It was following this unwelcome attention that the UP Police changed strategy to what they now call “half-encounters”, or crippling the criminals but sparing their lives. This has allowed them to continue buffing the tough-on-crime image of their political bosses, while remaining under the legal radar. Criminals and their families are also reluctant to approach the courts because their lives were spared. So while public scrutiny led to a decline in numbers of “full-encounters” “half-encounters” have increased.

In January 2019, the 'Hindustan Times' reported that 29 alleged criminals had been shot inside four months in Kanpur. Photographic evidence shows that they were shot at almost identical spots between their ankles and knees. The report quoted an anonymous police officer recounting events in one case,  where the alleged criminal was taken to a designated spot with “crime scene, do not cross” tapes were already put up, and then shot in the leg. The report noted that Gautam Buddh Nagar district topped the state with 120 “half-encounters”, while the figures for Meerut were 79, and Ghaziabad, Allahabad, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Agra collectively accounted for 66. In terms of police zones, the highest number of cases –255 – were in the Meerut Zone. In the two years since, the tally is likely to have increased.

Yet there has been no public outcry, except for civil society activists of the Rihai Manch in UP. Perhaps the Yogi government is counting on the tacit public acceptance for extra-legal actions by the police. 

Politically, extra-judicial killings have always invariably garnered public admiration. Recall the infamous Bhagalpur blinding case of 1980, where 33 alleged criminals had their eyes pierced by a metal spoke and sulphuric acid poured into them by the police. From beggars to bureaucrats, almost everyone reportedly applauded. The then Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra, defended the police by citing public support for their actions. Later, a police inquiry found that most of the victims did not even have charges framed against them until after they had been blinded.

Crime, however, continued to escalate in Bhagalpur for which the Chief Minister Mishra blamed the judiciary for giving easy bail. The state administration urged the residents of Bhagalpur to combat crime through Citizens Resistance Committees and issued arms licences to them. This gave a free hand to vigilantism with “encounters” at the hands of the public.

Adityanath knows only too well that where the legal system is perceived to be inefficient, or subject to manipulation and corruption, the public no longer looks for due process or punishment proportionate to the crime. Instead, it supports swift retribution. This is true of other parts of India also – recall how the cold-blooded killing of a rape-accused by the police in Hyderabad was celebrated by the local public.

In June 2017, barely two months after assuming office as chief minister, Adityanath proclaimed a readiness to short-circuit the due process of law on India TV’s Aap ki Adalat, “Agar apradh karenge to thok diye jayenge (If they commit crimes, they will be eliminated)”.  “Encounters” and “half-encounters” by the police and the spate of civilian lynchings by Hindutva vigilantes can be seen as examples of the same impatience with the legal process.

Extrajudicial violence--both by the police and vigilantes in UP--aims at establishing ideological and social control. They consolidate the patterns of caste and religious dominance preferred by the ruling dispensation. Statistics released by the UP government in August 2020 show that of the 124 dead in 6,476 police encounters till then, 47 were Muslims, 58 were from backward castes, SC/STs, Vaishyas and Thakurs, 8 Yadavs and 11 Brahmins. Muslims accounted for the highest number of casualties, quite disproportionate to their 18 per cent share in the state’s population. Muslims, OBCs and Dalits, account for a majority of those killed in the encounters.

Clearly, a key requirement of the hysteria around Hindutva nationalism is the demonization and criminalisation of entire castes and communities by the law and order agencies of the state. Whether it is through encounters or “half-encounters”, they are stigmatised to preserve and promote a communal and caste based Hindutva social order.

When the voters of India’s most populous state go to the polls next February-March, Adityanath and his party would expect them to re-affirm their faith in this hierarchy. If he is able to present this ideological agenda as a policy of  “being tough on crime”, he will be able to showcase the way state machinery has been used on his watch for “Thok do”, “Half encounters” and “Operation Langda”.