The running battle between Mayawati and Mulayam Singh for the political turf in UP is having a devastating fallout on the crime situation in the state. Concealment and minimisation of crime are the order of the day.The lady is apprehensive that deterioration on the law and order front could be made an excuse for imposing President's Rule in the state. She is therefore not taking any chances and sacks any officer in whose jurisdiction crime shows even a slight upward trend.Divisional meetings, where an overall review is done of the development and law and order situation in the region, have become a nightmare to the officers. It is true that the services have become corrupt, that they are inefficient and there is tremendous dissatisfaction with their performance. It is also true that today they perhaps need to be whipped to remind them of their accountability to the law and the people of the country. But one must winnow the chaff from the grain, separate the black from the white. Unfortunately, those at the helm in UP are either incapable of this differentiation or they have become so cynical that they are not bothered on whom the axe falls so long as the lady is happy that she is punishing someone ostensibly for a grave lapse. That she has picked up the wrong person for the right reasons, the sycophants around her do not have the courage to tell her.And so we have the tragic spectacle of some of the finest officers of the state being suspended and humiliated. They are becoming an endangered species. Abhay Shanker, an officer of impeccable integrity, who was SSP Etawah for only 54 days, was placed under suspension because crime figures had registered an increase during his tenure. It was preposterous, to say the least. Fortunately, he has since been reinstated, but the damage was done not only to Abhay Shanker but to the morale of all upright officers. Arun Kumar, a crusader against the mafia who was SSP Ghaziabad for only 69 days, was suspended ostensibly for violating the Conduct Rules, but in reality for not falling in line with the cast politics of the ruling coterie. The suspension of Alok Tandon, District Magistrate, Maharajganj, one of the cleanest officers of the state, was pulled up for not achieving the development targets. Fortunately, good sense prevailed and the formal order was not issued.It is truly slaughter of the innocents. The result of all this is that the few honest and conscientious officers in the state are also having sleepless nights, not sure that they would be defended in the performance of their lawful, legitimate functions. UP and Bihar are fast becoming andher nagari, where the distinction between right and wrong, between the corrupt and the honest are getting blurred.Any assessment based only on statistical figures is the most short-sighted method of arriving at any conclusion. Partly because statistics can always be manipulated. Partly also because it is natural for the crime figures to rise with the increase in population, greater urbanisation, widening disparities, the invasion of alien culture through the movies and television etc. It is a global phenomenon.The large majority of officers naturally want to safeguard their careers. Several Superintendents of Police have given instructions (oral, of course) that the crime figures must reflect a downward trend of five to ten per cent. A complainant today has consequently much lesser chance it was never very bright of his report being registered at the police station.The Centre which has an unenviable record of having dismissed state governments for inadequate reasons in the past is no less to blame. Ruling combinations in UP and Maharashtra can be faulted only up to a limit for adopting short cut, face-saving methods, confronted as they are with scheming opponents who would like to pull the rug from under their feet even if it meant bending the Constitution or flouting the norms of democracy. The common man is the real sufferer in the games the politicians are playing. Is there any hope for him?
