Yogi Adityanath New Year gift- withdrawal of criminal cases against himself

In an unprecedented move that has shocked political experts, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath ordered the withdrawal of a case in which he and the Minister of State for Finance at the Centre, Shiv Pratap Shukla and BJP Member of Legislative Assembly Sheetal Pandey were all accused of violating prohibitory orders in Pipiganj, Gorakpur in 1995.

“When an alleged criminal is made CM- Conflict of interest?

This has been the trend since the massive victory of BJP in UP. However none expected the party to make Yogi its Chief Minister- known for highly controversial and rabid statements against the minority community, provoking riots in many places, including the 2007 Gorakhpur riots.

In May, the UP government refused sanction for the prosecution of Aditynanath and others named in a FIR for allegedly inciting communal violence in Gorakhpur in 2007. The UP Assembly has also passed a law that withdrew more than 20,000 cases against politicians, of violating prohibitory orders, pending for decades now.

Yogi Adityanath by ordering the withdrawal of his own case has created a narrative of majoritarian amnesty in the state in which the rulers can get away with “attempted murder, criminal intimidation, rioting, promoting enmity between different groups and defiling places of worship”- the counts on which the Yogi was charged in the Gorakhpur case.