Yogi Adityanath’s 1st year of bouquets & brickbats

Lucknow: As he completes one year in office on Monday, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath gets bouquets and brickbats in equal measure.

The chief minister who assumed office with a whopping majority last year has, perhaps, realised how the best of intentions can go awry if the state machinery does not cooperate.

The first blot on the Yogi Adityanath government was the death of children in BRD hospital in Gorakhpur, allegedly due to shortage of oxygen. The incident was badly handled by the government that came up with ridiculously contradictory statements and tarnished the image of the government.

The biggest challenge that Yogi Adityanath faced when he came to power was the law and order situation.

He set up anti-Romeo squads to deal with crime against women and effected changes in the police administration to improve the situation.

However, the anti-Romeo squads made news for the excesses they committed on young couples and the crime situation did not improve.

The chief minister gave a free hand to the cop which led to the gunning down of 44 criminals in 1322 encounters—a fact that made the National Human Rights Commission serve notice on the state government.

The caste clashes in Saharanpur last year and the communal riots in Kasganj this year proved the inefficiency of the police to handle delicate situations.

A classic case of the bureaucracy misleading the chief minister was the PETN explosive acre in the UP assembly last year that later turned out to be a hoax.

The chief minister’s decision to ban illegal slaughter houses and make registration of Madarasas mandatory were given communal overtones and his push to religious tourism was seen as furthering his Hindutva agenda.