Let me begin with a disclaimer: I belong to no political party nor do I enjoy any kind of proximity to any political party. So whatever observations that I am making here are entirely my own and not influenced by any political affiliation of any kind. It needs no Albert Einstein to conclude that BJP will be wiped out in West UP and UP in the upcoming General Elections in 2019!
Take it from me in writing that BJP will be wiped out not just in West UP but in whole of UP in the coming elections. Even all over the country the election prospects of BJP stands on a very weak wicket! BJP has always projected itself as a “party with a difference” and one who never indulges in “appeasement of any kind of anyone”!
But what is the ground reality? BJP has been indulging in the worst kind of appeasement not of Muslims but of terrorists, traitors and Pakistan by declaring unilateral ceasefire with them in the name of Ramzan! Which nationalist Indian will ever tolerate or accept this? We saw earlier Vajpayee who is our former PM indulging in it by unilaterally declaring ceasefire in 2000 but had to call it off in November 2000 six months after terrorist violence increased. Vajpayee was ultimately voted out of power!
Ever since Modi has declared Ramzan ceasefire, we have seen how Pakistan has increased firing in border areas forcing more than lakh people to leave their home and migrate to other places! Not just this, our soldiers are daily facing bullets and they cannot undertake any operations against terrorists as Centre has declared ceasefire! Which nationalist Indian will ever still vote for BJP and approve such an act of treachery of our brave soldiers who are repeatedly being killed by those against whom Centre has tied the hands of our soldiers by halting all operations and giving them time to have free lunch?
Which nationalist will vote for BJP who with active collaboration of PDP in Kashmir has allowed cases to be withdrawn against more than 10,000 stone pelters who have now gone berserk which has resulted in killing of many innocent people and tourists? Which nationalist will tolerate Kashmir police registering cases against soldiers for defending themselves while not taking any action against stone pelters who without any provocation start attacking soldiers and damage not just vehicles but also their uniform and beat them and still Centre allows criminal cases to be withdrawn against them freely as we saw just recently and allows cases to be lodged against soldiers?
As if this is not enough, Centre has by its acts has made it clear that it is a copycat of Congress in several ways. As for instance, it has not imposed monogamy on religion other than Hindus. It was Nehru who commendably imposed monogamy on Hindus only. But no other PM till now including BJP has imposed monogamy on people of other religions.
It was Nehru who created a bench in Lucknow just 200 km away from Allahabad way back in 1948 but BJP has only behaved as a blind follower of Congress and in its four year term at Centre BJP has not allowed a single bench to be set up in any corner of UP! Yogi Adityanath as MP in 1998 had demanded high court bench for Gorakhpur but after becoming Chief Minister in March 2017 till now in June 2018 he has taken no step of any kind to create a high court bench in Gorakhpur or in any other place in any part of UP! Lucknow has just 12 districts under its jurisdiction and West UP has 26 districts. The area of Lucknow bench is just 62,000 square km but area of West UP is 98,933 square km.
No wonder that BJP lost in Gorakhpur and Phulpur! Just setting up AIIMS at Gorakhpur could not ensure BJP’s victory. It has to be accompanied by setting up of more high court benches as the 230th report of Law Commission of India had recommended in 2009! But BJP is just not prepared to accept this unpalatable truth at any cost and under any circumstances!
Most recently we saw how BJP again lost miserably in Noorpur and Kairana seats in West UP. This despite the fact that nearly all top BJP leaders including UP CM Yogi Adityanath himself campaigned for BJP in West UP. But lawyers of West UP of 22 districts assembled with President and General Secretary of different Bar Associations leading them and showed black flags and shouted slogans against BJP for not setting up high court bench in West UP and gave the slogan of “No bench, no vote”! This set the script for BJP’s defeat apart from all opposition parties coming together which too played a role! But again BJP is not ready to accept it!
But what is most shocking is that still BJP is not prepared to learn any lessons from it. We all saw how PM Narendra Modi too made grand announcements for West UP by opening 14 lane highway connecting Delhi and Meerut in West UP by which distance between the two cities and other places would be covered in much less time in which more than lakhs and crores of rupees have been spent and pompously being accorded a grand welcome by people in Baghpat in West UP and in Delhi highway while he was there as Chief Guest! But did the huge crowd turn into votes? No, because the BJP does not favour setting up of even one bench in West UP by which the litigants from West UP would be saved from travelling more than 700-800 km on an average all the way to Allahabad many times without reservation whole night and spend huge money in hiring lawyer, staying expenses and other expenses which could have been avoided if West UP had a bench as Justice Jaswant Singh Commission headed by former Supreme Court Judge Jaswant Singh had categorically recommended way back in late 1970s even though on its recommendations benches were created for Aurangabad in Maharashtra which already had benches at Nagpur and Panaji, Jalpaiguri in West Bengal which already had a bench at Port Blair for just about 3 lakh people and at Madurai in Tamil Nadu!
Still see what BJP did! It ensured one more bench for Maharashtra at Kolhapur for just 6 districts while not approving a single bench for 26 districts in West UP who even went on strike to protest this worst kind of discrimination! BJP followed Congress who in 2012 created 2 more benches for Karnataka for just 4 and 8 districts at Dharwad and Gulbarga but not a single bench for West UP or any other part of UP! This despite the fact that it is UP which owes for maximum pending cases which is more than 10 states put together and which is among the largest states, has maximum population more than 22 crore as CM Yogi keeps declaring time and again, maximum MPs, maximum MLAs, maximum villages more than one lakh, maximum cities more than 700 and maximum crime to the extent that former UN Secretary General Ban ki moon had slammed it as “rape and crime capital of India”!
Here again it is West UP which owes for more than half of the total pending cases of UP but still has no bench of high court even after more than 70 years of independence as Centre led by PM Narendra Modi had assured the lawyers in Allahabad that no bench would be created without their consent! So we see no change in status quo even though BJP eminent leaders like Union Minister Rajnath Singh, Gen VK Singh , Satyapal Singh, Mahesh Sharma and others had repeatedly assured that if BJP government is formed in UP and Centre, a bench in high court would be created in West UP soon! But till now we see no concrete action being taken and only ludicrous excuses are being offered on the table like Supreme Court will decide on it!
As per the Section 51 of the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, the Centre can create a high court bench in any of these 3 states – UP, Bihar and J&K directly by bringing it up in Parliament. Centre does not need any recommendation from State Government or the Chief Justice as has been very wrongly propagated for many decades! What a national disgrace that these very 3 states – Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar keep on grabbing the national news headlines for all the wrong reasons as crime incidents keep multiplying very rapidly and what is worst is Centre’s stupid and crazy determination to not allow a single more bench in all these 3 states!
How can the people of West UP in particular still vote for BJP? No wonder, they have lost the elections in both the seats in West UP! Still they are not appearing serious!
It is only when they are wiped out in West UP and a major part of UP that the party leadership will then wake up from its deep slumber, do some introspection and do some damage control on it! But the damage done would by then become irreversible for which the BJP top brass including the PM Narendra Modi and BJP national President Amit Shah would be squarely responsible! They can’t run away from it!
When Allahabad high court is biggest court in not just India but in whole of Asia and also one of the oldest who completed 150 years in 2016 still why it has just one bench and that too so close to Allahabad? Why the high court and benches of 8 states and even Lahore high court in Pakistan is nearer to West UP as compared to Allahabad and yet why no bench is being created here? BJP is taking West UP and UP for granted as it won a landslide victory in 2017 in UP for which it won accolades even from the US President Donald Trump!
Truth be told, this has led BJP to complacency and inept handling of burning issues! This in turn has ensured repeated defeats for BJP in the by elections! Yet it is just not prepared to learn any appropriate lesson from it nor is it taking any steps to control the damage done!
It will certainly pay heavily for this for which it cannot blame anyone else but its ownself as it failed to fulfill the tall promises like creating a high court bench in West UP which it promised if voted to power in Centre and in UP! Even God cannot ensure BJP’s victory at least in West UP if a high court bench is not created soon in any of the 26 districts of West UP! I bet it that BJP will hundred percent be wiped out in the upcoming elections in 2019 if it fails even now to take any substantial steps soon like creating more benches in UP and in particular for West UP!
Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate,
s/o Col BPS Sirohi,
A 82, Defence Enclave,
Sardhana Road, Kankerkhera,
Meerut – 250001, Uttar Pradesh.
