Recently, there was news about the death of a social media
scribe in Uttar Pradesh. The journalist Jagendra Singh was allegedly burned
alive by policemen. The family members of deceased scribe allege that he was
burned alive at the behest of an Uttar Pradesh minister. They further claimed
that the journalist earned ire from the Uttar Pradesh Government Minister Ram
Murti Verma for reporting on the illegal mining business run by him. A day
before the death, the scribe posted that he was being targeted for writing on
the business by the Uttar Pradesh Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Ram Murti
Verma.
Follow Up of Shahjahanpur Case
The journalist Jagendra Singh was burnt alive on June 1,
2015 at his house. Since then, the UP government has not taken any step to
arrest the culprits. In the dying declaration, the journalist mentioned about
the threat perception he had and the hands of Police officers at the behest of
the UP minister. However, the Akhilesh Yadav government sat over this matter
and did nothing. There was a huge public outcry against this incident. This
agitation against government was spearheaded by the private journalists who
work on field reports to generate news. After the public resentment and
movement against the alleged UP Minister Ram Murti Verma, the Governor of UP
had to intervene and ask the Chief Minister to take action against those responsible
for this heinous crime. Despite this, the government had only initiated against
the erring Police officers. No action has been taken on the UP Minister. Now,
the family members of the deceased journalist want the state government to
order a CBI enquiry into the incident.
Social Media Journalist Burnt Alive - Shahjahanpur Case
The social media journalist Jagendra Singh has been writing
on his Facebook account about various issues faced by his place of residence.
He has been residing in Shahjahanpur for a long time. Some time ago, he started
writing various problems faced by the people in his Facebook account. Due to
the reliability of reports posted, other news channels depended on his Facebook
account information to further develop the news. He wrote about many thing
related to his place of residence, including the local civic problems, heritage
sites, etc. Of late, Jogendra Singh came across the illegal mining business and
land grabbing activities orchestrated by the minister. This incidence angered
the UP Minister and the scribe was getting threat calls from unknown people. On
June 1, 2015, a group of policemen came in search of him at his house and burnt
him alive before the family members. Though he was taken to the hospital, he
could not be saved as there was more 80% burn injury on his body.
Caste Politics in UP
For many years, there have been incidences of violence along
communal lines. The most powerful community in many parts of UP is that of the Yadavs.
They try to dominate the society and crush the rebellion of Dalits. This has
been happening more when the Yadav community-dominated Samajvadi Party (SP) government
comes to power. When the party is in power, the Yadav community members grow bolder
and do whatever they wanted to do without fear of law. The incidents like rape,
illegal mining, land grabbing has been happening ever since SP came to power
about 4 years back. They try to annihilate each and everybody that comes in
their way. Shahjahanpur incident is just one such incident. We have to wait and
see how the government is going to proceed in this matter.
