The barometer to measure the law and order in any state is the sense of safety and security that women, who constitute half the population, feel while stepping out of their homes. It is often said that if a woman can walk out in the thick of the night wearing jewellery and go unharmed, would reflect the law and order scenario in that city or state.

Saying this, former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, Brijlal has said that by all set standards, the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh has not only improved but is also one of the best compared to any other state in the country. The Rajya Sabha MP also made light of the accusations hurled by the Samajwadi Party (SP) on the Yogi Adityanath government, pointing out how the crime was shooting through the roof and law and order was in shambles in their regime.

The infamous Lucknow guesthouse incident which hogged media glare for years and sent shockwaves in the political establishment, cutting across party lines, the former top cop said, is a living testimony of the SP misrule of the past.

In Bulandshahr, he further pointed out, about a dozen people had harassed the mother and daughter by dragging them from the road. Far from the punishment, not a single accused was arrested, he said and added on how while the world was shaming the UP government of the Samajwadi Party (SP), its senior minister Mohd Azam Khan was shamelessly defending the indefensible. He called it a political conspiracy, Brijlal said while pointing out that this was the lowest ebb politics could have hit.

The former DGP said that in a similar incident in Badaun, the name of a close associate of a Samajwadi Party MP had cropped up and at that time there was not a single word from the ruling SP on the whole issue. The Aashiana rape case of Lucknow happened under the nose of the SP government in which the name of the nephew of a prominent SP MLC had come up.

The senior BJP leader went on to inform on how a senior SP minister, whose name had become synonymous with illegal mining and graft – Gayatri Prajapati, had in fact recently been convicted for rape and was serving sentence for it.

There is also a statement of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav who at a rally in Moradabad had poked fun of rape charges against some of his party men by saying: “boys are boys, mistakes happen”. These were just a tip of the SP iceberg, but enough to expose the SP’s hollow and cosmetic talk on women safety, the retired cop said further.

In light of this and many other misdemeanours of the SP leaders, it was both strange and funny that they were now tom-tomming themselves as champions of women safety and had the guts to question the record of the incumbent BJP government on law and order, he said further. The difference between the then SP government and the present BJP government is crystal clear – while the predecessor government sided with goons, mafias and anti-social elements, the Yogi Adityanath government has shocked the daylights out of criminals. Many of them were already dead and the others had either fled the state or surrendered and were now behind bars, the former DGP of the state underlined.

For Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the safety of girls and women has been paramount from the very first day of taking over the reins of power. The work done by the double engine government in this regard is proof of this, he said.

Anti Romeo Squad, Kanya Sumangala, Mission Shakti, Pink Booth, Pension to destitute women, increase in honorarium of Anganwadi workers, through self-help groups by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” scheme were glaring examples of this, Brijlal said.

Employment to lakhs of women, the establishment of women battalion in PAC, giving the beat to women police personnel in police stations for the first time are added proofs of this commitment to the women, he said further.