By Sharanya Gopinathan
Remember the video of a UP policewoman named Shrestha Thakur standing down a group of rowdy BJP party workers in Bulandshahr? She had told them that until they brought a letter from the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath saying police had no authority to check vehicles, she would continue to do her duty. The widely-shared video ends with the party workers walking away in defeat.
As I suppose is actually completely unsurprising, those BJP workers took this as a huge insult to their pride, and did in fact approach Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to discuss the incident. An actual delegation of the party’s 11 MLAs and MPs met to tell the CM that it was “an issue of pride for them” and that the policewoman needed to be “taught a lesson”. And Yogi Adityanath accepted this rhetoric and their demands, and transferred her from Bulandshahr to Bahraich near the Nepal border.
Shrestha Thakur, of course, had the best response to it all: she took to Facebook to announce that she’d been transferred, and that she was still happy (meaning they couldn’t get her down).
Isn’t it great how things work here?
Mind, this grave affront was seen worthy to be taken to the Chief Minister by a group of 11 MLAs and MPs, in the first place, which is a pretty good indication of where their priorities lie, and a woman official doing her job and standing up to a group of men was seen fit by the Chief Minister to be punished for literally nothing but hurting the pride of rowdy party workers. City BJP party president Mukesh Bhardwaj actually admitted that Thakur’s transfer was to keep the pride of party workers and leaders intact. Can you spell fragile masculinity?
Bhardwaj also alleged that the cop used objectionable language against the Chief Minister, which is not illegal, but is also not true: in the video, you can see Thakur actually show a measure of faith in the Chief Minister when she dares them to get a letter from him saying police in the state have no authority, and said that the BJP would be ashamed of their behaviour, all of which sounds quite respectful and as though she had much more faith in the Chief Minister and the BJP than they deserved.