Hats off to whoever coined BIMARU. These are indeed “BIMAR” (diseased) states. I guess we’ll do well to simply trash these states, leave them to their own. They’ll blow each other up till nothing is left, and then the good guys can move in and start afresh.

The political class in Uttar Pradesh may see nothing wrong in gun-toting students running riot in university campuses. Neither would they cry foul if elections to student bodies are rigged. In fact, politicians have their uses for student leaders who continue to hang in and play politics years after they have completed their courses … in Lucknow, and across Uttar Pradesh, there is a new anti-establishment symbol called Ram Prakash Singh. The vice-chancellor of Lucknow university has been making news for taking on student leaders and their political masters by insisting that he will only conduct campus elections according to the guidelines laid down by the J.M. Lyngdoh committee and approved by the Supreme Court. The new election norms bar students with criminal cases from contesting, fixes maximum age of candidates, 75% per cent attendance and a ceiling on money spent on campaigns. Such restrictions angered student leaders who have been crying foul. So have politicians led by Mulayam Singh Yadav who has called Ram Prakash a “dictator” working at the behest of UP governor T.V. Rajeshwar. [..]

The state of politics in UP has fallen to such depths that leaders cutting across the political spectrum have united to tacitly support the student leaders. In fact, no one came out in defence of the V-C while he was being demonised in the state assembly as a criminal and dictator. Says Ram Prakash: “All this is a glaring reflection of the grim reality that criminalisation of politics is complete in UP. Political leaders of all hues can’t see beyond votebank politics and are looking to garner the support of criminals in the garb of students to help them in poll malpractices like booth capturing.” [..]

What irked the court most was director general of police Bua Singh’s claim that the atmosphere on the campus was “peaceful”. The judge had this to say to the DGP in open court: “It is really surprising that you can’t see what is happening on the campus when the whole world can.

The secular Chief Minister’s response to this?

Just imagine, people call you goondas just because you do a little bit of jumping around. I do not see anything wrong with that.

Apparently, Amitabh and co don’t find anything wrong supporting these guys…