Uttar Pradesh-Campaign of Bloodletting

ON November 24, a week after the massacre of 24 persons in Deoli village in Mainpuri disiriet, conducted in a leisurely manner by a group of persons who apparently spent the night in the village after the massacre, feasting and drinking, the UP Chief Minister announced that if the slate police failed to nab (he suspects in the massucie and if the 'Listed gangs' were not liquidated within a month from that day, he would resign as Chief Minister. It was a reasonable, even a courageous, promise; the members of the maraudering gang were identified by the survivors of the massacre, and the leaders of the gang were even known to the police. And the broad details of the intra-village feud, with caste, class and other ramifications, were widely reported within days of (he incident. The least the Chief Minister could do was to stake his political future on bringing the murderers to book.