India, July 8 -- Uttar Pradesh has always had the dubious distinction of being the badlands of the country, with politically connected criminals having a run of the place and the line between the lawmaker and lawbreaker almost blurring due to the collusion between the two. This political patronage of rowdies and thugs, ostensibly to help consolidate a party's position by way of coercion, show of strength and to expediently deepen social and caste schisms for remunerative vote banks has been on for decades. So much so that underworld dons themselves, over time, became elected representatives of the people. In such a scenario, the police as a tool of the executive, that has anyway been compromised, has played along rather than risking the l...