Amit Shah Lauds Yogi for UP's Law & Order: Makes 2 False, 2 True Claims

While addressing events in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow and Mirzapur on August 1, 2021, Union Home Minister Amit Shah made two false and two true claims.

During his visit to UP, Shah laid the foundation stone for Uttar Pradesh Institute of Forensic Sciences in Lucknow and the Vindhya Corridor at Mirzapur. He mainly credited the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government on how it claimed "top spot" in terms of law and order.

FactChecker verified Shah's claims with official data. Here's what we found:

Claim 1: "In four years, the Yogi government has worked to make Uttar Pradesh riot-free, free from land mafia and provide security to the mothers and sisters of Uttar Pradesh."

Fact: This claim is false. Uttar Pradesh recorded 5,714 cases of riots in 2019 alone, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau. In 2018, the state saw 8,908 cases and ranked second in the country with 8,990 cases in 2017. In 2016, the number of cases stood at 8,018.

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Similar claims have been made in the past as well. FactChecker had verified UP CM Yogi Adityanath's such claim on March 20, 2021, when he has said no riots had occurred since he took charge as CM in 2017.

Claim 2: "In the last four years, there has been a huge reduction in incidents like robbery, dacoity, murder in the state."

Fact: This claim is true. As per NCRB's data, UP saw a steady decline in robbery, dacoity and murder cases between 2017 and 2019. In 2017, UP recorded 4,089 cases of robbery which then dropped to 3,218 in 2018 and 2,241 in 2019.

Similarly, cases related to dacoity nearly halved in the state — from reporting 263 cases in 2017 to 144 in 2018 and 124 in 2019. Cases related to murder also decreased from 4,324 in 2017, to 4,018 in 2018 and further dropping to 3,806 in 2019.

But when it comes to cases registered under crimes against women, UP ranked the highest at 59,445 in 2018 and 59,853 in 2019. Moreover, UP is the third-highest in terms of pending cases of crimes against women (1.84 lakh), according to a February 2, 2021 Lok Sabha response. At 2.57 lakh such pending cases, West Bengal tops the list, followed by Maharashtra at 2.07 lakh.

Claim 3: "Earlier governments had left 10 medical colleges but Yogi ji has arranged 40 medical colleges in 4 years. The development shown by Yogi ji in 4 years, SP-BSP did not even do half of it in their 15 years of government."

Fact: This claim is false. Three official documents prove the claim to be incorrect. The first official document filed under the Reference Division of Parliamentary Library on the 'Status of Medical Education in India', shows that Uttar Pradesh had 45 medical colleges for the academic year 2016-17. Of these, 16 were government colleges and 29 private.

The second document is a response given by the then Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Faggan Singh Kulastein in Lok Sabha on July 22, 2016. The list shows that UP already had 38 colleges then. Likewise, as per records of UP's Directorate of Medical Education and Training, the state had 41 government medical colleges and 24 private medical colleges till 2017.

On July 15, 2021, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated nine medical colleges in UP. In a response in Lok Sabha in February, 2021, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey said UP has 57 medical colleges (9 government and 3 private) and that only 12 of them were established between 2018 and 2020. This means that 21 colleges have been launched during the Yogi's regime. FactChecker had verified a similar claim made by PM Modi on July 19,2021.

Claim 4: "Maximum tests and vaccinations have been done in Uttar Pradesh."

Fact: This is true. Uttar Pradesh has conducted more than 6 crore tests making it the state with the greatest number of tests conducted, according to data from COVID19INDIA, an initiative that collates data from bulletins from state governments and official government handles to update COVID-19 figures.

It is followed by Maharashtra (4.8 crore tests), Karnataka (3.8 crore) and Tamil Nadu (3.7 crore). Similarly, when it comes to vaccinations, UP has administered the most number of doses in the country (4.8 crore) as of August 2, 2021, according to data from Co-WIN. Maharashtra is right behind UP and has administered more than 4.4 crore vaccine doses.

FactChecker emailed the Home Minister's office and also tried contacting his personal secretary Saket Kumar for clarification, but had not received a response by the time of publishing this article. The story will be updated as and when we get a response.