Well might Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath vow to bring those responsible for the outrage in Hathras to book, his efforts may be stymied by some members of his own party who seem determined to impart a caste-driven and misogynist spin to the events that have rocked the country.

Keeping aside for the moment the grandstanding that Opposition politicians have indulged in, certain truths that have emerged in the aftermath of the gruesome rape-murder cause grave concern. While Mr. Adityanath was quick to announce that the case would be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, this has not evoked a positive response from the family of the victim.

They have demanded a judicial probe, not surprising given the recent abysmal performance of the CBI and its propensity to allow politically sensitive inquiries to be derailed

. Second, with members of the upper castes that make up the core of the BJP’s vote bank being the suspects in the Hathras matter, some members of the party have either rushed to their defence or sought to downplay the heinous crime.

Shockingly, a former BJP MLA, Rajveer Pahalwan, called a meeting of members of the upper caste over the weekend in Hathras in support of the accused. From all accounts, the meeting was wellattended; more important none of the overzealousness that the State displayed when blocking Opposition leaders and journalists was in evidence when 700-800 people gathered at Mr. Pahalwan’s house.

Certainly, there was no evidence that the ruling dispensation’s exaggerated concerns about social distancing had been communicated to the former MLA or his supporters. Already, a bizarre effort is being made by other party legislators in the state to somehow blame the victim for her rape and murder.

A BJP MLA, Surendra Singh, has suggested that incidents such as at Hathras can be avoided if parents teach their daughters “good values”. While it is difficult to imagine a more insensitive statement, the MLA appears to have got away without so much as an official reprimand from the party.

The bias inherent in UP’s ruling dispensation was evident from the results of the last Assembly election, when nearly half of those elected on BJP tickets were found to belong to the upper castes.

Overall, this assembly saw a huge jump in the numbers of upper caste winners, a 12 percentage-point increase over the previous election. While no political party can be blamed for picking candidates with the best chances of winning, pandering to a caste-based agenda will have the sort of consequences that are now visiting Mr. Adityanath’s administration.

For even if the Chief Minister is serious about cracking down on rape and murder, especially of lower caste women, it is unlikely that his efforts will win unstinting support from his fellow legislators who might be conditioned by the same prejudices that Mr. Pahalwan and Mr. Surendra Singh seem to have in feeling a misplaced sense of entitlement.