Lighting UP

Uttar Pradesh is where the national political culture is constituted and most faithfully mirrored. Or at least, it has traditionally been said to be so. It was the site of Congress dominance, it hosted the first attacks on it, and eventually became the place of its disintegration. It has ritually been home to India’s prime ministers. But in recent times, UP-watchers have mapped a change in the special relationship the state has shared with India and the unique place it had in the national imagination. Accustomed to being the rule, Uttar Pradesh seems on its way to becoming the exception. It is surely symptomatic that even as other states discover a new explication for BSP — bijli, sadak, paani — in UP, the acronym still evokes only Behenji’s loyal brigade. UP, it seems, remains stuck in the old meanings and the old closures, an older politics and economics. UP is the place where politics revels in its fragmentation and its unchanging shortsightedness and politicians have to pay no penalties for it being so.

Which is why it is so heartwarming to hear stirrings of change in the Ulta Pulta pradesh. This paper put its ear to the ground and heard a welcome tumult in the power sector. Farmers are paying their dues, especially in the western belt. Through a judicious and innovative mix of carrot and stick, the Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd, Meerut, in particular, has recovered huge and unprecedented amounts in the last few months drawing praise from the World Bank. In almost all the rural belts of the state, they have registered visible improvement in bill collection as operations become more transparent. Farmers appear to be motivated to settle their arrears, avail themselves of one-time settlement schemes and look forward to an improved and regular supply.

Could this be the beginning of a change in the bigger picture? Will UP’s leaders seize the moment and help to liberate other sectors as well from the sloth and corruptions of the past? In his latest turn as chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav has promised a new agenda of development and reform. It’s going to be a tough and long road ahead and it will require an unswerving commitment but, as the power sector shows, the returns will make it all worthwhile.