Three is company

A curious and indirect exchange of proposals took place between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati this weekend. First he suggested that the UP government take the initiative in creating a separate Purvanchal state. A day later she replied that the initiative should, constitutionally, come from the Centre, and that the exercise must be part of the trifurcation of UP. Mayawati has, to be fair, been advocating this ever since her BSP gained a majority in the state assembly last year. She says she has even written to the prime minister in this regard. Therefore, legalities aside on who sets in motion the process of division, both state and Centre are on the same page.

For the wide expanse of Uttar Pradesh, this is good. The state8217;s demographic weight means that it elects roughly one out of every seven members of the Lok Sabha. However, this electoral clout is not reflected in any way in its social and economic indicators. The very largeness of the state could be the reason. UP8217;s administration used to be the model for other states in the early years of independent India. But in the past couple of decades 8212; coinciding with the post-1991 reform years 8212; it just has not been able to pull in the craftiness to adapt to the changing political economy. At a time when states are in competition with each other to attract investment and undertake reform, UP harks back to an older time when Central handouts were seen to be enough to meet popular aspirations. A break-up may encourage sub-regional dynamism, and the more manageable economies of scale should enable administrative reform as well as accountability.

There is also a need for UP to connect politically with the rest of the country, and the two national parties must see it as their challenge. There was a time when the party that held the state pretty much asserted its candidature to rule India. Of late, with the rise of the BSP and the Samajwadi Party, not only have the Congress and the BJP been squeezed out, the two UP parties have not been able to strike the kind of beneficial coalition ties at the Centre that other regional parties have. The national parties understandably want to attain their earlier viability in the state. But ruling coalitions in New Delhi must consider the costs to UP from a consistently adversarial relationship with Lucknow. Perhaps trifurcation would also make cohabitation a little easier.