New UP,new CM

Akhilesh Yadav delivered his party the seats,it should now give him the keys to the govt

As the Samajwadi Party decides on its chief minister,there are many reasons to choose Akhilesh Yadav. On the rath and on the bicycle,he led the SP’s long and arduous campaign for the state. Two,in a party with major legacy issues,Akhilesh is the only leader with a clean slate. In its last tenure in government,the SP deservedly earned itself a bad name for “goonda raj”,or the virtual outsourcing of the thana to SP goons. UP was rife with stories of cadres of the ruling party wantonly unleashing brute force,and of the administration colluding in their misdemeanour or just standing by. Those memories haven’t faded in UP and the SP must be warned that incidents like the post-victory rampage by party workers are likely to resurrect them. Yet,one of the main reasons why UP’s aam admi,alienated from the Mayawati regime,suspended disbelief to give the SP another chance was this: Akhilesh lends a certain credibility to his party’s acknowledgment that it erred on the law-and-order front and to its promise that those mistakes would not be repeated. He has pledged not just a softer,but also a more modern version of the SP. He has been responsible for talking down its anti-English,anti-computer message,be it with the “let them have laptops” poll promise,or his insistence that the SP was not against English,only committed to the spread of Hindi and Urdu.

Of course,it is possible to overestimate the importance of Akhilesh Yadav. The SP may yet go back on his word. It could also be that the party is irreversibly in transition,irrespective of Akhilesh. The focus on him may be projecting agency on someone who is only taking the cue from a larger change that is afoot in UP,requiring its political parties to talk to the voter in a more forward-looking language. Having said that,however,it must also be acknowledged that whether by design or by accident,it is Akhilesh,and not Mulayam Singh Yadav,who is seen as the face of a changing SP. In popular perception,therefore,it is Akhilesh who will be held accountable should the project be reversed or aborted midway.

It is only in India that a politician can be seen to be only 38. Given the way Akhilesh led his party’s campaign,it would be a travesty if he had to bide his time because his father’s friends refuse to make space for him. That would be against the mandate the voter has given to the Samajwadi Party.