Opinion Seeking a chief minister
There are too many power centres,very little governance,in Uttar Pradesh
The cliche too many cooks spoil the broth is nevertheless applicable to the power corridors of Lucknow,where de jure leader Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav,who has just completed one year in government,is remote controlled by Uttar Pradeshs de facto leaders,his father,Mulayam Singh Yadav,and uncles Ram Gopal Yadav,Shivpal Yadav and Azam Khan,who are all ministers (except Ram Gopal). Can Akhilesh,once a darling of the national media and the most modern face in UPs first family,deliver?
In the 2012 assembly elections,the Samajwadi Party got a massive mandate,winning 224 seats and forming a government on its own in an era of coalition politics. Support was visible across the state and it went beyond caste,creed and region. Cut to 2013: the party is on the back foot,with its support base eroding. In just one year,voters have become disillusioned with the SP government because there has been no visible change in the state and no initiatives are expected on major fronts like the ever-worsening law and order situation.
So,whose fault is this? Is it Mulayam,or the uncles,or the bureaucracy or the police? The fault lies with Akhilesh himself,who is progressive,articulate and accessible,but also weak and ineffective. This,after all,was a mandate for Akhilesh,not Shivpal or Ram Gopal. UPites witnessing waves of change in neighbouring states rightly expected that under his leadership,politics in UP would turn towards development. But,according to the Planning Commission,among the low-income states,the GDP growth rate during Eleventh Plan was 12.11 per cent in Bihar,8.93 in MP,7.68 in Rajasthan,7.27 in Jharkhand,and only 6.9 in UP. If we compare UP and Bihar,where Nitish Kumar has delivered despite coalition compulsions,it is obvious that the political leadership in the latter is in command,with law and order a top priority and corrupt babus feeling the heat.
But UPs situation is deteriorating,even since Akhilesh took over. I have collated data on the states performance across sectors,including education and industry,which paint a dismal picture. For instance,if the migration of unskilled labourers to states like Punjab,Delhi,Gujarat and Maharashtra came to a stop,nearly 40 per cent of the states population would barely have enough to keep body and soul together. According to a study on migration conducted after Census 2011 by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements,migration from UP to Delhi,UP to Uttarakhand and UP to Maharashtra was among the top ten.
A state government letter to the agriculture ministry says that 91 per cent of the farmers in UP belong in the marginal and small categories. This low landholding demands high yield and the farm sector requires cash support for small farmers to sustain themselves.
The education sector,whether primary,secondary,higher or technical education,has almost collapsed. Except the Kalyan Singh government,which in 1991-92 initiated concrete steps to improve intermediate education standards,successive governments have failed to deliver. There has been a mushrooming of engineering colleges,with 1.65 lakh engineering seats each year,but there are few job opportunities available for graduates,partly because of a lack of industry.
Industry is centralised around satellite cities like Noida and Ghaziabad,and not in the backward regions of Bahraich,Lalitpur,Ballia,Pratapgarh and or even Rae Bareli. According to the ministry of small,micro and medium enterprises,UP accounts for the largest number of non-functional registered enterprises,16.94 per cent of the countrys total. It also accounts for 11.24 per cent of Indias unregistered enterprises and if given the opportunity,investment and above all,infrastructure and law and order,many industries could develop in UP.
This situation was not created during the Akhilesh governments tenure,but Akhilesh could begin to address it by touring villages and making the bureaucracy and government machinery accountable,accessible and people-friendly. When he was voted to power,the people of the state had great expectations from him that werent restricted to the distribution of laptops and berozgari cheques. The suave CM has to realise that in this power game,his uncles are holding him back. But only he can banish them to save the state,since the mandate was for him and him alone to administer and deliver a clean,corruption-free and pro-people government.
shyamlal.yadav@expressindia.com
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