Don't forget on your success.... Power & Politics/The Sunday Standard/ August 04, 2013

Don't Forget on your Success Depends Survival of Young Leadership Experiment

Dear Akhilesh,

I’m sure you are well aware that a large number of young voters are feeling betrayed. The diabolic suspension of Durga Shakti Nagpal, a young, brilliant IAS officer, for taking on the sand mafia has unmasked the dark side of your administration. Political vendettas, humiliation of civil servants, threatening abuse from Samajwadi Party satraps and the brutal killings of political leaders have marred your personal image. You still come across as one of the country’s most affable chief ministers. But your government is perceived as the most chaotic in India. It is one lacking an assertive leader. You may have fulfilled your promise to give young voters free laptops with Internet connections. But they aren’t able to reconcile your modern mind with your government’s autocratic actions. When you took over two years ago, the 180 million people of Uttar Pradesh saw in India’s youngest Chief Minister a catalyst for change.

I have seen you grow up in the Yadav clan, dominated by caste considerations. Your father Mulayam Singh Yadav sent you to tony schools and also abroad for better education in the hope that you would turn out to be the game-changer for the parivar and the state. He made you the SP state president to lead the party in the Assembly elections. You cycled through the dust and heat of the caste-ridden, communally volatile state. Your red cap, black waistcoat and bicycle became the symbol of change, which the voters were looking forward to. You proved wrong the elitist propagandists—who were pitching for a coalition government—by winning a record number of seats any regional party has ever won in Uttar Pradesh. Just a few weeks before the elections, when I interviewed you for my show Teekhi Baat for IBN7, you were surprised about being given such prominence. My media colleagues laughed at my choice of the 38-year-old budding politician who would never make it to chief minister’s chair. Soon, they had to eat their words and chase you for interviews. You were candid and assertive. You assured viewers that you wouldn’t allow party cadres to dictate terms to the government. You promised to erase the SP’s goonda raj image in the state and that civil servants would be given full freedom from interference. Finally, you vowed that if voted to absolute power, your party would follow growth-driven policies. Not only Uttar Pradesh but also the entire country was expecting a marvellous model of modern governance from the youngest chief minister of India’s most populous state. Sadly, you have now been compelled to forget your promises and stick to the conventional politics of patronage. Like another young chief minister, Jammu and Kashmir’s Omar Abdullah, you were also chosen to lead the state in a midnight operation. Omar, by his pathetic performance, has proved beyond doubt that dynastic succession doesn’t ensure success in governance. But you were expected to justify dynastic politics by excelling in delivery and not retain the hidden traits of feudal machinations.

The past 17 months seem to have taken a toll not only on your political acumen but also on your determination to deliver on promises. Though your ascension was a hereditary transition of power from a father to a son, it was meant to change the direction, dialogue and the development tapestry of the state. Soon after you took over, some Samajwadi goons went on a rampage—attacking officials, extracting ransom from innocents and grabbing land. Suddenly, an Akhilesh Sena comprising lumpen elements had popped up, which started to threaten opponents with violence. You disbanded it quickly and ordered some of them arrested.

Unfortunately, it is the only visible action you have taken as chief minister. Since then, your ability and credibility seem to have eroded. Sometimes, your own admirers compare you with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who is in the chair but not in power. Unlike other SP leaders, you still enjoy a clean image. You haven’t promoted factionalism within the party, but you haven’t acted against the dirty politics which is destroying your image either. Your ministers and party leaders openly abuse civil servants, patronise dons and mafias and help illegal commercial activities. You are told that the bureaucracy is out to destabilise your government by creating caste and communal tensions. Your counsellors are taking advantage of SP’s multiple power centres. Many decisions taken in the morning are reversed by the evening by other ‘unknown’ powers. Recently, the transfers of over a dozen senior officials ordered and approved by you were put in abeyance as soon as you took off from Lucknow for an official visit to the south. These nefarious forces have taken full advantage of your silence and inaction for their deeds and misdeeds. They haven’t allowed you to declare your agenda for governance. Your government hasn’t been able to attract any major investments. It hasn’t started any new infrastructure projects. The ‘cabal that shall not be named’ has made you a captive chief minister who is unwilling to disrupt the existing power structure. It is because of this scary scenario that many senior and excellent civil servants posted at the Centre and other states are unwilling to stay in UP. Bureaucrats in your state are unwilling to take decisions and have stopped processing even normal administrative files. Most of your MLAs and MPs, while appreciating your anguish, are disillusioned by your inaction and indifference. They feel that you are now a reluctant chief minister who is willing to compromise but not fight. Don’t forget that leaders of your age group have a bigger stake in the state’s future than the old netas who have won by dividing people and not socially and economically empowering them. Don’t forget that in your success depends the survival of the Young Leadership experiment. Your failure will only ensure the perpetuation of the old and tired leadership.

(Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla. Or, email: prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com)

Power & Politics / The Sunday Standard/ January 08, 2012

Politics of Divisiveness Has Already Won the Uttar Pradesh Elections

It is the largest state of India. Home to a fifth of our population, every seventh Lok Sabha member comes from it. If that wasn’t enough, the gargantuan state of Uttar Pradesh has also produced eight of the 13 duly elected prime ministers of India. Over the years, it has not only suffered geographical shrinkage, but has also lost some of its political clout. It is no longer in a position to influence the national agenda or impose anything on it. A Gandhi scion may be tasting its winter, and the heat and the dust of its dirtiest hamlets and seamy slums, but even his succession will depend on the performance of his party in states other than Uttar Pradesh. There is hardly any catchy slogan, forget about any blueprint for change. Even after the declarations of the election schedule, none of the parties has been able to present a credible election manifesto even if they will forget it after the elections. From the Congress and BJP to the smallest regional parties, all have been looking for the right text of social engineering to forge a winning caste coalition.

As the countdown for elections to the 403-member Assembly begins, the state remains locked in its worst-ever caste and community war. It is no more a fight between ideologies. None of the dozen odd parties in the election fray are talking of better governance, but are loudly proclaiming the caste and community affiliations of each candidate. Last week, when election committees of various parties met in New Delhi and Lucknow to finalise their candidates, they looked at the caste and religion of their candidates first and not winnability on merit alone. While the Congress party didn’t leave any chance to attack the Mayawati government, it indulged in the lowest kind of votebank politics by raising the issue of reservation in government jobs for minorities. For the past seven years, the UPA hardly bothered to ensure any caste- or religion-based reservation. Suddenly, on the eve of the elections, it has discovered more backwardness and poverty only among minorities. Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav has even gone to the extent of promising a constitutional amendment to exceed the cap of 50 per cent reservation. Even the BJP hasn’t been immune to the caste virus, going out of its way to woo leaders of different communities, even if some are involved in heinous crimes or are being investigated by the CBI.

Indulging in competitive politics is not new to political parties in Uttar Pradesh, but it used to be camouflaged behind the high-sounding principles of social equality and justice. It was the Congress policy of ignoring its regional satraps that led to the birth of caste and community leaders like Charan Singh, Mulayam, Kalyan Singh and later Mayawati. With both the Congress and the BJP failing to promote or retain their tall caste leaders, the natural beneficiaries have been regional parties like the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). None of them have ever presented an alternative agenda for governance but they have provided political power to those who had neither jobs nor social acceptability.

In a state where a Dalit or a backward caste couldn’t dream of an important position, the deprived now have the pride and power that comes from an ever-rising share in political power. The state remains at the bottom of national growth pyramid but a large percentage of its socially and economically backward population is now governed by people from their own caste and community. Mayawati’s government may have squandered development funds and encouraged corruption but it has given the largest-ever representation to Dalits and other most backward communities in running the state. Over 30 per cent of its district police and administrative chiefs are from deprived sections. A large number of senior secretarial posts have been given to those who were earlier ignored because of their caste. A state which sent some of the finest civil servants to important ministries at the Centre has now been turned into a haven of castecracy, and not meritocracy.

The February elections are unlikely to reverse the trend. With all parties and leaders coming together—directly or indirectly—to dislodge the mighty Mayawati from her caste-embedded throne, the battlelines between castes and communities are becoming sharper. Local political watchers say every party is divided into numerous caste groups. If the BSP is divided into four sub-caste groups, both the BJP and the Congress have more than a dozen each followed closely by the SP with six caste factions. Current indications are that no party will get an absolute majority. Whatever the outcome, the message from Uttar Pradesh is on the wall. It is going to be a win for divisive politics and a defeat for clean politics and responsive governance. The two national parties are to blame. prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com
Follow him on Twitter @PrabhuChawla