Vote for Development in UttarPradesh – But don’t make the development agenda minimalist
Email: khyati.khush@gmail.com
Seventy years of democracy – India successfully makes
world’s largest and youngest democracy, and happens to be world’s fastest
growing economy now. Uttar Pradesh – the ancient, resourceful and most populous
state is also nation’s highly
politically active state. Lying across the Ganga-Yamuna fertile plains,
UttarPradesh has been the centre of ancient civilisations from Ramrajya to
Maurayan empire, from Kushan, Gupta empire to medieval age Mughal empire. UttarPradesh
fought back imperalism under BritishRaj right from 1857 rebellion – Cawnpore
Rebellion, Meerut Rebellion to active participation in Non-Cooperation, Quit
India Movement, and majorly contributed to the nation’s freedom struggle. The
land has nurtured Indian culture, and has been a vital centre for education,
learning, prosperity, cultural exhange, integral unity, social and political
activities. As known, most Prime Ministers of Sovereign India have come from Uttar
Pradesh.
Being one of the highly politically active state –
Uttarpradesh has been ground for various social and political movements, birth
place of several political parties, eventually becoming victim of politics of
coalition, vote bank, appeasement. While the politics of Uttarpradesh narrowed
down to this, development trajectory in the state got compromised and
stagnated. Primarily, an agrarian state – this Hindi heartland is a land of
unlimited potentials – left un-utilised. 30% of the population in the state
still lives below poverty line (Tendulkar, 2013), and the migration rate in the
state is rapidly increasing. Moreover, unfortunately, the statistics on crime –
murder, dacoity, rape, theft, kidnapping, etc is on high (including cases
registered under IPC and SLL)[1].
The Indian growth story has come up to 7% (GDP Annual Growth Rate), and other
states have also climbed the ladder of development, such as Madhya Pradesh – 9-10%,
Haryana – 7-8%, Gujarat – 8-9%, while UP still stands low at 4-5% (GSDP Growth
Rate at Constant Prices 2004-05)[2].
Rise of Opportunism in Politics
It started with the political unrest within the state
leadership in the Congress party after the death of Shri GB Pant. First
President’s Rule was imposed in the state in 1968, when the 4th assembly
under Bharatiya Kranti Dal led by Shri Chaudhary Charan Singh dissolved. The
series of political turmoil, intra-party and inter-party clashes led to kind of
political instability in the state – which gradually evolved to the phase of
coalition politics. After the Emergency fiasco, Uttar Pradesh became ground for political movements and several anti-congress leaders, socialist leaders, other parties
under the canvas of Janata Party[3]
and later Janata Dal[4] came to power.
Political stability with clash of ideology within the several leaders under this
canvas was not possible. Therefore, several factions broke out of this canvas –
both at National and Regional levels. This is when the politics of coalition became
a salient feature of political equations in India. Uttarpradesh – being victim
of opportunism in coalition politics – witnessed series of rise and fall of
leaders, sectarian ideologies, vote bank and appeasement politics.
Divisive Politics
Parties came to power focusing on pockets of votes. The
state became a battlefield for political power, and the population divided into
vote-bank. Coalitions and political turmoils continued for few decades that none
of chief ministers could rule for complete 5-years tenure in the state, until
2007. Meanwhile, the vote-pockets in the state became so defined that every
child born in most communities know their political affiliations. Political
parties that came to power appeasing a particular section treated as
vote-bank, gave them undue patronage – which is openly promised in public
rallies. However, the saddest part – with all that appeasement and favouritism
and nepotism, development of the state remained compromised. Even for that
matter, the appeased communities remained backward, while corruption, illegal
activities, organised crime kept rising. So much so that the state earned fame for having worst law and order, which discouraged investment and eventually adding to dearth of opportunities. In short, the state remained victim of
divisive appeasement politics.
Populism and Development Agenda
Besides, the backwardness harnessed so well in the
state in past 2-decades that made people too dependent on the government. The
focus was not on giving employment, but distributing employment allowances, not
on power generation but load-cutting. The young state suffers poor education
standards and dearth of employment opportunities. The state that largely
contributes to agricultural production but farmers here live in adversities. The
state whose chief minister – representing marginalised community sends
private jet to get her sandals, the state whose chief minister distributes
laptops to students in power devoid villages and says mobiles are used only for
music and movies. The state where with each elections the specific communities
are assured employment and after subsequent elections they are replaced by some
other community. The resourceful state where katiyabaaz were protected
and demand for power is managed by scheduling power-cuts. Funny it sounds! Populism
to win elections and run government to keep the vote-bank loyal has marred the scope
of development aspirations of the state.
The state dark-side of democracy so misused and manipulated
in the state that the development agenda now has become minimalist. After
the 2014 General elections, fighting elections on development and against
corruption has become a benchmark. The state where development still means
getting first electricity connection, gas connection, connecting villages to
roads – the development agenda is simply stimulating these basics. Wonder! This
is the state of the largest state of India.
The aspirations of people cannot be misled by merely stimulating these basics
after 70years of independence. The present rhetoric in assembly election 2017
is appeasing for votes on such a minimalist development approach.
The narrative of development in Uttarpradesh in the
2017 Assembly elections cannot be something is better than nothing. In the
minimalist approach of development, the leaders cannot mislead people to
overlook corruption, loss out of sectarian and appeasement politics. 2017
Assembly Elections for Uttarpradesh are not just an opportunity to reverberate
their development aspirations, but also to let the leaders know not to be agents to
their communities – to let them know that state is bigger than community. These
elections in Uttarpradesh need to resonate that politics cannot divide and
rule, and people are not vote-banks. The development aspirations of all
communities is good-governance – a transparent and just system - devoid of
corruption, favouritism and nepotism. Also, these elections should not lead to another coalition fiasco
and political instability. Uttarpradesh has had enough of opportunism based vote-bank,
sectarian and appeasement politics.
Comments
Post a Comment