Samajwadi Party parties while thousands suffer
The Samajwadi Party Government in Uttar Pradesh has mocked the sufferings of displaced Muzaffarnagar riot-hit victims by partying at home and holidaying abroad. Even as several hundreds continue to languish in the relief camps and thousands remain homless, as the Government has not cared to provide basic amenities to them, top party leaders spent crores of rupees on a cultural extravaganza while another handful of lawmakers have taken off on a foreign jaunt at public expense. This only underlines the criminal indifference of the Samajwadi Party Government towards the people, that has been on heightened public display ever since the riots broke out in September 2013. Notwithstanding the regime's failure to contain the violence, in recent weeks, for instance, the Government has sought to fend off growing criticism of its all-round mismanagement of the relief camps by first claiming that there were no genuine victims in the camps, that the suffering people were political activists seeking to give the Government a bad name, and then actually closing the shelters. Consequently, hundreds now have nowhere to go — the villages are still so communally charged that even a playful fight between children sometimes snowballs into a deadly brawl. For those still living in the ramshackle tents that the Government calls relief camps, the situation is not any better as they battle the elements for survival — more than 30 children alone have fallen to the biting cold while another was recently mauled to death by a wild dog.
But the horrific tales flowing from the camps don’t seem to move either Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav or Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav or other members of the lucknow Government. Oblivious to the suffering of the victims, they had no qualms in hosting a glitzy ceremony of song and dance. And so, crores of public money was callously spent on the fortnight-long cultural jamboree, Saifai Mahotsav. Organised in the Samajwadi Party supremo’s hometown of Saifai, it was presented as a Government initiative to boost local talent in the arts and sports arena, but, in effect, it was all about the Wednesday night bash that saw A-list film stars being flown in from across the country on private choppers to perform for the Yadavs and their cronies. Twenty crore rupees has been reportedly spent in just one night on an event that has fetched virtually no benefit to the State.
As if this was not a hard enough slap on the face of the people battling with misery, the Government also arranged entertainment abroad. Twenty-two lawmakers are currently on a 20-day ‘study tour’ organised by the Uttar Pradesh Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. Yet, of the five countries on their list — Turkey, Egypt, the UK, the UAE and the Netherlands — only one is a Commonwealth nation while another is struggling to stay on the democratic track and a third has no real representative political system. Even a cursory glance of the itinerary shows that the trip was not even intended to be a study tour. Of course, such a junket at the public exchequer’s cost is not an exception, but the fact that even Mr Azam Khan, the Minister in-charge of the Muzaffarnagar camps, is part of the delegation, only makes it that much more galling.