UP Chief Minister has been moving on the right track, but challenges remain
Although a 100-day tenure is a short time to judge a Government's performance, the period is arguably sufficient enough to understand the direction a Government is taking. Hundred days after the Yogi Adityanath Government was sworn in, its report card has been a mixed bag, though leaning more on the positives. The Yogi Adityanath Government came to power after the BJP’s massive victory — it won 312 of the 403 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly and assumed charge, sticking to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's formula of Sabka saath, sabka vikas. To this end, Adityanath began really well. Unlike his predecessors, he did not hastily undertake a bureaucratic overhaul after assuming office — Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav announced a major reshuffle hours after he took charge as the Chief Minister in 2012. Adityanath was different. His very first priority was to gain an understanding of the law and order situation and then set the house in order. And this he did so by not following the footsteps of previous regimes. He, in fact, cracked on his officials; increased work hours; made surprise visits to offices, cut down on Government holidays and urged his Government and administration to work on the ethics of the Prime Minister. The biggest challenge for the Adityanath Government was and remains the restoration of law and order situation in the State. Given the length and breath of Uttar Pradesh, this challenge is indeed great and it is not something that can be tackled overnight. Crime control, caste conflicts, violence, issues between different communities are a problem. And the Government must crack the whip by thinking of an out-of-the-box solution, something of the kind that the BJP-headed Kalyan Singh Government had taken in the 1990s to come down hard on the fringe elements. The Adityanath Government will do well to set its own house in order. There have been instances where his party supporters have flouted law and order.
On the brighter side, the Adityanath Government has been people-friendly. Adityanath has scored over rivals. His regular janata darbars are not symbolic. As senior officials say, the Chief Minister follows up on the grievances personally. Similarly, the concept of anti-Romeo squads — a populist scheme to crack down on men harassing women in public spaces — gained much traction but faced massive criticism due to the moral policing experiment of the officers. That said, the Adityanath Government's crackdown on land mafias and slaughter houses has been commendable. Its decision to give farm-loan waivers has put the exchequer in worrying times and it has still not been able to deliver on the promises. Yogi Adityanath has a number of challenges. He must concentrate on the essentials — delivering on what has been promised. But on any account, law and order must remain the priority.