Basking only in the glow of past achievements will do no good for Akhilesh Yadav. To stay politically strong, he must show astuteness
Uttar Pradesh politics is embroiled in absurdity and is centered around allegations of who did what. One party says that the ruling party has “hijacked” its development issues and is inaugurating/laying the foundation of schemes that were launched during its tenure while the ruling party blames the Opposition for neglecting development and promoting casteism and parivarvad. Do these allegations and counter allegations mean anything to the common man who is craving for bijli, sadak and paaniIJ
The other day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the 341-km long Greenfield Purvanchal Expressway in Azamgarh, which is the lok Sabha constituency of Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. The expressway will connect lucknow with Ghazipur in eastern Uttar Pradesh. The same day, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav held a well-attended press conference in lucknow and claimed that the foundation of the said Expressway had already been laid on December 16, 2016. The SP supremo even came up with pictures of the event which was attended by almost the full Cabinet of the then SP Government. A day before, SP workers, led by senior party leader Balram Singh Yadav, held a demonstration in Azamgarh against the re-laying of the foundation stone of the Expressway. Their contention was: Why re-lay the foundation stone for a project which was already laid down by the previous GovernmentIJ
When Akhilesh Yadav was briefing the reporters at the SP office almost at the same time, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma was telling reporters at Shastri Bhawan as to how the previous Government had laid the foundation of the Purvanchal Expressway “illegally” as it had acquired just 30 per cent of the land and did not even have the clearance from the Forest and Environment departments. “That was a political gimmick enacted by Akhilesh keeping an eye on the 2017 Assembly election,” said Sharma.
Allegations and counter-allegations were confined not just to the Purvanchal Expressway. The SP went on to claim that the ruling BJP had hijacked other projects like the Samsung factory in Noida and the Metro rail project in lucknow. Besides, they claimed that there were other projects too that the BJP was selling to the people, claiming them to be theirs. Akhilesh Yadav even called the Yogi Government kainchi wali sarkar, meaning the Government in Uttar Pradesh had only been cutting ribbons. Are such allegations justified in a democracy where governance is a continuous processIJ
The money pumped into any scheme is of the taxpayers and its proper utilisation is of paramount importance for any Government. Akhilesh Yadav was right when he said that the Metro project got wings during his regime. He spoke the truth again when he claimed that he pushed the Purvanchal Expressway (during his tenure it was called the Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway). But can anyone deny the fact that both these schemes were half-done when he inaugurated themIJ Were these projects not inaugurated keeping “politics”, rather the last UP Assembly election, in mindIJ
It was for the first time in the annals of UP when the trial run of the Metro was inaugurated with much fanfare. Akhilesh Yadav knew that it was not proper to inaugurate the Metro rail service as he was yet to get an approval from the Railway Ministry. So, he made the trial run of the Metro a “Samajwadi show” with leaders of the SP, including his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, attending the function. Incidentally, UP Governor Ram Naik and Mayor of lucknow (at that time the post was held by Dinesh Sharma) were ignored. Same is true of the Purvanchal Expressway where the SP leaders hogged the limelight at the foundation function.
In fact, it was neither the BJP or SP but Mayawati of the BSP who had conceived the idea of having a Metro rail in lucknow. The detailed project report was made during her regime and was sent to the Centre for approval. Same is true with the Expressway. She was the first one to come up with the idea of connecting western parts of UP with the eastern part. She proposed a highway connecting Noida with Ballia that passed through the right bank of the river Ganga. Rightly, it was called the Ganga Expressway. After Narendra Modi addressed the Azamgarh rally, Mayawati issued a written statement saying “this project was mine” that was thrown into the lumber room because the then UPA Government did not give environment clearance. Incidentally, at that time, the BSP was supporting the Manmohan Singh-led Government at the Centre. Mayawati said that her project was hijacked by the BJP and she cleverly ignored the SP.
The story does not end here. It was Akhilesh Yadav who inaugurated the Taj Expressway on which work started during Mayawati’s regime. Then Akhilesh had said that he was within his rights to do so because Government money was used in the construction of that road. The same holds true for the Agra-lucknow Expressway. The road was built by Akhilesh Yadav and is considered to be one of the best roads across the country. But it was made operational by the Yogi Adityanath Government as it pumped in additional Rs 500 crore to make it ready.
The BJP played its cards well when its leaders said that these roads or other facilities were meant for the people. They emphasised that the Government had not stopped development schemes because they knew people wanted good roads and they are not concerned about who proposed it or constructed it. Akhilesh must come out of the “I, me, mine” mindset and instead sagaciously highlight the negatives of the Yogi Government. He should prepare a force of workers that can wage a war against decisions that may be anti-people. The SP is bound to gain if it goes back to the people telling them about bad governance of the present political dispensation rather than going on about what he did during his tenure. If Akhilesh wants to save his political legacy, he should show more astuteness and have a programme for the future in place to take to the people.
(The writer is Executive Director (News), The Pioneer, lucknow)