LUCKNOW MAIL: Honest Kejriwal strikes a new pose for UP

PUBLISHED: 22:39 GMT, 13 January 2014 | UPDATED: 22:39 GMT, 13 January 2014
After teaching a lesson to those who dismissed him in Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal - armed with the 'honest politican' tag - could change the rules of the game in UP.
He must be aware that Samajwadi Party (SP) President Mulayam Singh Yadav had started his career as a somersault expert and gradually mastered the art of garbage-wrestling, which keeps him distinct from other politicians. 
The other leader Kejriwal has to face is Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati. She first became a submissive disciple of Kanshi Ram, the messiah of the downtrodden, and allegedly learned as a Chief Minister to institutionalise corruption in governance.
Arvind Kejriwal has to be careful about many of his men in the state, whose doubtful credentials can be an instrument in the hands of the canny politicians of UP to pin him down
Arvind Kejriwal has to be careful about many of his men in the state, whose doubtful credentials can be an instrument in the hands of the canny politicians of UP to pin him down
Kejriwal is also expected to realise that Delhi, where he won 28 Assembly seats and became Chief Minister, is a conglomeration of many micro-societies.
 

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There are poor Biharis as well as rich Marwaris in the national capital. There are landless rickshaw pullers from western UP as well as land-rich Jats. 
For the youth, the fetters of the caste system have been dissolved because of the assembly of students from across the country. But in UP, what matters most in elections is caste and jugglery.
President Mulayam Singh Yadav has made himself distinct from other politicians
President Mulayam Singh Yadav has made himself distinct from other politicians
Despite knowing that Mulayam mostly prefers keeping good things for his own family members, a Yadav rarely votes against his party. 
And a section of Scheduled Castes finds it hard to deviate from Mayawati, even if they dislike her filthy-rich attitude.
Further, transparency in personal life, a weapon Kejriwal keeps firing at his opponents, is non-existent in UP. 
It was treated as top secret when Mulayam was admitted to the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in September, 2011 when some salt disagreed with him. And we never know when Mayawati catches cold, let alone any other ailment.
These politicians have drawn an iron-curtain around their personal lives. 
Kejriwal had a modest beginning when he fell ill after taking oath as CM of Delhi and didn't stop his partymen or officers from making it public that he was down with a fever of 102°F.
This transparency is expected from all his party leaders if he wants to make in-roads in UP. 
But Kejriwal is mistaken if he thinks the path is without obstacles - particularly in terms of personnel.
He has to be careful about many of his men in the state, whose doubtful credentials could be an instrument to pin him down in the hands of the canny politicians of UP.
More precisely, it will not be a voice in the wilderness if someone says that a member of his team in eastern UP may be a killer, or that another member in central UP harbours a feudal mindset.
There may also be an AAP leader from UP whom he knows as an orator, without knowing that he often slips into foul language in his public blather.
He still has time to prevent the creation of his own Mulayams and Mayawatis, but he will not have the luxury of simply shifting the blame onto the media.
 

Goonda Raj still thriving

Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit, Dibai (Bulandshahr) MLA loves grabbing the officers by their callers and thrashing them in full public view
Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit, Dibai (Bulandshahr) MLA loves grabbing the officers by their callers and thrashing them in full public view
There are many kinds of leaders in the Samajwadi Party who are committed to making Mulayam Singh Yadav the Prime Minister - by hook or by crook.
Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit, Dibai (Bulandshahr) MLA, loves grabbing the officers by their collars and thrashing them in full public view.
Mahendra Singh, Sewata (Sitapur) MLA, who was arrested by Goa police in August 2013 when he was enjoying a bunga-bunga party, loves spending money on his own welcome. 
Atiq Ahmad, a mafia-politician and SP candidate from Sultanpur Lok Sabha seat, loves counting the criminal cases against him and calls it a medal on his chest.
But the SP MLA from Sirsaganj (Agra) Hariom Yadav is different. 
A girl, who was kidnapped on November 13 and raped till December 26 in the house of the legislator, has alleged that she was forced to decorate herself with cosmetics and jewellery before she was produced before two rapists, whom she didn't know.
Although the police rescued her from the house of the MLA, the 14-year-old girl was allegedly forced not to mention Yadav's name anywhere in the FIR. She was also not allowed to meet her parents before her statement was recorded in the court.
 
Ram Gopal Yadav, Samajwadi Party's general secretary and Rajya Sabha member said recently that his party will take legal action against those channels and newspapers which run negative stories against his party's government. 
"It would be done in May", he said.
Since a new government will be formed in Centre in May, many people in the state are asking whether the SP leaders still believe that Mulayam Singh Yadav will become the Prime MInister.
But Ram Gopal himself came forward and punctured Mulayam's dream by admitting that the rising goonda-ism in the state is a hurdle on the way to power.
 

Akhilesh's 'holistic' handouts

Going by the theory of welfare economics, the largesse extended to the UP youth by Akhilesh Yadav's government means financing unemployment and spoiling an entire generation.
While China and Japan are making their people efficient by inculcating skills, Indian states are killing work culture with populist measures.
UP tops the list with its allowances, subsidies and laptop distribution. 
The largesse extended to the UP youth by Akhilesh Yadav's government means financing unemployment and spoiling an entire generation
The largesse extended to the UP youth by Akhilesh Yadav's government means financing unemployment and spoiling an entire generation
Only 8 percent of the total skilled workers in India have social security because of a regular salary, and the number in UP is down to just 4 per cent.
The interesting fact is that those who are receiving allowances or laptops are yet to be skilled professionals. Sadly, there is hardly any example of positive externalities in UP because of lack of vision.
Whenever the CM is asked, he says: "We are taking up developmental issues." 
When asked again, he counts largesse including an allowance of Rs 1000 for unemployed youths and laptops to intermediate pass students. Then he narrates with great enthusiasm how the laptops can also be used in the Urdu language. 
Continuous production is the only sign of healthy economy of an area. But UP has not seen any such production for decades. 
When Mayawati was building Dalit parks and monuments, she used to call it a sign of social development, and when Akhilesh lures youths with money and other objects of desire, he calls it holistic development. And they aren't the only ones. 
While subsidies should be given to positive externalities that create better demand and supply and generate external benefits, the Congress, during its rule in UP, preferred giving subsides to negative externalities - like the leather industry in Kanpur and small private factories in Jagdishpur, whose impact on overall development can be questioned. 
The BJP during its rule believed that religion is a solution to every problem and eventually tried to pull the state towards Vedic Age. 
The young leaders of UP, like Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav or the RLD's Jayant Chaudhary, have proved that they are not only vision-less but that they also have doubtful intentions.
But some people also believe that they are too much consumed in self-appraisal to understand the meaning of development.