Rustic and Cultured Yadavs

In the Bihar Assembly elections in February 2005, Lalu Prasad Yadav's political guru-turned-foe Ranjan Yadav had raised a storm by claiming that only he, 'not Lalu', was the asli Yadav. Now in Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav's bete noire Mayawati has raised the issue of rustic and cultured Yadavs. Last week the BSP supremo claimed that all the educated and cultured Yadavs were with her while the rustic ones are on the other side. Mulayam who is still overconfident of his Muslim-Yadav combine, just smiled. Mayawati of late has stepped up her campaign to woo various influential caste groups, including Brahmins in a bid to widen her social base and acquire a new identity.

Star War

Uttar Pradesh is witnessing an intense 'star war'. The ruling Samajvadi Party, caught in a Chakravyuh this time, has taken a lead by using state's brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan who through media campaigns has been trying to convince everyone that "UP Mein Hai Dum, Kionki Jurm Yehan Hai Kum ". Film star and Rampur MP Jayaprada meanwhile is frequently camping in Bharthana from where Mulayam is contesting. Bachchan along with star-wife Jaya Bachchan, an MP too, are readying to hit the roads while the Congress has roped in 'King Khan' Shahrukh, Govinda, MP, Celina Jaitely, Nagma, Asrani, Poonam Dhillon, Chinky Pandey besides hosts of TV star. Not to be left behind is the Hindutava-driven BJP. A number of stars including the 'Dream Girl' of yester-years Hema Malini, Shotgun Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna and TV star Smriti Irani of Kahani Ghar, Ghar fame, have started descending on the campaign trail.

Interestingly after E-2004, the BJP had publicly admitted that stars had failed to enchant voters in the Hindutava heartland.

One-seat Wonder

The Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha, the mother of all militant Hindutava outfits including the RSS, is the only party that has remained static and isolated like its ideology. It was sup in 1915 under the leadership of V.D. Savarkar to counter the Muslim League and 'secular' Indian National Congress but as the RSS and later its political front Bharatiya Jana Sangh created wider impact on Hindu society, the Hindu Maha Sabha [The Great Hindu Assembly] had been
content with only one seat in this mega state since 1962. In the
first two elections [1952 & 1957], it enjoyed the status of a national party. Between 1962 and 1974. it could win only seat in UP Assembly while during 1977-1985 it was thrown into oblivion. But it again regained the one-seat status in the subsequent elections. Last week, it again shot into limelight when BJP MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath rebelled against the party and decided to set up 16 Maha Sabha candidates but soon the BJP leadership intervened and won him back. Yogi in turn promised that he would ask all his [Maha Sabha] candidates to withdraw. In an era of re-mix, originals don't sell.

Poll Promises

All the major national and regional parties have started showering promises to woo voters. Yet, BSP supremo Mayawati has a unique agenda in this poll: if voted back to power, her government would not allow her successor- Mulayam Singh Yadav and party national general secretary Amar Singh to leave India. Interestingly, Mayawati, unlike other parties, does not believe in election manifestoes; she makes appeals to her voters.

Here is, however, what other parties have promised through their manifestoes:

BJP: If voted to power it will make Surya Namaskaar, Vande Mataram & Yoga mandatory in schools. It will also modernise Madarsas [Islamic seminaries] in a bid to bring Muslim children to the national mainstream.

It will remove all hurdles on the way to construction of Magnificent Ram Temple at Ayodhya and provide a Rs 500 crore special package each for Ayodhya, Kashi, Mathura and Prayag.

It will turn UP into a "Sarvottam Pradesh" [the best state] in the country, free from fear, corruption and hunger.

In a bid to counter Mulayam Singh Yadav's most popular 'Kanya Vidya Dhan' it will introduce 'Ladlee Laxmi Yojna' [dear daughter scheme] under which every newborn girl child would get a Bond of Rs 30,000.
This will help her get Rs 2000 when she would enter Class 5, in Class
8 & 9 she would get Rs 4000, in Class 11 and 12 she would be given Rs 7,500 and when she attains the age of 21 years she would get Rs 1,18,000. Besides, there would be group Insurance of Rs 25,000 for extremely poor girls.

SP: 'Muft padhai, dawai aur sinchai' [free education, free medicine and free irrigation]. This includes free education to all from Primary to Post-graduation level.

Kanya Vidya Dhan under which a poor girl-student gets Rs 20,000 to pursue higher education would now get Rs 25,000 and monthly unemployment allowance would be increased from Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 a month.

Compensation to farmers for the crop lost by natural calamities would be increased three-fold: the rate of compensation for unirrigated land would now Rs 3000 per hectare and Rs 7,500 for irrigated land.

Every girl-student entering class 11 would be gifted Rs 1,500 to buy a bicycle, all poor families irrespective caste and religion would be a given Rs 25,000 as an aid for the marriage of a girl, democracy-fighters' pension would be increased from Rs 1,000 to Rs 4,000; all district hospitals would be brought at par with state hospitals in the matter of infrastructure and facilities to provide best Medicare; all villages in the state would be electrified within a year and members of minority communities would get proportional representation in police and state para-military forces.

Congress: Urdu would be made second official language.

It would create a cadre of youth known as 'Social Service Cadre' to help elderly people in the society.

It would identify Extremely Backward Classes and provide separate reservation for them; like Kerala and Karnataka Minorities would get benefits of reservation as per Sachchar Committee recommendations; minority character of AMU would be restored;

It would revive and modernise all traditional crafts of Uttar Pradesh.
Artisans involved in it would be given aids and loan;

There would be no interference in Muslim and other minorities' personal laws.

It would honour the Supreme Court verdict in the matter of Babri Masjid-Ram Janmbhoomi dispute.

Reservation for economically backwards among forward castes.

It would provide job to atleast one youth from each family in the state;

All dead state tubewells would be re-energised; farmers would get adequate support price for their produce

Rumpus in Dynasty Land

Sonia tere raj mein, mar gaye zindabad mein' [O! Sonia [Gandhi] Congressmen are tired of shouting Zindabad]. This is how irate Congress men greeted Union Minister Kapil Sibal in Allahabad, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty land, when he reached there to release party's poll manifesto with fanfare. As the party workers, upset over the selection of a candidate, created such a rumpus that Sibal along with other leaders had to shut himself in a room. The party workers not only destroyed the furniture arranged for a press conference but also threatened to set the room in which he had hid himself on fire if he did not come out. Ultimately, a police force was called in to release the party's manifesto. In fact, the party this time has preferred a new candidate Anurag Narayan Singh ignoring the claim of veteran and former Congress MLA Ashok Bajpayee who wanted to get a ticket for his son Harsh Bajpayee. One-time MLA Ashok Bajpayee has repeatedly failed to win in the past elections but when a new candidate was announced Bajpayee's supporters went on rampage and manhandled everyone including Sibal. Party sources said Allahabad mirrors the growing groupism and indiscipline among Congressmen in the state.

WASTEFUL EXPENDITURES

The yam Singh Yadav Gvernment has invited controversy for its wasteful expenditure on more than one occasion. This includes wasting money on semi-clad glam girls from Bollywood to celebrate the Saifai festival .Most of the "socialist" leaders including the chief minister down to the grassroots workers had witnessed the mega-show. Two years back, he invited former US president Bill Clinton at his official residence and invited the Shamek Dawar dance troupe to enjoy a dim –lit dance and dinner programme .Then Mulayam Singh Yadav gave away more than Rs 65 crore, out of Rs 70 crore for the higher education department budget to one of degree college in Haibra in his home district, Etawah. The Haibra Degree College is managed by the members of his Yadav family.

The Mulayam Singh Yadav government had purchased Rs 5 crore woth Prado cars for his official fleet. The cabinet had approved the funds for the purchase of eight for the chief minister's carcade. The government spokesman had cited "security" as one of the reasons for purchasing the high speeding cars. After getting the Prados the state government had spent more than Rs 1 crore in bullet-proofing. Unfortunately, the state government, despite having spent over Rs 6 crore in purchasing the cars has dumped them in the official residence of the chief minister. They are not being used in the chief minister's carcade.
"They are getting rusted", informed a senior officer in the Estate Department.

Unlike his previous regimes, the chief minister this time allowed more than two dozen officers to make foreign trips and in almost every second foreign trip , he ensured at least one secretary in his secretariat participate in the visits. The foreign visits by the officers and ministers have so far proved to be of no use to the state.

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