Was Uttar Pradesh born in 2017? It is an obvious question given the recent conduct of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the state government he leads.
Most major thoroughfares and streets in all important cities of the state are replete with hoardings, while TV channels are inundated with resounding claims by the government that whatever existed before 2017 was chaos and non-governance.
The government seems to be trying to build the impression that the saffron-clad Adityanath has ushered in 'Ram Rajya' in the country's most populous state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also stamped Adityanath's claim by echoing that sentiment quite passionately in all his speeches at rallies in the run-up to the forthcoming state Assembly elections in February-March 2022. It would perhaps lead people into believing the ironic narrative that actress Kangana Ranaut was desperately trying to build – that India got "real independence in 2014" when Modi emerged at the country's helm.
The innumerable hoardings and television ads seek to convey that all is fine across the state ever since Adityanath rode on to become the state's chief minister in 2017. These proclaim the difference that Adityanath's "able" governance has made to crucial issues like "law and order", "corruption", and "development".
According to one such hoarding, "2017 se pehle sarkari paise ki hoti thi bandarbaant" (before 2017, government funds were pilfered away), but "2017 ke baad , Pradesh mein vikas hota hai" (after 2017, the state has seen development). The hoardings display money bags shared between a man with a red cap (an apparent reference to the Samajwadi Party) and contractors, contrasting with the expressways being constructed now. The fact, however, is that the state's first and perhaps by far the best expressway (Lucknow-Agra) came up during the previous government. And what was most remarkable about it was that the 301 km expressway was completed in a record 23 months, while the present government was unable to complete its 358-km Purvanchal Expressway in 57 months. Also, the investigation by the Adityanath administration to dig out suspected irregularities in the Agra expressway construction did not reach anywhere.
Another hoarding, showing a bearded man flinging an enflamed torch, reads, "2017 se pehle dangaiyon ka khauf" (rioters terrorised UP before 2017), "2017 ke baad maang rahe hain maafi" (after 2017, they are seeking public apology). Its tag line states, "farq saaf hai" (the difference is evident).
To top it all comes yet another hoarding that seeks to claim how women's security had witnessed a sea change between 2017 and now. It states women were unsafe and unprotected before 2017, but after 2017, criminals are scared of the rule of law. The visual depicts a young woman being followed by two ruffians, who, after 2017, maintain a safe distance from the woman's path because of an alert and visibly helpful police. But the hoarding is in sharp contrast to the ground reality. The open patronage extended to former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar involved in the gang rape of a girl in Unnao, is a matter of recent public memory. He was put in the dock only after the intervention of the Allahabad High Court chief justice, who went to the extent of castigating the advocate-general for going out of the way to shield the ruling party MLA, who eventually got convicted and jailed for the crime.
Another example of the ruling dispensation's blatant protection to criminals was the Hathras gang rape case in which not only the accused were allowed to go scot-free, but the victim's body was disposed of through a hastily carried out cremation in the dead of night. Worse, the local administration moved heaven and earth to intimidate the victim's family, who were not even allowed at the cremation site. Here too, it was the intervention of the high court that prompted the government to initiate action.
The Gorakhpur incident in which a young trader was beaten to death by an alleged extortionist police inspector right under the nose of the chief minister's home and constituency also punches holes in the claims of transformed law and order. The broad-daylight killing of four farmers and a journalist in Lakhimpur-Kheri, moved down by an SUV allegedly driven by the son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Misra' Teni', was yet another case that contradicts the government's boast of establishing the rule of law in the state. But for the intervention of the Supreme Court, the minister's son would have continued to enjoy immunity.
The list could be longer, but from the publicity blitz undertaken by Adityanath's propaganda machinery, it appears that the intent is towards overwhelming harsh truth with official lies.
As for hoardings highlighting corruption and official pilferage during the Samajwadi Party rule, there have been similar allegations against some top ministers in the Adityanath cabinet, but there is no effort towards investigating these. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh has put in the public domain documents that suggest large scale pilferage in the Jal Shakti mission. Likewise is the prima facie financial irregularities in the sale and purchase of land in and around Ayodhya. At the grassroots level, corruption continues to thrive as severely as during earlier regimes.
Still, the government does not tire of making claims that it has transformed governance in the state. No wonder people have taken to wonder whether the Adityanath government's claims through these hoardings were about some imaginary land, or is it that there was no Uttar Pradesh before 2017?
(Sharat Pradhan is a journalist and author based in Lucknow)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
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