Remind Yogi of 'Raj Dharma'

The socio-economic development of India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, had rolled down the hill during over 30 years of identity politics as ruling parties sought to paint its political landscape in colours of their choice. During Mayawati's regime, it was the BSP colour of blue-and-white. That changed to red-and-green when the SP's Akhilesh Yadav was in power. In 2017, the BJP swept the state assembly elections on Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's promise of development, generating hope that this would change. Those hopes are now fading as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is busy repainting the state's political landscape in saffron colour. Displaying an obsession beyond that of his predecessors Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, he has not only gotten schoolbags for children and state transport buses repainted but has also ordered that the only colour on the inner and outer walls of his government's headquarters, Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhawan in Lucknow, and even its furniture upholstery should be saffron.

 Unfortunately, such whimsical profligacy is not confined to mere symbolism. It is reflected in the Yogi government's policy and actions. His all-out war against slaughterhouses, love jihad and tacit encouragement of cow vigilantism has resulted in job losses to the minorities and Dalits, and near anarchy on the law and order front. Political interference in the law and order machinery continues, as is evident from the events in Saharanpur, where a BJP MP threatened the police superintendent. The ambitious declaration of pothole-free roads has turned into a mere jugglery of statistics by the state Public Works Department. Polarisation in the bureaucracy has been further accentuated along caste lines. The ill-conceived and ludicrously executed farm loan waiver has failed to mitigate the distress in the farm sector but has created a Rs 36,500 crore dent on the state exchequer, resulting   in huge cuts in the government's first budget on infrastructure and development funding.

If the way Yogi has governed Uttar Pradesh so far is any indication, the BJP government is not about to come back to the path of development and fulfill the promises made by Modi to the state. After a recent visit to state capital Lucknow, a team of the Modi government's think-tank Niti Aayog spotlighted UP's poor performance on human development indicators and pointed out that 23 districts of the state were among the 100 worst-performing districts in the country. If 'Vikas Purush' Narendra Modi is even half-serious about fulfilling his election campaign promises to the people of the state, he would break his silence on Yogi Adityanath's saffronisation spree. He would remind Yogi, as Atal Bihari Vajpayee had reminded him when he was Gujarat chief minister, of 'Raj Dharma', and of the need to improve governance for speedier development.