Less than a year after taking over the reins of UttarPradesh after his historic poll victory, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’slaggard legacy comprises only this much: an ugly blame game between the horseand the cart. Yadav has held state bureaucrats responsible for the failure inimplementing various projects that formed part of the Samajwadi Party's (SP)poll manifesto prior to the assembly elections early last year. But thebureaucracy wonders as much as I do if the state is still headed by ademocratically elected government.
Speaking on the inaugural day of IAS Week in Lucknow onJanuary 17, the young chief minister said he had cleared several welfareprojects but the administrative officials failed to implement them and askedthem to better their poor image. He also advised the IAS officers to think whytheir empanelment was not taking place or why occasions like IAS Week were notbeing held for the past six years.
The bureaucrats, I guess, would not agree with the CM.According to media reports, bureaucrats have instead alleged that the stateministers were forcing them to indulge in unethical activities. They allegedthat the CM wants to listen to only minister and party leaders and believes thesecond-hand information about the bureaucrats.
There is nothing new in Yadav junior’s contention that thebureaucrats in the state are corrupt ”cases of former health secretary PradeepShukla, who was in jail for months (for his involvement the infamous NRHMscam), and former chief secretary Neera Yadav who was (in December 2010)sentenced to four years rigorous imprisonment after being convicted of misusingher official position to fraudulently allot land in Noida, are livingtestimonies. As late as two decades ago, this writer has clear memory of bulktransfers being a regular feature in Lucknow’s newspapers and the UP IASAssociation voting for the most corrupt official every year. Neera Yadav by theway also won that controversial election hands down.
But the leadership somehow always knew ways of keeping them(the bureaucrats) tamed. The same set of bureaucracy behaves like a workhorsein the regime of BSP supremo Mayawati. So to say it directly, the problemactually lies in Yadav junior not being able to play David to the Goliath ofSP’s corrupt bigwigs who care two hoots about the young leader ” more so sincethe image at the political altar is his while the moolah is all theirs.
The Yadav junior’s current lamentation against corrupt babusis a continuation of the events from when the SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav hadlashed out at the performance of the state government led by his son. On 17January, Yadav senior had said that none of the ministers in the government weredoing their job properly and that the bureaucrats were calling the shots in thestate. According to the son, the bureaucrats are not working. According to thefather, the ministers are not working. That makes one thing pretty clear: inUP, everybody is partying!
in association with Governance Now
