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STATES:
UTTAR PRADESH
Tough
Task For The Thakur
Governance
apart, the real test before new Chief Minister Rajnath Singh is to skilfully
play the BJP's tricky game of social engineering
By
Farzand Ahmed and Subhash
Mishra
Uttar
Pradesh is accustomed to mid-term leadership. Since political instability
was injected into the state's bloodstream in 1967, not a single chief
minister has completed a full five-year term in office. Judged even by
these turbulent standards, the BJP's appointment of its third chief minister
in three years was marked by extreme prevarication.
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"I
see no threat. It's a collective leadership."
Rajnath Singh, CM |
The decision
to anoint Rajnath Singh, the 48-year-old Union minister of surface transport,
as the successor to the 78-year-old Ram Prakash Gupta was actually taken
last June. However, its implementation was marred by internal opposition,
the prime minister's dithering and an unreal faith in Gupta's ability
to somehow plod along. So, when Singh was finally elected-unanimously,
of course-the leader of the BJP Legislature Party and endorsed by its
coalition partners the day before Diwali, nearly four months had been
lost. Four months that saw the administration meander aimlessly, caste
equations go awry and the ruling coalition's popular standing touch an
all-time low.
The situation
was so grave that Home Minister L.K. Advani rushed to Mumbai's Breach
Candy Hospital on October 16 to tell convalescing Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee that further delay could mean the collapse of the government
in Lucknow. This time, Vajpayee didn't hesitate and in good BJP style
the succession was painlessly effected.
There were
two immediate provocations. First, the civic elections in November necessitated
urgent action. If the BJP suffered in its traditional urban strongholds
in the same ignominious way it did in the panchayat polls in June, it
would be impossible to prevent coalition partners and even some of its
own MLAs from seeking fresh pastures. In fact, it was an open secret that
Naresh Agarwal, leader of the Loktantrik Congress Party (LCP)-with 20
MLAs-was negotiating a future settlement with the resurgent Mulayam Singh
Yadav. Gupta's resignation on "health" grounds was actually
a euphemism for the state of the government.
Secondly,
the formation of the new Uttaranchal state reduced the 425-strong Legislative
Assembly by 22. Since 21 of these legislators were from the BJP, it left
the coalition led by the party in Lucknow with a wafer-thin majority of
just two. With little faith in Gupta's ability to manage such a fragile
establishment, the BJP had no choice but to look to the man who had acquired
a formidable reputation for coalition building. In 1997, after Mayawati
withdrew support to Kalyan Singh's government, it was Singh-then state
party president-who played a major role in breaking the BSP, Congress
and Janata Dal and mustering a majority.
Not that
past record is necessarily a guide to the future. With state assembly
elections due in March 2002, Singh has an uphill task. For a start, he
has to undertake an image-building exercise. Under Gupta, the administration
was characterised as aimless and the chief minister was viewed as a blend
of a nonentity and a clown. Singh's tough, no-nonsense image is his great
advantage. As Kalyan Singh's education minister in 1991-92, he rushed
through an anti-copying ordinance that gave the state's examination system
a semblance of order. The draconian measure, however, cost the BJP many
votes in the 1993 assembly poll. But those were different times. In today's
climate when the state is looking for some positive direction, Singh's
dynamism could prove a great asset to the BJP. "A leader good in
delivery and able in performance can redress popular grievances,"
says Surjit Singh Dang, former BJP minister and MLA.
Pg.2
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INDIA TODAY Deputy Editor Swapan Dasgupta voices the despair of a community that Jyoti Basu forcibly converted into a diaspora in his 23 years of zero-contribution rule. 