Seeking the Kalyan of ’91

However, things went wrong from the start, beginning with BSP supremo Mayawati’s withdrawal of support to his government. The resultant bloody scenes in the Assembly had set a new low for violence inside House. With his government at the exit door, Kalyan had got a last-minute reprieve from President K.R. Narayanan.

Only to plunge into a fresh crisis three months later, courtesy another “betrayer’ ally, the Loktantrik Congress. This time the state was subject to anotherspectacle: that of two “chief ministers” operating from two different rooms in the state secretariat. Power had changed hands, MLAs had switched and re-switched sides and Kalyan had returned to the saddle, all in the space of two days. This time, Kalyan had the Supreme Court to thank for saving him by introducing a new word in Indian democracy: a “composite” floor test. (In other wor-ds, two contenders taking a vote of confidence together to determine who is the real CM).

Not surprisingly, Kalyan has had little time for promises. One of the first to fall by the wayside was the BJP’s claim of providing a bhaymukta samaj (fearless society). Law and order is at its worst in the state, with an average of 22 murders and 15 dacoities per day and two abductions per week. Still, Kalyan continues to claim that the situation is better than it was under his predecessors.

When the Chief Minister has struck back, it has backfired. His address to IPS officials at a gathering to get results and “I will bethere to save you in any eventuality” is believed to have led to a spree of fake encounters in the state. More than 100 people with no or minor criminal background — including a minor in Rae Bareli district and five Muslim youths in Muzzafarnagar — were reportedly shot dead by trigger-happy policemen.

The BJP’s assertions against crime were further undermined by the fact that at least 36 of its own MLAs have a shady past.

The party inspired little confidence on the economic front too when it imposed a 95-member Cabinet on a state whose coffers are almost empty. The cash crunch has also grounded development works, which the Kalyan Government claims are a priority area.

The bickerings among its members, meanwhile, have rubbished the BJP’s claims ot being a cohesive unit and a party with a difference. Perhaps for the first time in the party, senior leaders are making their differences public.

Kalyan is in an almost open war with state BJP president Kalraj Mishra, with both blaming each other beforethe central leadership. Along with Urban Development Minister Lalji Tandon and Rajnath Singh, Mishra is believed to be plotting Kalyan’s ouster.

Tandon has also complained against the “autocratic functioning” of Kalyan. The Chief Minister admits that people within the party are “trying to denigrate my image”.

Raj Bhavan hasn’t made his life easier. While the controversial Romesh Bhandari had made Kalyan’s dismissal a crusade of sorts, the new Governor, Suraj Bhan, also has the Chief Minister on the mat. A Dalit himself, Bhan has made his displeasure obvious over the “neglect” of his community and the deteriorating law and order.

Within a few days of assuming power, Bhan had expressed concern at the growing crime rate and pulled up officials for the “poor maintenance” of parks named after Dalit leaders in Varanasi and Lucknow. He had even met Dalit officials to get a feedback on the Kalyan Government’s welfare measures for the community.

Bhan’s “displeasure” was apparently behind the ChiefMinister’s decision to permit completion of the Ambedkar Park in Lucknow. This must have been particularly humiliating for Kalyan as he had himself ordered suspension of work on the project a brain child of his bete noire, Mayawati and an inquiry into alleged misuse of funds in the construction. The Bhan-Kalyan differences have also dashed the BJP’s hopes of wooing Dalits, as the party had hoped to do by bringing in a Dalit as Governor.

Even one of his government’s major achievements — the lifting of the 21-year-old ban on the Azadari procession in Lucknow — may not help the BJP much. Though Kalyan managed to solve a dispute that has rankled Muslims for long, they are not likely to swing in a hurry towards the party responsible for the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

The BJP Government’s other “achievement”, if it can be called that, has been formation of the Legislator’s Fund, enabling each MLA to draw a sum of Rs 50 lakh from the state treasury for his constituency.

Nature too has been harsh onKalyan. Since he took over, Uttar Pradesh has seen several landslides — including the one in which pilgrims to Kailash-Mansarovar were killed — and one of this century’s worst floods. Around 1,500 people have died in the calamities.

To make it worse, after an aerial survey of Gorakhpur one of the areas hit by the floods last week, Vajpayee accused Kalyan of not sending a memorandum seeking funds to cope with the natural disasters. A memorandum was reportedly hurriedly prepared then and presented to Vajpayee the next day, though now Kalyan is claiming a letter sent by him to the Centre on floods was lost by the PMO.

However, few are willing to believe the Chief Minister these days. Samajwadi Party MLA Ashok Bajpai sums up his predicament. “There is no government in Uttar Pradesh,” Bajpai says.

“Take the law and order, rising prices of essential commodities and a total blackout on the development front into consideration, and no one will think a government is working here. The bunch ofunprincipled and corrupt leaders governing the state have no interest in its welfare but are operating for their own aggrandisement.”