A politically arrogant move

The Sonia Gandhi – Mayawati battle for the political turf in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh gets murkier when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and UP chief minister cancelled a land transfer order for a Central rail-coach factory in Rae Bareli. Though the Allahabad High Court stayed the order, but what followed with the unruly behaviour of a state administration by denying Mrs. Gandhi to address a gathering; only shows the state government’s policy towards development with a narrow and politically arrogant outlook.

Even though Sonia visited her Lok Sabha constituency on Tuesday with an open challenge to the BSP government which had imposed Section 144 of the constitution forbidding any public rally that the UPA Chair Person was meant to hold on the same day, only designates Mayawati’s immature approach in ruling a state only with power and not for people.

Uttar Pradesh, being the largest state with most number of MPs to the Lok Sabha, has been constantly a hot bed for political parties. However, the ongoing political battle between the Centre and the UP government resulted none but the further downturn of the state. The Congress president has accused Mayawati for derailing many centrally funded development projects that have been cleared during the present tenure of UPA government.

To a general understanding, as a State government doesn’t need any permission from the Centre for any development work within the state, the Centre too can carry on without consulting the state. Moreover, there has not been any voice from the farmers of the region opposing to the factory. The latest sting of Mayawati stopping the project is nothing but a clash of ego, which no way is going to serve neither the people nor the BSP itself.

Only if she wants to consolidate her base among the Dalits, such act of one-upmanship may have some short-term gain but not long-lasting when people of every state want development be the soul criteria to choose a party to power. After all, those poor farmers have every right to get benefit from such projects with large number of employment opportunities and the UP Chief Minister shouldn’t forget that her party is in power for development in the state and not in opposition like Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal who finally deprived the eastern India state to have one of the most ambitious project of TATA’s cheapest car—the Nano. It is time for the people to understand the true nature of our politicians.