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Kalyan completes a lacklustre year in office

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

When Kalyan Singh assumed the UP chief minister's office for the second time on September 21 last year, after staging a major political coup against the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, no one expected his loosely knitted multi-party coalition to last. But in his bid to prove all and sundry wrong, Kalyan kept survival on top of his agenda. And it was no wonder, therefore, that the completion of his first year in office was celebrated with much fanfare.

Kalyan was on top of the world, with party workers, friends and sycophants coming up with novel ways to felicitate their leader. And a usually busy Kalyan was only too willing to let them have all the time in the world. Kalyan, far different from what he was as chief minister in 1991-1992, was full of rhetoric. Tall announcements and loud claims became the order of the day.

The state's propaganda machinery, that had been rehearsing its act for the past so many weeks, was at its best to give out detailed brochures, journals and pamphlets to project the chief minister as one who had never been seen before by the country's most populous state. If the statistics and official claims were to be believed, UP was virtually heaven on earth.

But was all this fanfare warranted? Surely, there was no doubt that it was a big triumph for Kalyan, who had managed to fight against all odds. But then, at what cost? After all, could Kalyan live up to his image of an upright man of steel, who would brook no nonsense from any quarter, and one who would stick to his principles at all costs? Had he not made too many compromises?

Perhaps these questions would not have come up in the case of a Mayawati or for that matter, even a Mulayam Singh Yadav, from whom expectations were few. However, not only did these questions become pertinent in Kalyan's case, but also came up quite naturally on the completion of one year in office, virtually clouding the good he had, nevertheless, been able to do for this gigantic and problem ridden state.

Kalyan has, no doubt, achieved milestones in certain areas, but the image of a tough administrator had taken a beating, leave alone the political dissension within the BJP that have left the chief minister and some of his dubious colleagues locked in a clearly visible war. But even on the administrative front, he had failed to pursue his agenda of a corruption-free and fear-free society.

If he was unable to keep a tab on the rampant corruption in some of the ministries, it was understandable, because, politically, he was in no position to fix them. After all, the foundations of his government were laid on a loosely-held, fragile base of varying shares of political opportunism, devoid of common ideologies or objectives. And when there was no way he could tell minister A belonging to one of the two coalition partners to refrain from indulging in corruption, he could not muster up courage to restrain his own party ministers to stop running their respective departments like their personal fiefdom.

In the ministries of public works, irrigation, health and energy in particular, things were at their worst. Corruption reigned supreme while bribery was the order of the day as there was a price for every job -- a transfer, a posting or award of contract. In fact, looking back at the performance of most ministers, it seems that only transfers and postings and innovating ways and means to fill their coffers remained on top of their agenda.

The common man's hopes, generated by Kalyan's oft echoed slogan of Kanoon ka raj hoga, bhay mukta samaj hoga (there will be rule of law and fear-free society) had already been dashed. He could see no difference between the governance of Kalyan Singh and his predecessor government -- be it the BSP, the Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal or the Congress.

Even ardent BJP supporters wondered why the BJP had failed to live up to their expectations of providing good governance. As retired metallurgy scientist K N Srivastava puts it, "We had devotedly worked for the rise of BJP, because we expected them to bring about a new work culture in government functioning, to look into the problems faced by ordinary citizens, but they have proved to be no better or different from others."

School teacher Nalini Sharad feels the same way. "While voting wholeheartedly for the BJP, one did visualise a government with a difference --at least where the prevailing corruption levels were concerned -- but what a disappointment, the BJP misters are as neck deep in malpractice as those in governments over the past." Likewise Manoj Kapoor, a prominent local businessman, finds the deals with various government departments as 'no different from the past.' He has even begun to believe that corruption levels have gone up rather than coming down under the regime of an upright man like Kalyan Singh, or for that matter, a clean Atal Bihari Vajpayee sitting in the country's top chair.

On the law and order front, too, there is hardly any visible change, except, of course, the liquidation of a large number of criminals and their gangs. The most prized catch was the gunning down of dreaded gangster Sri Prakash Shukla, who figured among India's most wanted criminals. And what came as a boon for Kalyan was the timing of Shukla's liquidation -- September 20, the eve of his first anniversary in the chief minister's chair.

Shukla's killing in an encounter with a special task force on the Delhi-UP border not only made headlines, but as the news broke out, it brought much applause to the chief minister from an unexpected quarter -- the Opposition benches in the state assembly that was then in session. For a change there were bouquets instead of brickbats for Kalyan, though of course, his detractors have begun to point out that the police zeroed in on Shukla only after one BJP MP went about declaring that the chief minister himself was on the gangster's target.

However, the liquidation of about 181 criminals in a special anti-crime drive has failed to bring about much difference in perception for the man on the street, as he goes through the same travails at the hands of goondas, local toughs and extortionists as before.

Even crime figures boldly displayed at the police headquarters show a marked rise. For instance, if murders had gone up from 4,924 in 1997 to 5,453 now, dacoities too had increased from 428 to 594 now. Likewise, rapes have registered a rise from 815 to 929 over this period. Incidents of rape, that were the highest in the state capital have shown an increase from 132 to 164.

But Additional Director General of Police Ajay Raj Sharma attributes this to "a positive change in the attitude of the police to register every crime". Known as a fortright and tough cop, Sharma, who also masterminded the killing of gangster Shukla, went on to explain, "You see, this was simply because we are laying particular emphasis on registering every crime," and offers low crime registration from the past to reinforce his claim. Interestingly, the low crime figures pertain to the regime of Mayawati, when things were at their worst in UP.

Sharma substantiates his claim by taking into account the statistics of three years. "Now you can see for yourself that while there were 5,639 murders in 1996, the figure dropped down to 4,924 in 1996, dacoities came down from 595 to 428, while rapes registered a fall from 1,048 to 815 and kidnappings from 126 to 117." And asks, "Tell me, would you believe that crime level actually came down in 1997?" Significantly, some of the crime figures shown in 1997, were even lower than those of 1991, which is a pointer to the manipulation that apparently took place.

While much appears to be lacking in Kalyan's approach to tackle corruption at various levels in the bureaucracy, he is out to prove that he is a man who is committed towards the overall wellbeing and growth of Uttar Pradesh. This was amply displayed in the series of new policies that he was busy announcing these days.

The beginning of his second year in office was marked with the announcement of a new industrial policy that, among other things, stressed on doing away with many government controls, simplifying procedures, rationalisation of taxes, besides providing new incentives to entrepreneurs. What seemed novel about the policy, was the identification, at the very outset, of basic problems and hurdles that have plagued UP's industrialisation. Together with these were thrashed out the ideal solutions.

For instance, with a view to deterring bureaucratic delays, the new policy has laid down time-bound clearance of projects with accountability for delays fixed on concerned authorities. And Kalyan Singh has coined the new concept of single-table to replace the traditional concept of single window, that drew much criticism at a meet of foreign ambassadors, one of whom had gone to the extent of asking Kalyan, "And what about the side windows?"

Under the new system an industrial project will not take more than 45 days to go through the entire procedure from the time the proposal is submitted to the concerned authority, asserts principal industrial development secretary A P Verma. Udyog Bhandu, the organisation devoted to handing problems of entrepreneurs, has been activated in a big way under a dynamic and forward looking bureaucrat Rohit Nandan.

A brainchild of the then chief minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh in 1980, the organisation had been lying dormant until Kalyan Singh assumed office last year and once again began to personally preside over its monthly meeting when the difficulties of entrepreneurs are taken up on priority under one roof.

Close on the heels of the industrial policy, that was declared at the PHD Chamber of Commerce in New Delhi, came the state's policy on road development -- an entirely new concept, never thought of by previous governments. "We are committed to not only expanding the road network of the state, but also modernising roads by building expressways, flyovers and improving upon the quality," Kalyan said. But what seemed to be new about roads was also the introduction of the private sector in road building that was now to be taken up as a key area of infrastructure development.

However, even this was not without the manifestation of the internal strife within the BJP. PWD minister Kalraj Misra, who sat beside Kalyan when the policy was being formally announced, clearly appeared chagrined at the idea of the chief minister hogging all publicity for declaring the state's road development policy. So no sooner than Kalyan handed over the mike to him to say his bit, Kalraj made it a point to more loudly repeat whatever the chief minister had declared already. And every now and then, he would make it a point to add the cliché that he was doing so with the permission of the chief minister.

The tug of war within was once again visible when on the very next day Kalyan decided to announce his government's "path-breaking energy policy". The chief minister's office issued formal invitations for a luncheon press conference. But no sooner than Energy Minister Naresh Agarwal (belonging to the Loktantrik Congress Party) got a whirl of the proposed announcement, he hurriedly extended another invitation from his side for a press meet at his residence exactly one hour after the scheduled time of the chief minister's.

Clearly the energy minister felt that the chief minister was trying to hijack his show.

But nothing could be resolved until the next morning when there was a cabinet meeting, prior to which some closed door discussion was stated to have taken place between the two. Now, neither were in a position to withdraw their respective invitations and food was nearly ready at the venue of the chief minister's press conference. But what came to the rescue of both was the demise of a renowned artist who had already been ailing in the medical institute in Lucknow. And just as the chief minister decided to cancel the press conference. Naresh Agarwal too followed course, only to extend a fresh invitation on the following day.

But of course, he took care not to call it an announcement of any energy policy. Instead he announced certain major decisions taken at the cabinet meeting with respect to the much awaited bifurcation of generation and distribution of power by the ever ailing UP State Electricity Board, besides large scale privatisation in the energy sector.

Things like ensuring uninterrupted power supply to industries under the new policy were kept up his sleeve -- which sources confirmed, was left out as the chief minister's share of another press conference at a later date.

Kalyan has plans of declaring his policies for information technology, film industry, forest as also for tourism for which he has already drawn up a schedule. Surely, his intentions are loud and clear -- to send the message that Kalyan is not just the saffron man who pulled down the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, but a committed chief minister who has plans to convert UP from what was commonly referred to as 'Ulta Pradesh' to a state with unlimited potential of which he is really assertive these days, notwithstanding the hiccups, hurdles and odds that continue to dog him as they did on day one of his assuming the hot seat in Lucknow.

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