A Ramlila in Lucknow

On Monday the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh enacted in full public glare a shoddy drama that has ill-served the largest state in the country. This unedifying spectacle has brought out the struggle within the Samajwadi Party over the Mulayam Singh Yadav mantle. Age, poor health and circumstances have combined to render Mulayam Singh Yadav a toothless lion, who is no longer able to command undisputed respect in the animal kingdom. Other predators have made their presence felt in the marked territory. And the Chief Minister, the young cub, wants to chart out on his own. Laws of jungle are imputable.

Perhaps the Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav,  is the only winner in this political  Ramlila. To the extent he is seen as having thrown the gauntlet to his very, very unlovable uncle, Shivpal Yadav, the young Chief Minister has carved out a niche for himself as a protagonist for ‘clean politics.’ Akhilesh Yadav, undoubtedly, is the only young leader in Uttar Pradesh and if he can create a distance between himself and his assorted uncles who practise politics of caste and criminals, he would emerge as the rightful inheritor of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s political legacy, in and beyond Uttar Pradesh.  

The Lucknow show would have had something to commend to itself if the Samajwadis were fighting for some principle or ideological issue. Instead, it is all too obvious that the fight has got degenerated into a simple, old-fashioned feudal family feud, with the patriarch and his many offspring and relatives engaging in conspiracies and intrigues. A political party is a public institution; the Yadav family has reduced the Samajwadi Party to a real estate, to be divided among different claimants. Whatever be the final denouement of this family drama, the voters in Uttar Pradesh can be relied upon to thrash this party for squabbling so unbecomingly in public and for squandering away esteem and respect that the citizen must feel for the administration and its political instrument. The Samajwadi Party has lost all claims to a mandate for a second term in Uttar Pradesh.