Copyright@kamleshsujata1
When Pratibha Devi Singh Patil
was contesting President’s election, Shiv Sena decided to vote for her enbloc,
even when she was a Congress candidate, just because she was a Maharashtrian.
They say ethnic food,
language, and minorities have tremendous potential to unite. Unfortunately UP
(Uttar Pradesh) has none even when it happens to be the biggest state of India. Its mere
name Uttar Pradesh means the northern province and does not denote any form of
ethnicity. Its mother tongue happens to be Hindi. So what? everyone speaks
Hindi—sab bolte hain, and so it doesn’t create that fusion amongst
UPites, as it would in case of Tamilians, Maharashtrians, Bengalis, Gujaratis or
Punjabis to cite a few examples.
It even does not have that ethnic
umbrella of food which by sheer name hyperlinks you to the concerned state like—Idli,
Dosa Sambar connects you to Tamil Nadu, fish to Bengal, Chole Bhature to Punjab
and Dhokla to Gujarat to name a few. It has an ordinary culinary stream of Dal Roti, Saag,
Sabzi, Kabaabs and Mithai to mention a few, which most states
of the north have, so there again there is no pull. And, so the underground
connect that some the other states have by virtue of language, food and ethnicity
is largely missing in this state.
Though UP was, and still is the
live-wire political capital of India with 84 seats in Lok Sabha and 31 in Rajya
Sabha it was always a case of chirag tale andhera. It never developed
like other states and always basked in the comfortable backyards of Delhi. And, sadly
the MPs from UP only bickered with each other across party lines and the trend still goes
on, even when every other state of India is fighting tooth and nail to get new
industries and investments into their states. And so, can we expect giants like
Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rajnath Singh, Mayawati and Rahul
Gandhi all from UP, ever coming together for the cause of U.P? The answer is
big no.
Eight of India’s fifteen Prime
Ministers were from Uttar Pradesh: Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira
Gandhi, Charan Singh, Rajeev Gandhi, V.P.Singh, Chandrashekhar and Atal Bihari
Vajpayee apart from various other senior union cabinet ministers who have
represented U.P. But still it is a laggard state. And no one knows whom to blame,
whether the political class of the state and so also the citizenry.
For some Prime Ministers it
was understandable as they had short stints and came in much later in the day, but
some had long initial stints post India’s independence and still couldn’t provide
that initial desired impetus of industrialization and development.
In fact Mrs Indira Gandhi
coolly handed over the Integral Coach Factory tipped for Allahabad, to Kaputhala in Punjab while
Punjab agitation was at its peak only to please the Sikhs, not realising how bad
Uttar Pradesh must have felt especially when Phoolpur-Allahabad was Jawahar Lal
Nehru’s constituency; and all her life Mrs Gandhi fought elections from Rae-bareilly
in UP.
After Indira Gandhi now Rahul
Gandhi the scion of Gandhi parivar is taking Rae-Bareilly for a ride by not taking
the food park project seriously when it was sanctioned to him in 2010 and with
all the influence at his command he could have seen the project through and got
so many in Rae-Bareilly employed. And, so one fails to understand why Congress
Party tries to take Uttar Pradesh for granted.
And looking at the plight of
U.P. today, it is important that the MPs of Uttar Pradesh unite for a change and not
let the food park go out to some other state. Even Aklesh Yadav’s government should
provide all clearances asap. For one food park or a coach factory will not make
any difference in the life of Gandhis, but will certainly make a lifetime of a difference
in the lives of the common man from Uttar Pradesh.
TOI news item- ‘UPA refused
cheap gas supply to Rahul project.’ says it all.
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