Can The Son Rise Again?

On March 15, 2012, when he was sworn in as the youngest chief minister of any Indian state, 38-year old Akhilesh Yadav was seen as a man with an urge and determination to take a 바카라�bimaru바카라� (sick) Uttar Pradesh out of the woods.

Twenty-seven months down the line , his report card looks pathetic . Far from emerging as a man with a magic wand, Akhilesh has turned out to be just another beneficiary of a dynastic succession바카라�somewhat akin to Rahul Gandhi, who, despite all the greatness being thrust upon him, could not rise to the occasion.

The turning point in his career바카라�which came with the stern snub he gave to mafia don turned politician D.P. Yadav , who was seeking a SP ticket in the 2012 state assembly election바카라�apparently remained a one-time wonder. In the two years that have gone by, Akhilesh failed to display that spark ever again. He has belied the hopes and expectations of all his admirers whose vote gave his party the surge of 224 seats in a 403 member state assembly.

Once on the hot seat with a mandate he or his peers had not imagined, the euphoria went a little too far. His father Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party patriarch, began to nurture dreams of reaching 7 Race Course Road. And 바카라�Lakshya 2014: Delhi바카라� became the buzzword, often emboldened on huge posters and even stickers pasted on screens of vehicles of SUV-savvy Samajwadi activists across the length and breadth of the state.

Akhilesh took off on a positive note바카라�fulfilling all his election promises바카라�like giving away laptops, unemployment allowance and other freebies like Vidya Kanyadhan to young girls and a couple of other scholarships to different sections of society.

However, he seemed to overlook in the bargain that freebies could not be the end-all of governance. Apparently, his peers led him to believe that other than these doles, the only thing he needed to concentrate was his party바카라�s caste and creed configuration. And evidently, that is what turned him into a complacent young man  who lost direction even before he could set out on his governance journey.

To compound his pitfalls came an overbearing army of 'uncles' holding key positions in the government de facto headed by a fidgety father, who, for whatever reason, could not let the son run the show on his own. What had begun as a crude joke바카라�'UP has five and a half chief ministers of which Akhilesh is half'바카라�soon gained ground.

Even those who had reposed much faith in him started getting disillusioned when they found Akhilesh often doing things for which he had always condemned and criticized his party바카라�s most sworn adversary, former Chief Minister Mayawati. That included her habit of avoiding the Chief Minister바카라�s office and instead functioning from the CM바카라�s official residence at 5 Kalidass Marg.

True, the VVIP Kalidass Marg was not impregnable anymore (Mayawati had made it out of bounds for common people). Deviating from Mayawati바카라�s legacy of making herself completely inaccessible to all and sundry, Akhilesh re-started the traditional 바카라�Janata durbar바카라� where thousands converged from different corners of the state.

But he began to show the first signs of his weak convictions when he allowed himself to be misguided by his coterie of bureaucrats who advised him "what a waste of time" the 바카라�janata durbar바카라� was. The ritual, which was widely welcomed by the man on the street, was initially reduced from five times a week affair to four days and shortly thereafter to once a week and eventually to once a month. A bureaucrat close to him was once heard impressing upon him: 바카라�These janata durbars make no sense as people come with too many expectations that cannot be fulfilled.바카라�

From losing focus on the poor and needy, he also began to pay lesser attention to vital issues of governance and instead started spending more time with his personal coterie of friends. Bureaucrats functioning closely with him began to feel serious deficiency of attention even on serious issues.

The result was obvious. In the absence of strong conviction, deficiency of attention and lack of urge to understand the problems or to look for pragmatic solutions and, above all, the readiness to lie prostate whenever asked to bend, left Akhilesh with a sharply plummeted credibility and lost 바카라�iqbal바카라�. Each time he reversed his own orders on key issues바카라�be it allowing MLAs to buy SUVs out of their constituency fund, or closing malls at 6 pm to conserve electricity바카라�his partymen hailed him for 바카라�showing courage to review his own decisions.바카라� But little did they realize that such actions only portrayed him in poorer light.

Even as his graph went down, he failed to realize the need for a strong and upright team of advisers in the form of bureaucrats who believed in delivery. Rather he preferred sycophancy in comparison to merit and did not hesitate to shield the corrupt and the inefficient until he received a rap from the High Court. Criticism became a taboo, and filtered information became the order of the day, keeping both the son and father in a fool바카라�s paradise. Oblivious of harsh ground realities ,they went to the hustings with an air of overconfidence that could be shaken only by the results on May 16 when the party stood reduced from 23 to a paltry tally of just four in the Lok Sabha . Other than four members of the ruling Yadav clan바카라�Mulayam, daughter-in-law Dimple and nephews Dharmendra and Akshay바카라�all of SP바카라�s nominees were devastated by its arch political foe바카라�BJP which took its numbers from 10 to 73.

Akhilesh's failure to look beyond caste and religion바카라�for which he did not hesitate to overlook serious law and order issues바카라�allowed the precipitation of a deep crisis in the form of the Muzaffarnagar riots which left as many as 62 (most of them Muslims) dead.

What was worse was that even after the more recent brutal happening in Katra village of Budaun district바카라�where two young minor sisters were not only gangraped and done to death but were also hanged from a tree바카라�the chief minister did not even think it necessary to visit the fateful village. Far from that, his supporters and peers went to the extent of adding insult to injury. Instead of reprimanding Akhilesh for having displayed his insensitivity through his remark 바카라�aap to safe hain; phir ja kar prachar karo바카라�, his uncle and the party바카라�s most important general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav (also known as SP바카라�s think-tank) went to the extent of accusing the media as being responsible for rapes.

With father Mulayam Singh Yadav having earlier expressed his outrageous view on rapes when he tried to dismiss the heinous crime as a typical boyish 바카라�mistake바카라� , the party바카라�s mindset was loud and clear. Notwithstanding SP's oft repeated assertions that prompt action was taken against the culprits, the utterances of father, son and uncle were a clear indication of their still being in denial mode.

Albeit late in the day, Akhilesh did appear to be shaking himself out of his inertia when he went on his first 바카라�surprise바카라� inspection on June 4. He did take by surprise the lax officials of Shravasti district where as many as six came under his new found axe . Only time will tell whether this too remains a cosmetic one-shot wonder or it would be a sustained exercise to retrieve the much lost ground at a time when the iron is hot for the BJP and it is now vociferously demanding imposition of the President바카라�s rule.

By Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow. This piece does not appear in print