EVEN AS the Congress was making bureaucratic noises about development and groping in the dark over issues related to poverty and development in Uttar Pradesh, the young leader of the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Singh Yadav was putting down his ideas on paper for the new Samajwadi Party, with the aim to take the state out of the poverty cycle towards a new dawn.

 

“Ummeed ki Cycle,” this cycle of hope when finally emerged and released by Akhilesh Yadav is today known as the Samajwadi Party’s new manifesto, and it has the promise to race the SP cycle against the celebrity studded Congress bandwagon of formidable Netas from all over India.

 

Muslims, by and large form 20 per cent of the population in Uttar Pradesh and some may say that the Samajwadi Party is the only party talking today about Muslims and their welfare. Akhilesh Yadav has even included special provisions for the recruitment of Muslims in the security services and a policy of ‘quota within quota’ for backward Muslims. But Akhilesh’s manifesto is not about Muslim appeasement alone, in fact it has nothing to do with Muslim appeasement and it only seeks the betterment of the poor and the marginalized in Uttar Pradesh, unfortunately Muslims form most of the poor and marginalized in the state.

 

The safeguards to protect the poor are galore in the manifesto. Reliable sources within the party and in the media circles have revealed that Akhilesh took keen interest in the preparation of SP manifesto personally and guided his party office bearers to include these points in a cast iron manner into it. The total ban against FDI in retail may not go down well with the Congress Party supporters and big business houses but the small traders in the state have come out to support the same.

 

Imran Quereshi, who owns a mutton shop, says if foreign companies are allowed to enter into the goat market and if they begin exporting mutton and beef from India then the prices of meat would go north and all non-veg lovers then have to shell out more money to eat mutton say at Rs 500 per kg and beef well over Rs 250 per kg. The reason is that they will render small scale operations unprofitable. Therefore Akhilesh economics is more down to earth than Manmohan economics despite the gentleman’s many economic accomplishments.

 

Even if the Central govt. forces FDI into the country the state of Uttar Pradesh will have its own safeguards against them. Land acquisition will not be cheap or easy and land will have to be acquired at least 6 times the circle rate. Moreover, one person from a family whose land is acquired will be given a job and in case of senior citizens only two persons shall get a pension. This defeats the Nehruvian concept of not giving market or equitable compensation for acquiring land.

 

In a job-starved state, Akhilseh did not make noises about people from UP roaming around as beggars in other states. He merely offers jobs and more jobs and industrialization as a solution to a work and job starved Uttar Pradesh.  Here too, he addresses the plight of the common man who finds employment a scarce commodity. At least the common man knows what is on the platter after reading the manifesto designed by Akhilesh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party. In the case of the Congress we only hear bureaucratic noises and the silence of ambiguity.

 

The image of police and law and order has taken a severe beating under the BSP regime, more than a dozen ruling party politicians are in jail and more than a dozen officials died in mysterious circumstances, the common man has never felt more insecure. Incidents like the death of an engineer in Auraiyya and everyday incidents of innocents being implicated in false cases by the police in a display of gross misuse of their powers is frowned upon by the SP manifesto.  There is a general impression among the masses that the BSP regime has institutionalized corruption to such an extent that the govt. officials and police are being used to extort and pass on money to the top politicians in the state. In such a situation if the manifesto says that the SP will crush criminals, restore law and order and also deal severely with those who implicate persons in false cases the electorate would surely turn their weight behind Samajwadi Party candidates in the elections.

 

This issue has been raised time and again by many that during the BSP regime several persons were implicated in false cases and even the Congress has been silent on many fronts regarding the implication of innocents in cases ranging from terrorism to fake encounters. On the economic front the manifesto admits that the state’s main resource farmers are in need of support and help and promises a better purchase and distribution system. Insurances schemes and an alternative to FDI where the state shall do away with the middle man to curb price rise. The impact of FDI will destroy artisans and farmers and most Muslims are artisans and farmers so here too the manifesto while benefiting all will also benefit a large chunk of Muslims.

 

The development of the state too is on the agenda, better highways, better connectivity and better power supply mean all round development of the state. Now what will be the final outcome of all the political hard work and promises that have been made in the election manifestos, we have to wait till March 6 when the election results will be announced.