Is Governance only about spoils of war? Yes, in Uttar Pradesh.

Read the following two paragraphs translated from  the book ‘Babar, First of the Moguls’ written by Grenard, Fernand.

“Babur rewarded his men by distributing the huge quantities of loot that came with victory, and allowed those of his followers who wanted to return to Afghanistan to do so, escorting more booty to reward his people who had stayed behind.”

“After securing the public treasures himself and saving those pieces with a cultural value, he liberally distributed the rest among his troops, thus ensuring their loyalty.” 

During the medieval times it was normal for the victorious Kings to raid the vanquished for all valuables and to share the loot among the generals, army commanders, soldiers or anyone else who had contributed to winning the battle, either in the form of bonus for the battle already won or to motivate them for the rest of the campaign. The booty could be gold, silver, precious jewels, artifacts or even women.  

Superimpose this to the modern times where electoral battles have replaced the violent wars. Power now flows from the ink on the ballot paper or push of a button on EVM and not from the tip of the sword. But war is war and the stakeholders still have to be rewarded. The loot still needs to be shared, either as performance bonus for the battle which got over or for the ones coming up in future.

But yes, the beneficiaries have changed. The claimants for a share of the loot are caste or religious leaders who herd their sheep to vote for the specific party or candidate, local strongmen who provide influence & muscle for the campaign, criminals who are the muscle, corrupt police officers who can close their eyes or look the other way when the previous two go on their shenanigans and lastly the foot soldier or the public who goes on to vote despite everything.

The expectations of each claimant are different from their perspective but similar when viewed from issue of governance. Every interest group wants special benefits for itself at the cost of others. They also want the administration and police to work according to their needs especially looking the other way when they go around with their anti social and illegal activities. In short they want benefits, patronage & immunity from law.

All political parties need such people in the campaign and consequently all governments indulge them. it is believed to be an accepted evil and remains so, as long as it is as a small, insignificant factor in the overall scheme of governance and does not affect the basic thrust of the administration. Some examples of such selective actions are electricity bill waiver given by AAP government to those who participated in the agitation, UPA taking out and dusting off the reservation for Muslims from the backward quota just before every elections, monthly stipend given to employees of religious places of one community by Mamata government in West Bengal or reservation given to Jats in Haryana (shocking, they actually owned the whole administration, even before reservation)  

The shit hits the fan when such blatant distribution of loot becomes the basis of governance, when major (and most) decisions are taken considering the stakeholders and not according to the established rules of administration or law.

And in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the shit seems to have hit the fan. 

UP Government, led by Akhilesh Yadav, who in turn is supervised by five of senior leaders including his father, seems to be running only according to the wishes of those who either helped win the few seats in the last elections or those who would help in the next. While those who have not voted for ruling Party and are not likely to vote for them  have next time too seem to have forfeited their rights as citizens as the whole state has been divided into two parts i.e. ‘with us’ and ‘against us’ and every rule of administration or law is hostage to this division.

Mulayam Singh Yadav issues a statement on rape being a small mistakes by youngmen, belittling the grave crime because he is forced by the religion of the accused in the Mumbai journalist rape case, Azam Khan instructing policemen to release the accused (of rape again) in Khatauli because they belong to the same religion, followers of which are more likely to vote for them, government being unable to act against the policemen who advised the perpetrators of Badayun’s shameful rape & murder of two minors to hang them from a tree, Akhilesh sending repeated advice to district administration of riot affected areas for removal of cases against specific individuals, treating riot accused as state guests who are transported to state capital on a state plane, denying electric supply to constituencies which voted against them and giving uninterrupted to those which voted members of the family, the list is endless.

With every incident, UP state government has strengthened the impression that all the resources of the state including the law and order machinery are only at the disposal of those who vote and support the ruling party, or are more likely to be doing so, in the next round. The party leaders have no pretence about keeping such an impression from gaining further ground. The sharing of war loot is on and it is being distributed to all those who were on the side of victorious with complete disregard to the fact that we are supposed to be a democracy and governed by law.

It would be imbecile to think that despite such clear cut messages of preferential treatment sent out by the Chief Minister and super CMs, any official when needed to take a decision or make an allocation would do so without bias or affection, fear or favor as he or she is required to do so. It is safe to assume that the each component of the administration checks the political leanings of the criminal or accused, pleader or beneficiary, whether individual or in a group before taking any decision.

If there is one state in India where article 356 needs be invoked for dismissing the state government, citing failure of constitutional machinery and breakdown of law & order, it is Uttar Pradesh. This statue has been used several times for the wrong reasons but that is no reason for not using it for all the right reasons.