Jubilee Post News & Views
Utkarsh Sinha
Before anything read these lines of Adam Gondavi –
Tumhari filon mein gaon ka mausam gulabi hai
Magar ye akden jhoothe hain ye dawa kitabi hai
(तुम्हारी फाइलों में गाँव का मौसम गुलाबी है
मगर ये आंकड़े झूठे हैं ये दावा किताबी है)
Udhar jahooriyat ka dhol pite ja rahe hain wo
Idhar parde ke peeche barbariyat hai, nawabi hai
(उधर जम्हूरियत का ढोल पीटे जा रहे हैं वो
इधर परदे के पीछे बर्बरीयत है, नवाबी है।)
For the past 15 days the suppressed are on the road and the government is busy playing with statistics. If the government announcements are considered the sky looks pink and the very moment the loo on the road changes the pleasant weather to very hot.
The pictures of those compelled to walk miles on foot are heart wrenching but the ones sitting on chair cant see them. It now feels they do not want to see even. The party in power has so much confidence upon the bureaucracy that it does not want to look in to the facts.
Principally it is believed that a government elected in democratic set up understands the pain of people but in the present era this principal appears fake. This has many reasons. The UP CM says before the cameras that 90 lakh jobs have been created and while saying so he is misleading his discretion and actually reading the pages given by his officials.
Crores of rupees are being transferred in to bank accounts and attempt is focused to make headlines. Union minster Smriti Irani says 80 crore families have been provided ration. Instead of asking her the questions that there are not so many families in the country the news anchors are mesmerized over this. The anchor has to scream repeatedly over this. Smiriti also must have been provided with the data by her officers.
Union minister Piyush Goyal says none died of hunger. But on the number of those dying on road he is silent. The PM is announcing 20 lakh crore package and finance minister is explaining it in installments. But none is able to understand it. And amid all this the labour is walking barefoot despite he is not sure how far will he be allowed to walk further. The government took 15-days to understand how these migrant labours should be sent back home. When government in Maharashtra announced the return the officers made a form in English and asked the migrants to email it. Who will tell them the labours do not understand this language neither such a process.
The representatives from Uttar Pradesh have no responsibility. The queue of 55 ministers is sitting idle. They try to announce a few things but the bureaucracy does not allow it to go any further. The time when panel of ministers should have been working the bureaucrats have taken those chairs.
A team-11 has been constituted for the epidemic and it has turned out nothing but a statistical force. The CM was made to believe that companies upset with China will come to Uttar Pradesh and for this labour rules were relaxed and when the matter reached court after defaming the administration all over the decision to increase working hours was taken back.
Labours returning home will get work but despite this announcement their means to reach back home wasn’t fair enough. This work was not so difficult. It only required a little planning. But officers do not think as they are not accountable towards the people. Bureaucrats are answerable towards government and government is thinking only what officials have told it.
The state has a fleet of 20000 and they are distributed in all the districts. It was difficult to make all migrant workers sit in buses from where they were spotted but this government took 15-days to think on this option and if this took so long the reason is over dependency upon bureaucracy for such decisions.
It was easy to feed the crowd on roads. Many sensitive people did this. The government but could not. Now from where the statistics came for 80 crore being fed is something which only Smriti Irani could tell.
The government is the biggest machinery but it has to run in that manner. if the machine is asked to run by its own it wont function well. But it UP the picture is somewhere similar to this only. Our strong political leaders are falling weak before officers. They have been made to understand that if they work alone and are seen like that their image will improve.
Former chief minister Kalyan Singh used to say, ‘Bureaucracy is that horse that understands everything by the manner in which reins in the horse tack are held by the rider. If the tight grip loses a little they bring the rider down on the earth.’ Here the rein is held by the horse itself.
