From a distance, it looked like a Samajwadi Partyposter. A closer examination revealed it to be a billboard instead, advertisingthe arrival of a new fetish of the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh:the bike track.
You can see them near the governor's bungalow inLucknow, in Agra, at many places in Ghaziabad and even in Bareilly. There areplans to have bicycle tracks in almost all major cities of the state. Ghaziabadalone will soon have a 100-kilometre-long track at an estimated cost of Rs 22crore.
“Yeh sarkar ka naya natak hai. Ise bane mahino hogaye lekin aaj tak maine ismein kisi ko bhi cycle chalate nahin dekha hai (This is the government's new gimmick. The track was built months ago but I am yet to see anyone using it),” said Atyendra Maurya, a resident of Bareilly, leaning onhis motorbike while chatting up with a friend.
New Fetish
A new fetish it indeed is given the way thegovernment has built the tracks across cities without giving any thoughtwhether they will be used at all or not. It all reportedly began with ChiefMinister Akhilesh Yadav's tour of the Netherlands and Germany sometime in 2015.
He is said to have learned how to make bicycle aviable mode of transportation in cities there. From then on there was nolooking back. In many places, hawkers have taken over the tracks to sell theirwares. In Agra, for instance, stretches of the bike track have become restingplaces for cattle. Near the governor's residence in Lucknow, the track is usedonly to switch to the main road.
There is something about the cycle track that does not give you a very comfortable feeling. Every now and then you have to move to the main road. That is the reason why people prefer not to use it at all.A Lucknow-based journalist
Akhilesh's Mamata Effect
Akhilesh's pursuit of the cycle track is similar toWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's obsession with the blue-and-whitecolour coat of paint for government buildings. From pavements to hospitals,from school buildings to government vehicles, her government has paintedeverything blue-and-white.
Surrogate Advertising
She may be attempting to erase everything red (the Marxists'colour). But what Akhilesh is trying is nothing short of what is known assurrogate advertising. After all, bicycle is the Samajwadi Party's electionsymbol. Even his predecessor, Bahujan Samajwadi Party's Mayawati, had embarkedon a similar exercise getting several figures of an elephant, her party'ssymbol, in parks across UP when she was the chief minister.
Patronage Politics
Akhilesh seems to have copied Mamata in terms ofextending the dole culture. Last year, his government launched the Samajwadi PensionYojana (SPY), covering 45 lakh people. This year, the coverage has beenextended to cover 55 lakh people.
According to provisions of the Rs 3,327-crorepension scheme, Rs 500 is directly credited every month to the bank accounts ofsenior women members of each of the identified families.
This is in addition to other running pensionschemes like monthly pension for elderly people, for widows and the physicallychallenged. In his budget speech earlier this year, Akhilesh declared that 11.8million people would be able to avail the benefits of multiple pension schemeswith the expansion of the SPY.
Will Schemes Fetch Returns?
This is one of many schemes the UP government haslaunched recently or has expanded coverage. The SP government recently launcheddirect benefit transfer (DBT) for subsidies given to farmers to procure qualityseeds. It enhanced the insurance amount for farmers in case of accidentaldeaths. It also launched a Rs 400-crore scheme to give assistance to poorfamilies categorised as SCs, STs, minorities and others for the marriage ofdaughters.
Besides, there is a Rs 840-crore scheme forawarding scholarships to Muslim students. The government has set an ambitioustarget of giving Rs 93,212 crore as crop loan to farmers this financial year.
Will Akhilesh's Mamata act pay him rich dividendsin the forthcoming assembly elections? Given the way UP has voted in the lastfour elections, both Lok Sabha and assembly, he will have to do much more towin the hearts and minds of people.
(The writer is Consulting Editor, Business Standard, and contributes regularly toThe Quint on politics and contemporary issues.)
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