HQ Of Hell

Each time I go to Lucknow, which is less and less often, I come back in a bad mood. The politics of caste and the politics of revenge dominate the province. The winds of change, threatening to touch even Bihar, have entirely passed UP by. Lucknow is a chaotic, dirty, collapsing, goonda town. You can accuse me of nostalgia for glorious times past, but that is not my main lament. If you make a list of all the things that keep our republic corrupt, backward, communal and divided, all the things that you would wish to banish from public life, you will find them in abundant measure in UP.

It would be unfair to blame Mulayam and Amar Singh for the mess. Successive governments have looted UP literally and metaphorically. The state would have happily put up with a Pratap Singh Kairon, the famously crooked chief minister of Punjab, who took your money but at least delivered on whatever he had promised. In Uttar Pradesh they take your money and renege on the promises. It is a familiar tale of 21st century India—with one cruel twist. In some of the other states where governance is of a similar low quality, there is incipient hope. Nitish Kumar may lack Narendra Modi's gift for attracting investment but he has brought some welcome law and order to lawless Bihar. And the first stirrings of development are visible.

In UP, whatever the outcome on May 11, the Lucknow-wallah can expect more of the same, with perhaps new faces doing the old dirty work. A spot of President's rule, in the circumstances, is the best the citizen can hope for.