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Difficulties of a fourth innings

The tools and skills-set required for an electoral battle are very different from those needed for governance. Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati refashioned strategy and made consequential changes in tactics to make tremendous gains in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. However, as Chief Minister, she will have to contend with the enormous challenge of administering the nation's most populous State. Unfortunately, some of the character flaws that marred her previous three stints in Lucknow are in evidence again. While every new government effects transfers of police officers and secretaries for administrative convenience, the scale of the changes in U.P. after Ms. Mayawati assumed office on May 13 — 200 transfers in two days — suggests not political sobriety but an attitude bordering on vindictiveness. The Mayawati brand of instant justice saw two senior officers of the Indian Administrative Service being suspended on the first day of her government on the charge of failing to properly maintain the Ambedkar Park, which she considers a symbol of the BSP's ideology. The appointment of her confidant, Shashank Shekhar Singh, a non-IAS official, to the newly created post of Cabinet Secretary, ranked above the Chief Secretary, also does not bode well. Mr. Singh could not have become the Chief Secretary under the rules; thus the super post. Evidently, the changes were meant to demonstrate to the bureaucracy the high premium the Chief Minister places on personal loyalty. Ms. Mayawati should realise that such transfers result in a further politicisation of the bureaucracy and the police force, which is bound to tell on the efficiency of the administration.

The BSP leader has won a fourth chance in the Chief Minister's gaddi not on the basis of past performance, but on the strength of her promise of a better future for the people of Uttar Pradesh. Caste bloc building works for those in the opposition; but those in power must deliver on the promise of people-oriented development sooner than later. Identity politics will stop yielding returns when its votaries do not get the expected tangible benefits. Ms. Mayawati cannot hope to sell the politics of vendetta to all her supporters, many of whom are new converts and can move away as quickly as they came in. The Chief Minister must give up her capricious ways, and concentrate on development with a strong focus on employment. Otherwise, she will find it difficult to retain the tremendous goodwill she now enjoys and the sarv samaj slogan will lose its sheen. Governing well is even harder than winning elections.

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