Yogi proposes, but UP bureaucracy disposes

Lucknow: A dissection of the shock defeat of the BJP in the recent Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh has started revealing the suspected role of a miffed bureaucracy in causing the damage and undoing some of the populist measures taken by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in his first year in office.

The BJP’s defeat in Gorakhpur, Mr Adityanath’s former Lok Sabha seat, and Phulpur constituency earlier this month, say observers, is a reflection of the simmering public discontent, partly fuelled by flustered bureaucrats who are upset with the chief minister’s style of functioning.

Almost 300 officials, including IAS and IPS officers, have been transferred by Mr Adityanath in the past one year. Almost a 100 officials from the state government cadre have either been sacked or forced to take voluntary retirement. Soon after the LS bypoll defeats, the state government shunted 80 IAS and IPS officers.

It has taken Mr Adityanath exactly one year in office to realise that a section of the bureaucracy is jeopardising his efforts to fulfil his poll promises and put in place a new governance model.

All that Mr Adityanath proposes, it seems, the bureaucracy disposes and, as a result, the benefits of his projects and schemes fail to percolate down to people. In some cases, well-meaning scheme end up causing embarrassment to the government due to some bureaucrats' leaks about faux pas to the media.

Though having realised where the problem was a bit too late, the chief minister gave a dressing down to three top bureaucrats a day after the by-poll results were out. He made it clear that he would no longer tolerate “mistakes” that were undermining his image and efforts.

When Mr Adityanath took over as chief minister a year ago, he plunged headlong into work. He convened meetings of various departments that began late in the evening and continued till well past midnight. The officials were expected to be back to work at 9.30 am the following day.

As resentment over these unusually long working hours piled up, the then SDM of Amethi, Ashok Kumar Shukla, took to the social media and wrote, “Most of your officials are falling sick due to these marathon meetings”.

Though he was served a show cause notice for this, majority of the bureaucrats supported his views.

“What wrong did he write? Most of us are in our 50s and cannot be expected to change our lifestyle overnight. Working for 18 hours a day has given us problems like hypertension. Many of us are diabetic and irregular eating habits are adding to our woes,” said a principal secretary.

Senior IPS officer Surya Kumar Shukla broke all service rules when he took a pledge last month to build the Ram temple at a public function and IAS officer Raghvendra Vikram Singh made some objectionable posts on the social media after the Kasganj riots. No visible action was taken against both these officers. This caused heartburn among other bureaucrats who saw a clear bias.

A major factor that has angered the officials is the chief minister’s decision to compulsorily retire officers and government employee whose performance was found “lacking”.

“Performance is a very subjective term and our seniors are settling their scores by retiring us. We are going to court and, hopefully, the government will be forced to take back its decision,” said a Class II officer who was given the pink slip last month.In turn, to express their resentment, during a mass marriage programme organised by the government in Auraiyya last month, local officials gave out anklets and toe rings made of iron and plated with silver. The state government had sanctioned '30,000 per couple for gifts at the time of marriage.

As soon as the matter became known, the newly-married couples informed the media and questions were raised on the mass marriage scheme. Guilty officials faced action but the damage had been done.

In Greater Noida, during a similar marriage programme earlier this month, it was found then 10 already married couples were getting re-married because of the money and goodies that came with it. The officials had obviously not verified the credentials of the couples enrolled for the mass marriage. The lapse exposed the state machinery's inefficiency and gave an opportunity to the Opposition leaders to call the Mukhyamatri Samoohik Vivaah Yojana a sham.

Under the scheme, 64 couples tied the knot in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, on March 9. They were given a certificate, a '20,000 cheque and goods of basic necessity like blanket and utensils, among other gifts.

Around the same time, excise department officials held a liquor auction programme at Gandhi Bhawan in Lucknow. Gandhians objected to the choice of the venue while the officials passed the blame on to each other.

Last year, when Mr Adityanath held Diwali celebrations in Ayodhya and recreated the scene from Ramayana where Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya after slaying Ravana, officials got professional models from Delhi to play Lord Ram, Sita and Lakshman.

The media “exposed” the truth and the piety of the event was lost. “The officials could have used the local Ramlila artists to play these characters,” admitted a BJP leader in Ayodhya.

The Adityanath government faced a major embarrassment when it failed to provide sweaters to children in government schools despite promises to do so.

As winter set in, officials claimed that they were not in a position to provide sweaters at a short notice. Things became so embarrassing for the government that state minister for basic education Anupama Jaiswal announced that she would not wear a sweater herself until the over one crore children were given one. The sweaters were finally distributed in February when winter was on its way out and till then the minister did not herself use a sweater but relied upon a designer pashmina shawl and extra heaters in her room.

The worst faux pas by the bureaucracy was during last month’s investors’ meet which was touted as the state government's biggest achievement. The bureaucrats informed the media that the biggest investment of '90,000 crore was coming in from a Korean company, Worldbest Tech.

A TV channel picked up the story and found out that the company in question which had promised to invest '90,000 crore in the state, had holdings worth merely '13 crore.

It took the state government more than a week to issue a clarification and deny that an MoU had been signed with this company. The sheen of the investors' meet dimmed.

Similarly, during the loan waiver scheme for farmers, the state machinery issued cheques for '1 and '2 to farmers which made headlines.

Mr Adityanath, hopefully, has emerged wiser after his first year in office. A supportive bureaucracy is something he cannot do without even if it requires him to take a relook at his style of making officials slog for long hours or effecting frequent transfers, which end up unsettling bureaucrats and their families.

The Lok Sabha elections next year will be the next referendum on his government’s performance and the BJP will heavily rely on him to win a second term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.