To govern a state of such size and population of France and UK put together is not easy at the best of times. Successive regimes have resorted to gimmicks and appeasement politics to keep the masses amused and confused. The people in the state are used to it, bringing change here is not easy. UP treats changes in Government as cropping patterns, when a new regime makes way for the old, a new set of Mafias emerge who in fact are the old ones with recycled Gamchas and car flags. The present fashiontrend  is saffron, it is not uncommon to find UPites changing car flags with change in regime, nothing is permanent here not even political affiliations.

Ask a common man and he will tell you that though corruption has reduced at top (ministerial) level however the hardened Babu at Block and District level has only regenerated and reinvented himself, the loser is the Mantriji who in the first place changed parties from Blue or Green to Saffron to get a piece of the Cheese, but Yogi just moved his cheese. The Mantri can no longer recruit and give contacts to his army of camp followers and sycophants galore.

Mantris and politicians come and go, but the malignancy in the system is caused by the bureaucracy and the Police so used to Licence Raj, cuts and 'ChaltaHai' attitude that no doses of chemotherapy can cure this cancer. Therein lies the catch , something which Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh was able to exploit and use as a tool by keeping the Babu amused, well fed and pliant and BehenjiMayawati by keeping them well fed and scared in turn. Yogi is denying them their rightful pie, a divine right assumed by generations of well-fedBabus.

In the particular case though the civil arm of bureaucracy is still under check and controlled it’s the Police which has failed miserably. Unlike the UP Police’s cousin in Delhi or Haryana or Chandigarh or the well of cousins in say Sikkim and say TN or Karnatka the UP Police wallah is the butt of jokes and derisive mirth straight out of a Bollywood movie alaDabang. They say a man is known by his clothes and bearing, the Gutka chewing,

potbellied, Gamcha around his neck,the policemanresembles a Dacoit from Bundelkhand’sravines more than a symbol of authority and confidence.
It’s now not common to see Police extracting money from overloaded trucks that responsibility has been handed over to the red beret toting,

emaciated Home Guards. The biggest casualty in all this is twofold perpetuated by absence of firstly Soft Skills, totally lacking in a brute, hardened, rough Police Force lacking in skills which are a dampener for business and industry and more apt for insurgency areas.

Secondly what hurts the most to the common man is the absence of rule of law on the roads. In UP's capital Lucknow the best way to identify a driver from outside the State is one who takes a turn around the traffic roundel from the left, such a law abiding driver is greeted with derision and mirth by the hardened drivers of UP. Size matters in UP an SUV with a party flag hurtling down its highways has a rightful place with its posse of Gamcha clad, bearded occupants and party flag adoring the bonnet with a stylised, fancy number bought at a cost.

MIND YOU , today UP Police responds in 5 Minutes flat after Dialling 100, see it for yourself and the Women’s Helpline is effective, but it’s the attitude of the common policeman on the ground that is appalling. It’s a reactive force abandoning its duty on the roads and towns and villages waiting for accidents, incidents to happen and the Kushinagar Train collision is just an example of it.

(The writer is Senior Feature Writer, CapitalKhabar.in)