BSP

The elections in Uttar Pradesh, key to the fortunes of all involved

Very rarely have the state elections in a specific state been so critical for the fortunes of everybody involved. Uttar Pradesh, being the most populous state of the country has always been critical for the political fortunes of the Government at the center. There was a time when it was said that nobody could come to power unless they had power in Uttar Pradesh, but that particular piece of logic has been consigned to the dustbin for more than the past 10 years now. Both, the previous NDA Government and the Current 2 runs of the UPA Government have not held any kind of dominant position in the state, and yet managed to run fairly stable Governments at the center.
In the past, both the Congress and the BJP have held huge political leadership in the state, but first the rise of the BJP as a party that played the Mandir-Masjid card managed to galvanize more power towards itself; but this was a short phenomenon, since the rise of parties representing the backwards has damaged the poll prospects of both the leading national parties (the Congress and the BJP). You had the emergence of 2 more parties that sought to claim the leadership of the backward communities, including the OBC, the Dalits, and the Muslims. Both these parties, namely the Samajwadi Party and the BSP have had power in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
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Mayawati’s gambit – division of Uttar Pradesh into 4 parts ..

Uttar Pradesh is one of the biggest states in India, with the state having a huge population (it can be counted as the fifth or sixth largest countries in the world in terms of population). With this size, Uttar Pradesh has always had problems in terms of development, being ritually included in the list of least developed states of India. Of course, the fact that the past political leadership of the state have not exactly covered themselves with glory in terms of development efforts, preventing the increased amount of criminal activities or other such efforts to promote an agenda in which the people of the state would develop. After all, if you include Kalyan Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, or Mayawati, none of these really ended up in making significant efforts to develop the state.
With such a large state, you would expect that there would be a number of people talking about how to break up the state into multiple regions (states) so that you get a smaller state with the increased possibility of more focus on development. Now, this may not be necessarily true, since the newer states such as Jharkand, Chattisgarh or Uttarakhand have not suddenly spurted ahead in terms of development, but the states have become more agile, and have shown an increased amount of development as compared to the states from which they were divided.
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The impasse over how to investigate the 2G telecom scam – JPC or not

For many days now, there has been an ongoing debate in Parliament over the investigation into the 2G scam. Actually, the term debate is being very loosely applied, since there is a huge turmoil in Parliament on every working day and there has been no legislative business that can be transacted. The issue is only 1 – the opposition (primarily the Left and the BJP) want to have a JPC to lead a probe into the entire 2G scam, while the Congress wants to deny the possibility of a JPC probe and with the discussion being held under the auspices of a PAC related investigation, something that the Opposition denies totally and this has led to a total impasse in Parliament. The Congress seems to be on the backfoot, since this is a corruption matter dealing with a huge amount of money that has been waylaid due to the actions taken by a minister in the Congress Government, and on which the media, the CAG, and even the Supreme Court have made pretty sarcastic comments. The case in the Supreme Court has led to the resignation of a minister, the probable resignation of the CVC, the removal of the Solicitor General from the case, and the shifting of the legal advisor to the Telecom Ministry (for his various legal advice to the ministry, as well as for maintaining in an affidavit that the Prime Minister was fully in the knowledge of the doings of the Minister).
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