The Burden of Uttar Pradesh

When I turned the news on this morning, I saw an Agra gone berserk. A truck mowed 4 locals down in the darkness and the local population decided to take action themselves - burned down trucks, fire engines, police vans and so on. They pelted media and policemen alike. A couple of weeks back on the motorcycle ride from Agra to Delhi we ran into a crowded, busy mela (large gathering) bang on the national highway. I couldn't believe my eyes when I actually started noticing shops, cows, children, families filling up the highway out of nowhere and then it continued for miles - organized by the ruling Samajwadi party. This is NH2 - one of the most important highways in India. Driving with my mind preoccupied with these thoughts, I had screeched to halt to avoid a family crossing the highway - nah, rather going from one crowded mela shop on the highway to another. One mistake from my end and we would've been the source of a mini-riot ourselves and been beaten up enough by the locals. But the anger of the crowds is not really against the truck drivers - it is against the system itself.

Last week, Uttar Pradesh's (where Agra suffers) Chief Minister Mayawati announced that her government planned to shut down major retail stores - why? because "the law and order situation was out of control." Apparently, crowds rioted large retail stores (aka Walmart). More interestingly, the shutting down rule does not apply to retail stores within malls. Even more interestingly, Ms. Mayawati appointed a committee (common in Indian politics to handle any situation) to look into health, hygiene, lice and locational aspects of retail chains. Health and hygiene? Common, all they have to do is smell (not even look) at "Clean and Green" Agra and all the health and hygiene is apparent in its gory detail. Cities of Noida and Ghaziabad which benefit tremendously from their proximity to New Delhi will be most affected by the retail booboo. Whichever way one slices it, it's evident that there's an unhidden agenda in creating a riot and shutting down retail stores. It would be irritating to fight needless battles in running a business there.

All this is appalling but not surprising. Driving into an Agra with a lightless, newly crowned world #1 Taj Mahal - the state of the State was obvious. It doesn't take a government to realize this - a numb-mind would also do. I saw hope and aspirations and dreams on the faces of people in other states but I saw despair, anger, bitterness, mistrust, disappointment and tiredness on the faces of Uttar Pradesh. Parvez, our guide at the Taj Mahal summed it up, "Yahan ka attitude theek nahin hai - na government ka, na humara." The Taj itself drums up Rs.8 lakhs ($20,000) in cash (yes) everyday. After 350 years of its birth, the Taj still feeds the city but more importantly the pockets of government officials - but not enough to feed itself. However, Parvez complained - "What has Shah Jahan done for us? Because of the Taj, we don't have any industry." Oh well.

For India to take the next step - forget the next leap - it needs the muscle power to drag the burden of UP. People are fundamentally good and talented everywhere but I really can't see us hiring in UP. There's mistrust in the system - the government, the people, the unknowns, the law, the basics. "What can the government do? They can't take care of themselves." - I heard this line a million times amongst UP's people. So when a riot - like from this morning - happens - people are not rioting really against the incident in question - they are violent about everything that's been hurting them for a long, long time - from a befouled Yamuna to no drinking water to no current to pothole-ridden roads to senseless traffic jams to no-job opportunities to the burden of their own history to unreliable law to a sad government - it's no surprise that one incident is reason enough to uncork the bottle of hate. There's not much maya in Mayawati's kingdom.