There is a rustic quality to Uttar Pradesh politics that does no credit to its early history in free India when the state’s first political family ruled the nation out of New Delhi. While the Lok Sabha seat numbers out of UP are still most crucial to forming government at the Centre, a crassness has crept into the perennial vote-bank politics. It is an extension of such politics that the ruling Samajwadis should see it fit to celebrate their patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s 75th birthday based on a crude public appeal.
Parties do use birthday celebrations and anniversaries to whip up cadre sentiment. Even so, the length to which the SP goes to stress its importance and relevance can only be described as hyperbole. A ride in an imported Victorian buggy, a motorcade that highlights the prevailing civic conditions and roping in the entire bureaucracy and hijacking all government services for a party event point to a devil-may-care attitude.
The party’s thinking in such matters is amplified by the rhetoric uttered by the likes of “senior” leader Azam Khan, who thinks nothing of the bitterest sarcasm as a shield against the media pointing out the excesses. Coming to think of it, there can never be a suitable time for celebrations in a state frequently overtaken by contentious events. Keeping all that in mind, we would like to believe the party would at least attempt to be underwhelming when it comes to its birthday bashes. However, such sophistication is probably way beyond the current political thinking.
