After a long sabbatical, and just in time as more people are getting aware of the rising prices of vegetables, rising unemployment, rising numbers of Covid-19 cases and a decline in GDP, Uttar Pradesh may once again find itself leading a people’s struggle of survival. That is if all the efforts now being undertaken by Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav bear fruit, and if he succeeds in unifying the states’s opposition including the Congress to present a united force, against what they have already called the Adityanath government’s anti-people, anti-poor policies.
Akhilesh Yadav has been very active in raising issues and protesting against price hike, even as the party’s Rajya Sabha member Javed Ali Khan has been raising issues in Parliament. Party workers are out on the streets protesting, and have been met with lathi charges by UP police for doing so. Yadav has also been very active on social media, to bring all these issues to the attention of the media, and youth voters, who the party is likely to focus on in the next elections. Yadav, a seasoned politician by now, has always been seen as an educated leader with a growing following from the state’s youth.
He is now articulating the everyday concerns of the people including rising food prices, “Due to the prices of vegetables touching the sky, both the bag and the plate of the general public have been killed. He recently posted, “failure of the ‘Operation Greens’ scheme is clearly visible. The unbridled prices have exposed the cheap understanding of those who explain the economical jumla…Inflation has pierced the plate of ‘Thalinomics’.”
आसमान छूते सब्ज़ियों के दामों से आम जनता की थैली और थाली दोनों पर मार पड़ी है. ‘ऑपरेशन ग्रीन्स’ योजना की नाकामी साफ़ दिख रही है. बेलगाम दामों ने सस्ती थाली का अर्थशास्त्रीय-जुमला समझाने वालों की थोथी समझ की पोल खोल दी है.
महंगाई ने ‘थालीनॉमिक्स’ की थाली में ही छेद कर दिया है.
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) September 15, 2020
He has also been actively fuelling hashtags like #NoMoreBJP, the strongest was his anger of police brutality on his party workers who were lathicharged by UP police, while they were protesting against the national unemployment crisis. Yadav stated, “The government did not do well by raising sticks on the youths seeking employment in a peaceful manner. Such behavior towards the youth depressed due to unemployment shows the insensitivity of the government. Damn blasphemous!”
आज सपा द्वारा उप्र के ज़िलों में ज्ञापन देकर शांतिपूर्ण तरीक़े से रोज़गार की माँग करनेवाले युवाओं पर सरकार ने लाठी उठाकर अच्छा नहीं किया. बेरोज़गारी के कारण निराश युवा के साथ ऐसा व्यवहार सरकार की असंवेदनशीलता दर्शाता है.
घोर निंदनीय! #NoMoreBJP pic.twitter.com/LyR4Xl7GSx
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) September 14, 2020
The protest marches, and gatherings of Samajwadi Party workers, had been lathicharged by police in several districts. The protesters were raising awareness on unemployment, and other critical issues plaguing the state. According to a report in the Indian Express the Samajwadi Party has been carrying out active campaigns, taking to the streets, against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led governments in UP, as well at the Centre. The protesters were lathicharged by UP police in several districts, and the SP leadership has made sure those images and videos were shared widely on social media.
Party leaders have told the media that they will continue their protests across the state which are focused on: unemployment, and law and order, as well as the “‘misuse of state apparatus” for “harassment of people”, and corruption. Many cases of such harassment, and violence, in Uttar Pradesh have been recorded in the past few months. The Congress’ leadership too had upped its ante and protested against this, however the SP is now doing so in a more aggressive manner.
According to the IE report, on September 10, UP government had initiated an investigation into the alleged corruption in purchase of oximeters and infrared thermometers in several districts. Chief Minister Adityanath constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the alleged scam, it was then that opposition parties began their protests, and called for action against those responsible.
Samajwadi Party leaders have begun uniting the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, as ‘unlocks’ are now being activated and taken to the streets to protest the “government’s failures”. A party leader told IE that they “will leave no stone unturned” to highlight the issues being faced by the people of the state, especially the youth.
The youth will also be made aware of the status of UP governments “failures” by the SP’s online campaigns. Social media is now being used by official party handles, and amplified by workers to raise their voice of protest and dissent against price rise, condition of farmers in the state, privatisation in jobs, contractual jobs, corruption, law and order. Most recently, hashtags such #nahichahiyesamvida (we don’t want contracts), trended in protest against the government considering to bring in a proposal to keep state government employees of group B and C on a contract basis for five years reported the IE.
The leadership is working to make #NoMoreBJP a national hashtag. The SP has also announced that onon September 21, it will hold protests across Uttar Pradesh state against “the failure of the state government on all fronts’ ‘, said media reports. The workers will submit memorandums addressed to the Governor on district and tehsil levels.
रोज़गार हमारा अधिकार है इसीलिए #NoMoreBJP और हम मना रहे हैं #बेरोजगार_सप्ताह
— Juhie Singh (@juhiesingh) September 14, 2020
Jo job no vote #बेरोजगार_सप्ताह @narendramodi @ndtv pic.twitter.com/c29qJmsWLe
— GAURv Kumar (@kumar_gaurav001) September 14, 2020
Meanwhile, in Parliament, Javed Ali Khan of the Samajwadi Party said that the UP Government was collecting charges for “unloading, cleaning wheat,” The Samajwadi Party MP raised the issue through a Zero Hour mention. Khan informed Parliament that while the government has fixed a minimum support price of Rs 1925 per quintal for wheat but farmers are being paid only Rs 1905. As reported by NDTV, this amounts to allegations that “the Uttar Pradesh government charging Rs 20 per quintal in cash in the name of unloading and cleaning charges for wheat procured from farmers and has not reimbursed them in the last three years.”
— Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) September 16, 2020
Khan narrated his own experience of selling wheat at a government-mandated procurement centre, and claimed that he was “asked to pay Rs 20 per quintal in cash as cleaning and unloading charges”. The news report quotes him telling Parliament that, “When I demanded so see the order to this effect, the official at the procurement mandi showed me an Uttar Pradesh government order mandating Rs 20 per quintal as a charge for unloading and cleaning”. While the order stated that this charge would be reimbursed to farmers once cleared by the Centre and approved by the chief minister, Khan alleged that farmers have not received any reimbursement in the last three years. “They don’t take cheque or do an (RTGS) account transfer. They take cash and do not give a receipt,” he alleged. He said 36 lakh tonnes of wheat was procured in Uttar Pradesh this year and Rs 72 crore has been collected from farmers as this charge. Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu asked the government to take note of the issue.
It will be interesting to see how Adityanath in UP, and the BJP’s central leadership will respond to these charges now that there is no impending ‘bhoomi pujan’ to focus on.
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