India has more holidays than any other country. But the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government wasn’t quite content with that, it seems. In the last few months, they have added a slew of new ones to their list of state government holidays.
While those of you not living in the state become a little envious of those who do, consider this — more holidays also mean more days on which courts, administrative offices, hospitals and other government institutions will keep their doors shut.
With a whopping 39 holidays now (the recent addition being May 9th, Maharana Pratap’s birthday), a state government employee in UP can effectively take 6 months off, especially if you club together national holidays, weekends, and allowed leave.
So why do you think the UP government has been exponentially expanding its holiday list?
All for 2016
UP goes to the polls next year, and the Akhilesh Yadav government is clearly out of ideas. The law and order in the state has been deteriorating since the Samajwadi Party (SP) took over, and it featured among the 10 “worst states” in the Raghuram Rajan Panel Report in 2013.
Rather than systematically addressing these issues, the government has been declaring holidays in a bid to appeal to various communities. The birth anniversaries of Charan Lal, Karpoori Thakur and Brahmin icon Parashuram were all declared public holidays.
It is inevitable that political parties will try to use quasi-symbolic gestures to appeal to the various allegiances of their vote base. And there is nothing wrong with that. But appeasing vote banks does not count as good governance.
The Consequence
These holidays ostensibly celebrate the lives of a wide array of people. There are, of course, OBC leaders and stalwarts of the JP movement. But there are also Dalit leaders, minority figures, Brahmin icons and Rajputs. Clearly, these holidays are bid to ingratiate the SP with a wide cross-section of UP’s voting population ahead of 2016.
However, unlike naming roads or issuing commemorative stamps, a government that doesn’t function for half the year has serious consequences.
Schools are closed, hospitals function on skeletal staff, banks are shut and all the other myriad little tasks that require a government official are stalled.
An election is on the horizon and the SP wants to expand its appeal. They way to do that is to make sure the government works more, not less. Non-seasonal rains have led to large scale rural distress and the monsoon may disappoint as well.
If he wants the people of UP to vote him back to power, Akhilesh Yadav will need to make sure that social services and the administration, from schools and mid-day meals, to hospitals and grievance redressal forums works harder than ever.
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