What followed was worse. When the high court stayed the order taking the land back from the railways, the state government responded — by effectively banning the rally, through the imposition of Section 144 of the criminal procedure code, which seeks to prevent “disturbance of the public tranquillity, or a riot, or an affray.” As a result, the visiting MP is forced to address party workers in her own constituency at a small meeting in a guesthouse. Yes, law and order is a state subject, but using that to hold back centrally-funded development, or control the movement of an area’s representative to the Centre is unacceptable. This is misusing state power, and betrays a fundamentally illiberal mindset; and, what is more, it doesn’t suit a chief minister with pretensions to higher office.

A few days ago, Narendra Modi, another chief minister with national ambitions, released an “open letter” to his counterpart in Kolkata, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and to Bhattacharjee’s self-appointed Nano-nemesis Mamata Banerjee. Modi’s letter lectured the former on Bengal’s work ethic, and the latter on how Gujarat’s opposition behaves. This might be good local politics, but again it mocks India’s diverse federal structure, and is unbecoming — especially from a winner to a loser. Yet that is not as bad as Mayawati’s naked use of the state’s discretion against political opponents.

Uttar Pradesh, and the country, deserve better.