Having grown up in the dark ages of Indian politics, when India was the private property of not just one party but one family, it thrills me every time an incumbent government bites the dust. It is my view that one of the reasons why our ancient land progressed at bullock -cart pace in the first 40 years of becoming a nation state is because we suffered a peculiarly Indian form of ballot-box totalitarianism caused by the absence of choices at election time.

Chacha Nehru, we learned in nursery school, was the ‘tallest leader’ in the country so how could we think of voting for anyone other than his party. It was an unhealthy situation that took decades to change and has not yet changed enough. We currently have a prime minister urging us to return to our days of demagogues and subservience by pronouncing during the Uttar Pradesh election that Rahul Gandhi was our ‘future’. And, the little ‘laat sahib’ modestly agreed. His family had broken up Pakistan, he declared proudly, and would have saved the Babri Masjid had we continued to allow India to be treated as their private estate.

So every time an incumbent government is thrown out I send up three cheers. But, the ousting of Mulayam Singh’s government last week pleased me particularly. Not because I have anything personal against him but because we cannot afford to have our largest, most populous state growing so slowly that it drags the country down. Mulayam Singh’s government, despite Amitabh Bachchan’s certificates of good character, did nothing to stop the state’s decline into lawlessness and chaos. Things are so bad now that it is this column’s considered opinion that Uttar Pradesh is the worst governed state in the country. In the reign of Mr and Mrs Lalu Yadav this honour went to Bihar, but while things have improved for Biharis there has been no sign of improvement in Uttar Pradesh.

... contd.