If millions of tourists are not already flocking to Uttar Pradesh, it is because the roads are bad, power supply unreliable, means of transport dodgy and municipal government so abysmal that beautiful, old Moghul single-trade towns like Ferozabad, Khurja and Kannauj today resemble garbage dumps.

Agra and Varanasi are not much better off where this is concerned, but private enterprise has stepped in and made a little difference. What private enterprise cannot do is build the heavy infrastructure or take charge of cleaning up the cities. This has to be something that government does. The benefits of using tourism as a vehicle of economic change is that the infrastructure the tourism industry needs is the exact infrastructure that ordinary people need—electricity, sanitary living conditions, roads and the rule of law.

Mayawati has proved that when it comes to social engineering and caste she is the most adept of all Uttar Pradesh politicians. She now has a chance to prove that on the economic front she can do more than build Ambedkar Parks. She inherits a state that is in a state of disrepair and will need the best help in the world to put it together again. Meanwhile, let’s raise a toast to incumbent governments continuing to bite the dust.