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BJP in a tailspin in UP

The preceding year had begun on a promising note for the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party both in Uttar Pradesh and at the Centre. But by the year-end the situation had turned against the party in the country's politically strategic state.

The year-end saw the installation of septuagenarian Ram Prakash Gupta as the new chief minister of UP, following Kalyan Singh's forced resignation from the post and subsequent dismissal from the party. Faced with an almost bankrupt financial situation, Gupta responded by introducing several austerity measures, but the major cause of the economic crisis remains the 92-member jumbo ministry.

The large-scale transfers and postings of the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service officers was another issue that revealed the warts in the BJP-led administration in the state. Whimsical political interference also led to the suicide of the brilliant IAS officer Sunil Agrawal.

The officer jumped from a building while on vacation with a relative in the Madhya Pradesh district of Durg, leaving behind a suicidal note, declaring that ''he was depressed over the political harassment.'' Ironically, the just-concluded UP IAS Association meeting did not discuss the issue except reiterating the ritualistic 'regret' over what happened.

And last but not the least, the contentious controversy of the Babri Masjid and Ramjanambhoomi continues to simmer. The title suits over the ownership of the disputed premises are pending before the special bench of the Allahabad High Court and so is the revision petition at the Lucknow bench of the court. This has delayed the formal beginning of the trial of top BJP and Shiv Sena leaders including L K Advani, M M Joshi and Bal Thackeray for conspiring to demolish the over 460-year-old masjid.

UNI

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