The fight against Progress

Ours is a funny country. Funnier are the people of this country, like you and me. But the funniest of all are the people who rule this nation - elected officials who are elected by people like you and me. Everyday we hear about innumerable policies being framed or being put forward by somebody in the House or Assembly for consideration to merge them into the current state of laws and guidelines. But what we encounter is something, which on even vague scrutiny, does not quite conform to what one should normally expect from a nation who is always super zealous for the introduction of new laws for better governance.

Take, for example, the recent spat over the Bundelkhand issue. Bundelkhand, which consists of districts of Jhansi, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, Datia, Chattarpur etc. from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which was a prosperous region in the post-British era has been reduced to a region which can be described, without overdoing, as backward. There has been a constant call for a separate Bundelkhand state but all in futility. For the development of this region, and of course for political reasons as well, Rahul Gandhi and co., in their bid to strengthen Congress' hold and influence in UP and MP, drew the PM's attention to this region by demanding a separate Bundelkhand Development Authority (BDA). The role of BDA would be to plan and execute various action schemes for the development of this region. Everything was fine till the hue and cry started by the MP administration who called foul. According to the MP Assembly and the ruling party in the state, this proposal should be viewed as an intervention in state matters by the Centre and that it is nothing more than mere political game. It also stated that though they have been constantly pressing upon the Centre, since the time of UPA-1, for releasing of adequate funds to the state government for the development of this region but no action has been taken.

Now the problem here is, which is leading to the bottle neck, if the state government has always been so concerned about the development of this region then why is it opposing a novel idea that will ultimately achieve the goal- the progress of Bundelkhand. The answer is not difficult to apprehend. If the proposed BDA sees the light of the day and Bundelkhand witnesses some progress, then UPA's stance in MP and UP will become strong and this can prove dangerous in future state elections. Moreover, as BDA will be under the central government, the grant, of nearly Rs 4,900 crore, which the state would have received would have to be forgotten which will mean that the state ministers will not be able to stuff their pockets with as much money as they would have been able to do otherwise. In short, Bundelkhand was never the issue. The issue was, and is, the money. This fight against the formation of BDA by MP is nothing but a means to achieve self interests of the politicians- a fight against progress.