Did Akhilesh Yadav rip up his former residence and the ideology he represents?
Socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia once wrote a pamphlet titled "25,000 rupees a day" that came down heavily on India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for reportedly spending a huge amount of public money on himself at a time when the nation was facing peak poverty crisis.
Which is why Lohia would be deeply saddened on seeing the state of the torchbearers of his socialist ideology in Uttar Pradesh.
After a Supreme Court order directed all former UP chief ministers to vacate the government bungalows allotted to them, most leaders showed shameful resistance. But what Akhilesh Yadav, who was occupying the chief minister's chair just before the BJP dislodged him from power in 2017, has done is perhaps unprecedented in Indian political history.
A miffed Akhilesh, who mistook the public mandate of a democracy to his anointment as a monarch of a dynasty, reportedly ripped off the floor tiles of the 40,000sqft property on Lucknow's prime Vikramaditya Marg, tore down the laminations, plucked out the air conditioning ducts of the centrally air-conditioned house, and took off the switch boards from the walls of the house. Having promised to develop cycle tracks across UP while in power, the young socialist leader apparently even left the cycle track in his own bungalow dug up.
Videos and photos that are circulating after journalists were allowed access to the bungalow tell a sordid tale of how a jilted Akhilesh stabbed socialism in the back, even though he is denying that he had anything to do with it.
In keeping with the tradition set by his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh was never really a socialist. From pursuing caste politics to making Samajwadi Party one big family parivar, the father-son-duo apparently murdered Lohia's idea of socialism, in whose name SP came into being.
One must remember, Lohia vehemently denounced both dynastic and caste politics.
After the disintegration of the Janata Party, which the Socialist Party was part of in the 1977 elections, Mulayam revived the party. But because of his strong anti-English posturing,Yadav replaced socialist with Samajwadi – today the anti-English stance is perhaps the only strain of Lohia's ideology that still exists in SP.
Like his father Mulayam, Akhilesh apparently went on a property amassing spree every time they got a shot at power in UP. Before the recent Supreme Court order, Mulayam himself lived in a bungalow spread across 25,000sqft — again on the prime Vikramaditya Marg.
Akhilesh's defence of the damage done to the bungalow, which he occupied until about last week, is weak and shows how far he has left the socialist ideology behind.
By claiming that the bungalow has been damaged by his opponents in a bid to malign him and going to threaten the officials, Akhilesh is making a weak argument look worse.
Bizarre: Look at the arrogance here. "Jo adhikaari mere samay me cup, plate uthate thhe wo aaj mere khilaaf ye sab karwa rahe hain," says Akhilesh Yadav after his house was let open for media. It's this VVIP racism we need to fight against. Never expected this frm @yadavakhilesh pic.twitter.com/LLZ5rSQ04x
— Prashant Kumar (@scribe_prashant) June 10, 2018
As if his claims were not ridiculous enough, he also said that the "exotic" trees planted by him must be returned to him.
This arrogance, seemingly fuelled by the recent electoral successes in the by-polls, comes to show the complete disrespect Akhilesh appears to have for people who elected him and people who were tasked to work with him.
The officers Akhilesh seems to be referring to are often forced to face the ignominy of "picking up cups and plates" because chief ministers and other elected leaders, hiding behind fancy ideologies, remain feudal at the core.
The BJP however has alleged that Akhilesh behaved like a "kid who spoils a game when he sees he is losing it" after he lost the bungalow. While we may or may not agree with the analogy, a former chief minister leaving behind a bungalow in such a tattered state is a travesty.
And if the charges against him are true, then he must pay for it. Surely, Lohia would not be proud.
Others prominent people forced to vacate bungalows
