UP elections: Prime Minister promises to turn dung into gold!

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has found the perfect cure for stray animals destroying standing crops in Uttar Pradesh. He dramatically announced that he had a solution and would implement it soon after the ‘model code of conduct’ ceases to operate on March 10, the counting day.

Not that the PMO and UP’s beleaguered chief minister Yogi Adityanath were not aware of the menace. In November, orders went out to catch and confine 400,000 stray cattle in addition to the 800,000 which were claimed to have found shelter in ‘Gaushalas’ built and maintained with public money. More Gaushalas will be built after the election, assures the Yogi who is blamed for creating the problem in the first place by banning the slaughter of cattle.

Even transporting cattle in UP is not safe as villagers have discovered time and again. If they manage to evade vigilante mobs, they are still liable to be detained by the police and spend the night in the lockup. Extortions are common and so farmers in central and eastern UP have reacted with a vengeance. There are reports of sharp saws put around the neck of animals and tied to a heavy wooden block. It is slow and painful death as the animals run, the saw cutting into their flesh.

Herds of hungry bulls and antelopes have learnt to invade fields together, goring people coming in their way and breaking through fences. Hapless farmers in many places have pooled resources to engage nightguards to keep watch. Will the Prime Minister’s assurance of a magic solution assuage the angry farmers in eastern UP?

The magic solution, if the PM is to be believed, comprises paying for the dung of the animals and turning the dung into biogas. “I am glad that the Prime Minister is following what the Congress government in Chhattisgarh has already done,” said Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The ‘strong’ Prime Minister talking eloquently on dung turning villagers into ‘lakhpatis’ has been ridiculed by critics. But will it convince the farmers to give another chance to Yogi?

The PM, while campaigning in the state, has said some strange things. He claimed that between 2014 and 2017 he was not allowed to work for the people of UP by the Samajwadi Party in power in the state then. He has made baffling references to SP’s symbol, a bicycle, which he claimed was used by terrorists to park bombs in crowded places.

He has referred to the crisis in Ukraine to plead for voting BJP back to power. India, he said, could not afford to look weak when tensions were rising across the globe. It was a tacit admission that a defeat in Uttar Pradesh would make him a lame duck Prime Minister.

What took the cake, however, were the following words by the PM at an election rally:

“Ye Modi bol raha hai, aur aapke aashirwad ke sath bol raha hai… Jo pashu dhoodh nahin deta hai, uske gobar se bhi aay ho, aisi vyavastha main aapke saamne khadi kar doonga. Aur ek din aisa aaeyga ki chhutta jo pashu hai na, logon ko lagega, yaar, ghar mein isko baandh lo, isse bhi kamai hone wali hai (Modi is saying this, with your blessings. I will set up a new system so that there is income from the dung of animals which have stopped giving milk. The day will come when people will tie stray animals at their homes because there will be income from that).”

Before the last two crucial phases of election in UP next week, on March 3 and 7, the PM is planning to camp in Varanasi for three days to campaign. As many as 111 seats will go for polling in the last two phases. And if assessments of a close contest so far are correct, they will be the make-or-break phase for the BJP.

Will he be able to pull out something dramatic out of his sleeves at this late stage? His desperation shows but a lot is at stake and he cannot afford to give up till the end.

(This was first published in National Herald on Sunday)