UP’s holiday politics: This time it’s Maharana Pratap’s anniversary

UP’s holiday politics: This time it’s Maharana Pratap’s anniversary

Pratiksha SharmaUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 02:07 AM IST
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Lucknow: In an apparent move to woo “Thakur” (Rajput) community, Uttar Pradesh government is contemplating announcing a holiday on Maharana Pratap’s birth anniversary on May 9.

The decision has all the potential to give the opposition fresh fodder to target ruling SP for indulging in what they allege is blatant “holiday politics”. Thakurs account for over eight per cent voters and have much influence in over 20 out of 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. The proposed move by Samajwadi government is seen in the political circles in the context of elections for the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly due in early 2017.

If the Akhilesh Yadav government goes ahead with its decision to declare holiday on Maharana Pratap birth anniversary on May 9, the number of official holidays in Uttar Pradesh will reach 38. “With 38 public holidays a year, there has been a 50 per cent increase in the state government’s list of public holidays in the past 10 years,” noted a senior official. The move to have a holiday on May 9 was initiated by Thakur legislators in SP who, during the recent celebration of former Prime Minsiter Chandrashekar’s birth anniversary on April 17, had put forth this demand before party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.

“SP legislators want the government to declare holiday on Mahrana Pratap birth anniversary. I have apprised the Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of their views. We expect that a decision in this regard will be taken soon,” SP state general Secretary and cabinet minister Arvind Singh Gope told PTI. Besides Gope, SP has a battery of Thakur leaders including Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya (Independent MLA), Abhay Singh, Rajkishore Singh, Neeraj Shekar and Yashwant Singh.

The Samajwadi Party government had earlier declared a holiday on December 6, the death anniversary of Bhim Rao Ambedkar, which was seen as an attempt appease Dalits. The Akhilesh Yadav government had also declared holiday on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar (April 17), Maharishi Kashyap and Maharshi Nishadraj Jayanti (April 5), and Hazrat Ajmeri Garib Nawaj Urs (April 26) besides others. The SP government has also declared June 24 as public holiday in UP to mark socialist leader Karpoori Thakur’s birth anniversary.

Thakur, a former Chief Minister of Bihar, was one of the socialist leaders close to Jaya Prakash Narayan who spearheaded the movement for ‘Total Revolution’ as well as protests against the Emergency. Defending the decision, a Samajwadi Party said it was important to celebrate the lives of stalwarts as a holiday to inspire people. The Samajwadi Party had during its previous rule in 2004 slashed the list of public holidays to 24.

However, successive state governments altered the list of holidays to pursue their political agenda by adding or deleting death and birth anniversaries of ideologues of political parties. In 2008, the erstwhile Mayawati government had declared birth and death anniversary of party founder Kanshiram on March 15 and October 9 as public holidays. However, when the SP returned to power in 2012, these holidays were removed from the list. Opposing the new trend of ‘holiday politics’ and its adverse effect in the functioning of government officers, senior IPS Ambitabh Thakur had filed a PIL before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court with is under consideration.

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