[Like Mr. Gandhi, Mr.
Yadav is the scion of a political family, if one rooted in the grittier,
bare-knuckle traditions of Indian politics. His father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, is
the founder of the regional Samajwadi Party, which drew support from Muslims
and some of the lower Hindu castes, before falling out of favor in 2007.]
By Jim Yardley
 |
Manpreet Romana for The New York Times
"People
have a lot of hope in me, that I can do something good."
-Akhilesh Singh
Yadav
|
NEW DELHI: AKHILESH
SINGH YADAV came through New Delhi this week for a victory lap of sorts, more
than a week after he upended Indian politics. He met with many of the country’s
top leaders, accepting their congratulations, before he returned later in the
week to India’s largest state,
Uttar Pradesh, where he was sworn in as new chief minister. Everywhere Mr.
Yadav went, the irresistible scent of power followed.
Grown men flocked to
him, plying him with bouquets of flowers and boxes of sweets, bending to touch
his feet, pressing to be near him. The display of deference is a ritual of
Indian politics, yet in a country governed by old men, Mr. Yadav represents
something new: At 38, he is now India’s youngest chief minister, overseeing a
state with more than 200 million people, more of a country than a state.
“People have a lot of
hope in me, that I can do something good,” he said in an interview this week,
as his cellphone buzzed with messages.
In a country where the
public hunger for change is palpable, yet where politics often seems
unchangeable, Mr. Yadav is suddenly, unexpectedly, a symbol of a new generation,
featured on newspaper front pages and magazine covers, with photos of him
riding his bicycle on campaign trips, as well as tidbits about his college
affinity for the hard-rock band Metallica, his passion for soccer and accounts
of his “love marriage.”
The election in Uttar
Pradesh, conducted in stages in February, with the results announced this
month, was supposed to coronate India’s better-known new generation leader,
Rahul Gandhi, the heir to the fabled Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, who made
the state election a test of his popularity and political franchise. He failed
to deliver, with voters instead endorsing Mr. Yadav.
Now all Mr. Yadav has to
do is lift up the poorest state in India.
Like Mr. Gandhi, Mr.
Yadav is the scion of a political family, if one rooted in the grittier,
bare-knuckle traditions of Indian politics. His father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, is
the founder of the regional Samajwadi Party, which drew support from Muslims
and some of the lower Hindu castes, before falling out of favor in 2007.
The senior Mr. Yadav
served three times as chief minister, but he oversaw an administration marred
by corruption, as many party workers and officials were drawn from the ranks of
toughs and mobsters. Even this year, half of the lawmakers elected from the
Samajwadi Party had criminal cases pending against them, a pattern repeated in
most parties competing in Uttar Pradesh.
What also made the party
seem out of step were some of the positions espoused by the elder Mr. Yadav,
who once opposed the use of English and computers as affronts to traditional
Indian culture and village industries. To an aspirational young India, English
and technology are the tools of upward mobility, a point not lost on the
younger Mr. Yadav as he began to change the direction of his father’s party.
“India has changed a
lot,” he said. “You see the amount of mobile phone penetration. It is huge
here. People are slowly learning how to use computers. They want to move
forward.”
AFTER a boyhood in Uttar
Pradesh, Mr. Yadav attended an engineering college in southern India before
graduate school in Sydney, Australia, where he studied environmental
engineering and tasted the wider world.
“There was a lot of
development in Australia,” he recalled. “I had never seen this. It was a
totally different world for me.”
He returned to India and
soon met the woman he wanted to marry, even though her family was from a
different caste and background, in a country where most marriages are still
arranged. “There was a little hesitation,” Mr. Yadav recalled of his family’s
reaction, but he persisted in what is known as a “love marriage” until his
family consented.
He and his wife, Dimple,
were married in November 1999, and three months later he was elected to the
lower house of Parliament. He was 26, one of the youngest members of his
incoming class, but he remained mostly out of the political limelight until his
father lost power in Uttar Pradesh. The son then gradually assumed a bigger
role in the Samajwadi Party, becoming the state president in 2009.
In this year’s race, Mr.
Yadav did not initially attract much attention in an election framed as a
showdown between two of the country’s most powerful leaders, Mr. Gandhi and the
state’s incumbent chief minister, Mayawati, who uses one name. But Mr. Yadav began
working the state, riding his bicycle for 120 miles to lead a “yatra,” or
march. He also adroitly repositioned his party to appeal to the modern
sensibilities of the state’s growing number of urban voters: He promised to
distribute free tablet computers to students and hammered away at a positive
message in what became a dirty political fight.
To combat his party’s
reputation for lawlessness, Mr. Yadav required the party’s legislative
candidates to submit applications and undergo vetting, even the party’s
established power brokers. He vetoed several candidates with criminal records
and elevated candidates with clean reputations, including an academic from the
state capital, Lucknow, who would win in an upset.
Mr. Yadav was careful
not to forget his roots, though. He usually insisted on speaking in Hindi
during interviews on India’s English-language television channels, even though
he speaks very good English. He also made a point to be accessible to voters,
journalists, almost anyone, admitting that he loved glad-handing and meeting
people.
It made a stark and
appealing contrast to Mr. Gandhi, who is rarely accessible. While Mr. Gandhi
arrived at rallies in helicopters, Mr. Yadav, the local boy, traveled on a
bicycle or a customized campaign bus, stopping at villages for smaller
gatherings.
“I found that cycling
was a better way to connect with people rather than having large rallies,” he
said. “I was able to meet everyone.”
YET the scale of his
party’s victory surprised even Mr. Yadav. Analysts had predicted a split vote
and a coalition government, possibly through an alliance of the Samajwadi Party
with the Congress Party. But led by Mr. Yadav — and the political organization
oiled by his father — the Samajwadi Party won a stunning 224 seats in the state
assembly, a comfortable majority that meant a coalition partner was not
necessary.
Then the only question
was who would be chief minister, father or son. When the younger Mr. Yadav was
given the job last week, the Samajwadi Party, once dismissed as a relic of
India’s old politics, suddenly possessed an altogether different ingredient:
excitement and buzz.
“I’m quite happy and
quite excited,” Mr. Yadav said. “But the responsibility is big. This is a
state, of course, but this is a country, population-wise.”
At a news conference
after his swearing-in this week, Mr. Yadav got an early taste of the pressures
and challenges of running India’s poorest but biggest state, as reporters
peppered him with questions about his agenda and asked why many of his father’s
cronies still held positions of power.
“Our priority will be
unemployment, the farmers and law and order,” he said, smiling, as he noted
that his party could no longer just act as an indignant opposition.
“From today onward, the
responsibility is ours,” he said.
Or, more precisely, the
responsibility is his.
Hari Kumar contributed reporting.
INDIA’S BLAST INQUIRY TESTS TIES TO ISRAEL AND IRAN
[Israel has accused the Iranian government of carrying out the New Delhi bombing, as well as an attempted attack in Georgia and a blast in Thailand. The attack in New Delhi took place a short distance from the residence of India’s prime minister. The Israeli diplomat’s wife had been en route to the American Embassy School to pick up her children when the bomb was placed on her car.]
By Jim Yardly
At
a Friday news conference, B. K. Gupta, the Delhi police commissioner, described
a plot in which the authorities accused an Indian freelance journalist, Sayed
Mohammed Ahmad Kazmi, of providing logistical support for the Feb. 13 blast,
which injured the wife of an Israeli diplomat and three others.
The
police say that Mr. Kazmi, who was arrested last week, visited Iran twice last
year and was later involved on reconnaissance trips to the Israeli Embassy
here.
“He
has been arrested as a facilitator and for being a part of the conspiracy,”
according to a statement issued by the Delhi police after the news conference.
Mr.
Kazmi’s family has flatly rejected the charges against him and accused the
police of falsely implicating him because of his work as a journalist, in which
he wrote about the mistreatment of Muslims in India.
On
Friday afternoon, more than 100 people gathered in New Delhi for a protest
rally and demanded that the police release Mr. Kazmi. His son, Shauzab Kazmi,
22, called the charges “completely baseless.”
Israel
has accused the
Iranian government of carrying out the New Delhi bombing, as well as an
attempted attack in Georgia and a blast in
Thailand. The attack in New Delhi took place a short distance from
the residence of India’s prime minister.
The Israeli diplomat’s wife had been en route to the American Embassy School to
pick up her children when the bomb was placed on her car.
Iran
has denied any involvement. Friday’s statement from the Delhi police did not
specify whether the three Iranians accused in the New Delhi bombing had any
connection to the Iranian government. But the police did say that one of them
had been “in touch” with a suspect in the Thai blast.
The
case has placed the Indian government in a delicate position, because it wants
to maintain ties with Israel and Iran. Israel is a major supplier of military
hardware; Iran is a major supplier of oil. Indian leaders have so far refrained
from taking sides, saying they would await the findings of the investigation by
the Indian police.
On
Friday, the Indian police noted that two Iranians, Moradi Saeid and Mohammed
Khazaei, had been arrested in Bangkok in connection with the Thai blast, while
a third, Sedaghatzadeh Masoud, now living in Malaysia, was implicated on Thursday.
Mr. Masoud denied any involvement in the attack, news reports said.
The
Indian police have identified the three Iranians implicated in the New Delhi
bombing as Houshang Afshar Irani, Seyed Ali Mahdiansadr and Mohammadreza
Abolghasemi.
The
police say that Mr. Kazmi, the Indian journalist, was paid $5,500 and provided
assistance to one of the three Iranian suspects, Mr. Irani. The two men
traveled by motor scooter on reconnaissance missions to the Israeli Embassy,
the police said, adding that the scooter was seized from Mr. Kazmi’s residence.
The police also confiscated a vehicle that they say Mr. Kazmi and some Iranian
suspects used for reconnaissance.
Officials
at the Iranian Embassy here declined to comment on the case. Mr. Kazmi’s son,
though, sharply criticized the police and disputed that the seized scooter and
the other vehicle, a car of the Maruti make, represented evidence.
“That
scooter was parked at our house for the last two years,” he said. “When police
claimed to recover it, it was not in working condition. They had to drag it
away.”
He
added, “They claim that my father received $5,500, but what is the evidence?”
