It has been an entertaining political sideshow, the accusations and insults exchanged between the veteran, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the fresher in politics, the young Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi. Rahul has made highly publicised visits to Amethi, each time launching criticism against Mulayam for starving the constituency of development funds. State Government officials, on their part, rattle off statistics and produce charts to show that the charges are baseless. The truth lies somewhere in between.

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SHOW OF CONCERN: Rahul's visits are mostly restricted to meeting people

Amethi, which falls under Sultanpur district, is a story of neglect, but not only by the state Government. The real blame falls on the industrialists who rushed to set up units when Rajiv Gandhi was elected from here in 1984 and became prime minister. Scores of industrial units were set up only to be abandoned in the post-Rajiv era, leaving thousands jobless. "My son had got a job at Malvika Steels so he did not study beyond Class X. But after the closure of the unit, he is earning a livelihood by running a tea stall," laments Radhey Shyam Pandey of Jagdishpur, which is under Sultanpur district. He and other locals blame the Gandhi family for not making an effort to revive the industrial belt. Their criticism is understandable but it is more out of frustration and ignorance. Amethi offers little or nothing for industrialists today, be it lack of power, location, connectivity or skilled labour. Even Sonia Gandhi was unable to revive the over 100 abandoned units which add to the misery of this backward area.

Rahul, in his one year as MP, has faced the same hurdles in trying to attract private investment, more so with a hostile state Government in Lucknow. Which is why his political opponents dismiss his visits as cosmetic. True, even though he is one MP who makes regular visits to his constituency-an average of one a month-he has spent most of his time meeting party workers or sharing jalebis with villagers. In concrete terms, he has laid the foundation stone for a local extension of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, and promised to revive the Kathaura oil refinery project and a petroleum institute started by the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in 1996 but abandoned after the Congress lost power at the Centre. UPCC spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh says that Rahul is also extending the HBJ gas pipeline to Amethi and Phoolpur but admits private-sector investment in Amethi is a distant dream.

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GENERAL APATHY: A near-empty ward at the Sanjay Gandhi hospital; (right) an abandoned industrial unit

The state Government has also launched a campaign to try and discredit Rahul by producing official statistics that show the progress of rural development schemes in Sultanpur is above or at par with progress in the rest of the state (see chart). Visibly, that appears to have some truth. On most state highways in and around Sultanpur district, road work has been completed or is going on. State PWD officials say that of the Rs 250 crore Central Road Fund, Rs 150 crore has been allocated to Amethi and Rae Bareli. Singh, however, says that most of the work in Amethi has been done through the special package from the Central government. Rural Development Commissioner Shailesh Krishna denies the charge of Amethi's neglect. "Amethi has been getting more compared with other places in the state," he claims.

Rahul's problems are manifold. He is undoubtedly sincere and well-meaning as far as Amethi is concerned. He has also spent much time drawing up a plan to improve conditions in Amethi's villages. He is hampered by the fact that there is little cooperation or support for anything he suggests: the state Government prefers to take credit for its own schemes, whether they benefit the locals or not. While locals blame the Gandhis for the pathetic state of the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital at Amethi, which has Sonia as chairperson of the trust which runs this hospital and daughter Priyanka Vadra as a trustee, the state Government has also done little in terms of rural healthcare.

Rahul's charges against Mulayam may contain some truth but the real fault lies in his own backyard. He lacks a proper team and is surrounded by a clique of people who basically indulge in sycophancy with only their own interests in mind. Till he gets proper advisers in place, his charges against Mulayam will sound hollow.

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