EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE DELHI THE HINDU 6 EDITORIAL WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2021 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE The construct behind the ‘Shining U.P.’ card Uttar Pradesh’s ‘status’ as India’s top State is in contradiction of evidence and felt experiences the end, Mr. Adityanath had his deaths of Government employees country. This is besides the gang way. The Gujarat cadre retired IAS who had contracted COVID­19 rapes that have regularly hit the officer, said to have been Mr. Mo­ while on polling duty in the pan­ headlines. The State BJP’s sweep Choppy waters di’s nominee for the State Cabinet, chayat elections that were held ir­ of the recently held block pra­ India must push for ratification of UNCLOS by got appointed to an ornamental responsibly at the peak of the se­ mukh elections came amidst wi­ party post. If indeed there was a cond wave. The Government at despread violence and allegations all major maritime powers, including the U.S. Vidya Subrahmaniam conflict over this, it made sense for first denied the deaths, but has of booth capturing and intimida­ hen Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the both sides to sue for peace. U.P. is now confirmed them by awarding tion. Clearly, in the current day stage to address the UNSC on a debate on the all important State that the compensation to the families of ov­ U.P., law and order has come to maritime security — the first Indian premier hese days, India’s national Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has to er 2,000 employees who fell to mean just one thing: the State go­ W capital, Delhi, is a sight to be­ win, and win by a wide margin. COVID­19 after being on election vernment’s aggression against mi­ to do so — he might have hoped to keep the focus of the FILE PHOTO/PTI Thold — strangely, not for rea­ What has followed is a mammoth, duty. norities and its crackdown on al­ discussion on building maritime ties and developing sons connected to the city­S tate. nothing­left­to­chance effort to re­ continues to be hounded by her The horror of U.P.’s second leged gangsters and anti­nationals, maritime infrastructure through regional cooperation As a matter of fact, a visitor might brand Mr. Adityanath as the leader cries and remains inconsolable ov­ wave is too recent and too graphi­ many of whom are in fact students initiatives. Yet, once more the discussion veered toward think she was in neighbouring Ut­ of India’s best­run State. er not being able to save her des­ cally captured for it to be so easily and rights’ activists. major nations trading barbs on continuing strategic dis­ tar Pradesh seeing the profusion In their speeches, Mr. Modi and pite his access to higher­ups in the forgotten. To insist that the virus U.P.’s self­appointed status as In­ sonance in this sphere. At the heart of the strident of posters and flex boards featur­ Mr. Shah have attributed qualities Government. The sad truth is that was controlled with “incompara­ dia’s top State is ironic considering claims and counterclaims regarding allegations of ing its Chief Minister, Yogi Aditya­ to the U.P. Chief Minister that are U.P failed its citizens during the se­ ble efficiency”, therefore, it was at the bottom among large nath, and Prime Minister Naren­ in embarrassing contradiction of cond COVID­19 crisis — the better amounts to a reconstructed truth, States in an index (Public Affairs abuse of maritime resources and disrespect of territ o­ dra Modi, all of them claiming that evidence and felt experiences. off died trying in vain to work the an alternative reality intended to Index) compiled by the Public Af­ rial sovereignty rights of nations were the U.S., on the U.P. is today India’s number one Some of the flattery and claims political system for beds and oxy­ replace the original memories by fairs Centre, a not­for­profit organ­ one hand, and China and Russia on the other. Mr. Modi State. were so over­the­top that fact­ gen. The worse off died anyway, the time the 2022 Assembly elec­ isation headed by K. Kasturiran­ deserves credit for bringing to the table a five­prong checking sites such as Alt News in­ some of them abandoned by their tion is held. gan, formerly chairman of the plan to enhance maritime security worldwide through Bagging the top rank stantly demolished them, among kin and turning up as bloated There have been other exagger­ Indian Space Research Organisa­ cooperation, including removing barriers to legitima te U.P. as India’s number one S tate? them the astonishing one that the corpses in the swirling waters of ations in the project to build Mr. tion. Released in October 2020, maritime trade, settling maritime disputes peacefully The miracle owes to an award that Chief Minister’s handling of the se­ the Ganga. Adityanath as a brand, among the index used 50 indicators to was given out this summer by the cond COVID­19 wave was “unpa­ The floating bodies, discovered them claims that U.P. has topped measure the quality of S tate­level and based on international law, jointly facing natural Union Housing and Urban Affairs ralleled”. The situation in U.P. at along the length of the G anga by the charts for COVID­19 testing governance on the three pillars of disasters and maritime threats created by non­state ac­ Ministry under the Smart Cities the time was indeed unparalleled, the reporting teams of the Hindi and administration of vaccine equity, growth and sustainability. tors, preserving maritime environment and resources, Mission (https://bit.ly/3yAAPJx). but not in the glowing manner it newspaper, Dainik Bhaskar, have shots and also that it has provided Unsurprisingly, Kerala was ad­ and encouraging responsible maritime connectivity. In­ Tamil Nadu, with an exemplary re­ has been imagined and told. Quite since become a metaphor for all a violence­free environment to its judged the best­governed S tate deed, the acceptance at the UNSC of the legislative fra­ cord on development and welfare, the opposite with images of float­ that is wrong with U.P. The U.P. go­ residents. The State does have im­ while U.P. came last (in the large mework for UNCLOS, the “legal framework applicable was placed third on the list after ing corpses and mass burning of vernment and the Chief Minister pressive absolute numbers for States category). to activities in the oceans, including countering illi cit Madhya Pradesh. If anyone had pyres making it to the internation­ have underplayed the deaths and both COVID­19 testing and vaccine quibbles about the line­up , they al media. passed them off as jal samadhis — shots but plunges close to the bot­ Political impact activities at sea”, is seen as an important achievem ent had to lump it. U.P. and its Chief the ancient practice of burying the tom once the figures are adjusted So what are the BJP’s opponents in during India’s month at the helm of the Council. The Minister were going to savour the In the pandemic’s grip dead in shallow river beds. for population. U.P. has so far U.P. doing to counter the party’s sustained interest of India in promoting maritime se­ trophy which had most conve­ As the second wave raged, there However, the explanation has lagged behind even the national public relations offensive? Not curity also draws from Mr. Modi’s SAGAR vision plan niently arrived in the months was no sign that U.P. had become a not convinced many. In his report average on both counts. much as both the Samajwadi Party aimed at strengthening economic and security connec­ ahead of the 2022 S tate Assembly shining example of good gover­ dated May 22, 2021 (https:// (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party tions with regional maritime nations. election. By another coincidence, nance. Hundreds lost their lives in bit.ly/37sZTGu), The Hindu’s Omar Crime data (BSP) seem focused on chasing the If there are strategic barriers to creating momentum it was also the first time that States the scramble for hospital beds, Rashid cites residents who had On general law and order and wo­ elusive Brahmin vote in U.P. This is in achieving these goals, they are associated with specif­ had been picked for the award. ambulances and oxygen. Men and watched the bodies wash up as men’s safety, the less said the bet­ baffling logic considering the well­ In the days since the award, the women collapsed unattended and saying they had not witnessed ter. Women’s safety, a key promise known Brahmin affinity to the BJP. ic regions of maritime tension including the South Chi­ Chief Minister has found himself many died begging for oxygen. floating bodies on this scale be­ in the BJP’s election campaigns, The SP and the BSP both came to na Sea and the Black Sea. Regarding the former, U.S. Se­ hit by an avalanche of praise, most These deaths were not statistics fore. For Vishwambhar Nath Mis­ has been callously treated in U.P. power on rainbow alliances of the cretary of State Antony Blinken decried the “dangerous notably from the Prime Minister that the Government could hide or hra, the head priest of Varanasi’s An Alt News analysis of national forward and backward castes. encounters between vessels at sea and provocative ac ­ and the Union Home Minister, dispute. These happened in real Sankat Mochan temple, the float­ crime data placed U.P.