Open House in Uttar Pradesh: A 27-hour-plus day for MLAs, MLCs

Indian Express

4 days ago

'Uttar Pradesh Vision 2047' may be 22 years into the future. But for 27 hours – almost – more than 200 pairs of eyes did not lose sight of it.
Starting 11.30 am on Wednesday till 2.10 pm Thursday, sustained on extra coffee machines, endless cups of tea and soup, a skipped dinner, stolen shuteyes, and some hidden 'namkeen', the MLAs and MLCs of the Uttar Pradesh Legislature sat through the marathon session planned by the Yogi Adityanath government for a debate on its proposal to 'transform' the state.
The Chief Minister kept the best for the last, wrapping up the proceedings with a two-and-a-half-hour-long speech.
Assembly staffers said with some pride that if the setting was unusual, they were not found wanting. 'More than food, we anticipated that the demand would be for coffee, and accordingly arranged extra coffee machines, as well as tea and soup. Apart from the two coffee machines usually present in the Treasury and Opposition lobbies, we placed two more on either side, with extra stocks. The coffee machine provided in the resting chamber for women legislators was also kept stocked for the night,' said a staff member, adding that there were similar arrangements to serve tea.
Several MLAs who wanted a brew stronger than that dispensed by tea vending machines sent staff out to fetch some from outside. They could be seen sharing the same with others.
Those who wanted soup had two options – 'tomato' or 'sweet and sour'.
The Assembly canteen also had provision for snacks, dinner and Thursday morning breakfast.
However, as one of the Opposition MLAs told The Indian Express, many of them chose to skip the Wednesday dinner. 'Otherwise, it would have been difficult to stay awake. Instead, I had about 4-5 cups of coffee through the night.'
Early morning Thursday, around 5.30, he made a quick dash home for a quick shower. He was back at his seat by 8 am.
Samajwadi Party MLA Atul Pradhan took no such break, but could be heard admitting it was hard. 'Bahut bhookh lagi hai, raat se yahin hain (I am so hungry… have been here all night).'
BJP legislators, realising the high command's eyes were on them, went out of their way to stay alert. For some in the back benches, the life saver were packets of namkeen, which were surreptitiously passed around, under the benches. Some chose not to take the 'risk'.
Yawns were hard to ward off, as was sleep. Minister Swatantra Dev Singh, whom the Opposition sought to corner on this, denied his closed eyelids meant he had dozed off.
In fact, the Opposition missed little, including a chance to speak, though they were outranked by the government 2 to 1 in the list of speakers. Such was the enthusiasm to participate in the debate that many could be seen pleading for more time after the 5 minutes allotted to them ran out; the ministers had 10-15 minutes reserved for them, but they too struggled to wrap up in time.
Minister of State for Ayush Daya Shankar Mishra's Vision 2047 for his department included a 'naturopathy hospital' in every region, while Labour Minister Anil Rajbhar promised to make UP 'child labour free'.
The 27-hour sitting, across the Vidhan Sabha and Parishad (with 187 MLAs participating in the Assembly), took up two Bills for passage – the Banke Bihari Temple Trust Bill, and one to increase the salary and allowances of legislators. While the SP staged a walkout over not being allowed a debate on the temple Bill, the other legislation had a smooth passage, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna saying the Rs 10,000-odd hike per MLA followed constant requests by legislators.
Adityanath divided his speech, interspersed with barbs at the SP, into two parts – covering 1947 (Independence) to 2017 (when he became CM for the first time); and 2022 (when he became the CM for the second time) onwards. He went on to detail his government's Vision 2047 – including its three themes, 12 sectors and their short-, medium- and long-term goals. Not only would a QR code on this be put up in every school and market seeking suggestions, Adityanath said, his government also had 500 subject specialists along with NITI Aayog working on it.
As the minutes turned to an hour and then two and the CM kept speaking, some MLAs had had enough. 'Bas karo (Enough)!' came a shout from the Opposition Benches.