Political largesse comes with many strings attached, the most common one being return on investment at the electoral stakes. So when the youthful Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav doled out
laptops to intermediate students, it was seen as a high tech offering, clothed in feudal era jaagir culture (giving land as patronage) to keep the electorate (in this case probably the first time voters) in good humour.
To be fair to him he had indeed made such a promise during the run-up to state election. But then hardly anyone noticed as election manifestos in our country carry as much value as paper cones provided by vendors to carry peanuts.
However, it looks like Akhilesh is not only serious about it, but his planners are tech savvy enough to ensure that his image building exercise running into thousands of crores, of course at the cost of public exchequer, does not get wiped away at the mere click of a mouse.
These Hewlett Packard laptops come with a pre-loaded screensavers of Akhilesh and his father! Quite predictably for the current MTV Roadies generation it inspires little fascination. But those who went ahead and tried to replace it with a Sunny Leone or Virat Kohli picture were in for a rude shock.
The moment they tried to replace the pre-loaded wallpaper the system crashed. So for UP students there is no question of the father-son duo fading out of their laptop screens.
To be fair to him he had indeed made such a promise during the run-up to state election. But then hardly anyone noticed as election manifestos in our country carry as much value as paper cones provided by vendors to carry peanuts.
However, it looks like Akhilesh is not only serious about it, but his planners are tech savvy enough to ensure that his image building exercise running into thousands of crores, of course at the cost of public exchequer, does not get wiped away at the mere click of a mouse.
These Hewlett Packard laptops come with a pre-loaded screensavers of Akhilesh and his father! Quite predictably for the current MTV Roadies generation it inspires little fascination. But those who went ahead and tried to replace it with a Sunny Leone or Virat Kohli picture were in for a rude shock.
The moment they tried to replace the pre-loaded wallpaper the system crashed. So for UP students there is no question of the father-son duo fading out of their laptop screens.
Also Read: Bangalore Beat
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