From Farmland to Flight Path: How Jewar’s Farmers See a New Uttar Pradesh

A recent interaction between CM Yogi Adityanath and farmers from the Jewar airport project site reveals a shifting narrative on governance and development in the region.

The scene at the Chief Minister’s residence in Lucknow this week was a departure from the usual corridors of power. A group of farmers, who once tended to the fields now earmarked for the Jewar international airport, arrived not with petitions of grievance, but as passengers of a maiden flight. For most, this was their first time stepping inside an aircraft—a journey that felt, to them, like a symbolic closure to the transition from tillers of the soil to stakeholders in a massive infrastructure project.

According to the original article and reports from multiple outlets, the discourse was focused on the perceived change in the state’s law-and-order landscape. During the dialogue, the farmers—including Jafar Khan, who recently returned from a pilgrimage—spoke of a tangible shift in how they navigate daily life. The consensus among the group was that the reins of development in Uttar Pradesh are now firmly in the hands of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a sentiment they framed as the "Baba-ji" style of governance.

Safety and the ‘Baba-ji’ Factor

The conversation turned to the issue of security, a recurring theme in local discourse. Hansraj, a farmer from the region, offered a sharp contrast between the past and the present. He recounted a 2017 incident where an elderly woman was robbed of her pension, juxtaposing it with a 2019 anecdote about a resident carrying ₹25 lakh in cash openly after a land compensation payout. When questioned about the risk of such a public display of wealth, the resident reportedly quipped, "How could anyone snatch it? This is Baba-ji’s rule."

This sentiment reflects a broader, albeit subjective, shift in public perception regarding street-level crime in the region. Whether these accounts are viewed as a total overhaul of the state's policing or a localized sense of security, they represent the primary metric by which many in the state appear to be judging the current administration’s performance.

Why it matters

The narrative emerging from the Jewar project site is significant because it links large-scale infrastructure—the kind that shifts regional economies—directly to the government’s law-and-order policy. By aligning the "Jewar" development, which includes the airport and the upcoming film city, with a perceived atmosphere of fearlessness among the citizenry, the administration is building a powerful political argument.

The bigger picture suggests that the state is moving beyond mere economic metrics. For the political observer, this intersection of high-growth infrastructure and the 'security-first' narrative serves as a template for how the current leadership is consolidating its influence. It is a strategic effort to frame state-led development not just as a matter of steel and concrete, but as a fundamental shift in the social contract between the citizen and the state.