The Nation: Swadeshi Jagran Manch: Mela as a Message

India Today, February 8, 1999
Feb 8, 1999

SWADESHI JAGRAN MANCH
Mela as a Message

Vajpayee snubs the swadeshi lobby on its own turf at a fair aimed at criticising his government's economic thrust even as hardliners sharpen their claws.

By Harinder Baweja

Victory Smile: Vajpayee stood his ground at the Sangh-studded show Hema Malini is all right. Salman Khan dancing to Oh oh jaane jaana is not. Ustad Bismillah Khan is more than welcome -- he's a proponent of "bharatiya sangeet" and that is in line with swadeshi. Ritu Shivpuri shaking her hips to Chamma chamma a la Urmila Matondkar in China Gate is not. It smacks of "western influences" and is videshi. Enough to make K.S. Sudarshan, joint general secretary of the RSS, unhappy. Especially since it happened at the Swadeshi Mela, a high-profile six-day show conceived by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) to put pressure on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government's economic thrust.

But that's what it turned out to be -- a mela. A fair that drew crowds more for its cultural evenings which included a star show compered by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Shatrughan Sinha and Bollywood stars Govinda, Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor taking the stage. There were more people at Pankaj Udhas' ghazal evening and fashion designer Ritu Beri's Brides of India show than at the stalls espousing a swadeshi way of life.

Announced in September last year when Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha was invited to inaugurate the swadeshi mela office, the objective of the exercise was clear: sound a cry against globalisation. To that end, the SJM organised a three-week long Chetna Yatra which carried the anti-globalisation programme through 300 districts on 30-odd raths. The purpose was two-fold -- to spread the message of swadeshi and simultaneously embarrass a Government which had just cleared a proposal whereby cigarette and tobacco manufacturers could hold 100 per cent stakes in Indian companies.

Hardliners: Govindacharya (left) and Sudarshan want the Sangh to act as Opposition The tenuous relationship between the Government and the saffron "high command" has not got any better. If at all, it only worsened after Vajpayee, ignoring it and his own party leadership, decided to go ahead with opening the doors of the insurance sector to foreign investors. Given this background, the swadeshi lobby came up with what it thought was a grand plan -- to have Vajpayee come to its turf as the chief guest, to inaugurate an exhibition that would serve as an ideological reminder. The stage and tone were set through a speech delivered by SJM Joint Convener S. Gurumurthy in which he said, "The SJM was set up to force a debate on swadeshi throughout the country. I appeal to the prime minister to take this very seriously for India is in a position to generate an economic model of its own."

The challenge was delivered and soon the compliment was returned. An unusually unperturbed Vajpayee took the mike and said what few at the Sangh-studded show even half expected. "We are all part of the same family. It's good that you have come up with ideas but if I can't execute them, I'll say sorry." Apart from being polite and plain, he also let it be known that there is no one who can either buy the country or sell it. The analysis that followed when the speech was put through a post mortem yielded the same opinion right across the senior ranks of the saffron high command -- that the prime minister had won the round and neatly walked out of the trap that had been laid for him. As one of them said, "The decision to have him inaugurate the mela was a crucial point in the ideological and psychological warfare that has been going on between the Government and the Sangh. He slapped us right across our faces and went back smiling."

Vajpayee could afford to smile. The mela was not as half as formidable as had been planned. Various ministries and government departments had lent their weight to take the number of stalls up to 500 as compared to the 1,000 figure that the SJM and the Centre for Bharatiya Marketing Development (CBMD) had been giving out earlier. Vajpayee perhaps was also smug in the knowledge that corporate houses were reluctant to participate in an exhibition that had deep political undertones and came with swadeshi strings attached to it. Some of those who came forth, like Videocon -- which sponsored the star show -- came with some help from the Finance Ministry for instance. A lukewarm response, indeed, for the CBMD itself acknowledged sending letters to 3,000 industrial houses and 252 public-sector undertakings. Similarly, nodal agencies like CII, FICCI and assocham were all approached.

Efforts to rope in Telco to display its latest pride -- Indica -- came to a nought. Reliance booked a mere 150 sq m space against SJM's efforts to have it sponsor one of the cultural evenings. Murlidhar Rao, SJM's organising secretary, admitted that 60 to 70 per cent of the space had been taken by government bodies.

The mela was in fact bailed out by three government bodies -- Khadi and Village Industries Commission, National Small Industries Corporation and capart -- which made large-scale bookings. In the end, the six halls hired for the swadeshi mela were dotted with stalls ranging from the Sports Authority of India to the Railway Ministry. Answering uneasy questions on whether the fair was a swadeshi mela or a government one, Rita Verma, BJP MP and mela convener, said in defence, "Our aim was to help the Indian industry rediscover itself for it is not inferior to anybody in the world. The message has been delivered."

There are other messages being sent too. The SJM decided to draw up a list of pre-budget proposals even before the mela drew to a close. Submitting the proposals to Yashwant Sinha, the SJM repeated itself on some issues and came up with some new demands too. While singing the familiar tune of getting out of the WTO and cancelling the blanket invitation of 100 per cent foreign direct investment in tobacco and liquor sectors, the SJM also wanted import controls on luxury goods and greater reservation for the small-scale sector and cottage industries.

"The mela was but one pressure point. Atalji is insistent that he knows best and that he will run the Government the way he wants. That's fine by us for now we too have decided to treat the Government like any other government and not see it as our Government," says a senior RSS leader adding, "The cadres are getting very restless." So are some hardliners within the BJP. Vajpayee may have sent a signal through his inaugural speech but it is one that will not come without its share of consequences. In the delicate relationship that exists between the two, the Government will lose more than the Sangh if the Parivar decides to put its foot on the accelerator. Especially if it decides to carry out its threat of casting itself in the mould of an opposition party.

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