States: MP; Dubious Largesse

India Today
Sep 14,1998

MADHYA PRADESH
Dubious Largesse

From heads of PSUs to chiefs of nondescript bodies, 127 Congressmen enjoy ministerial rank. It's the CM's way of keeping his flock together in a poll year.

Desperate Remedies The joke doing the rounds in Bhopal's political circles is that early morning joggers give a wide berth to the picturesque Lake View Drive road in front of the state chief minister's official bungalow. The reason: they fear that should Digvijay Singh catch sight of them, he will confer ministerial status on them. The "fear" is not misplaced. The state has 180 members of the ruling Congress party who enjoy the rank of a minister and the salary and perks that go with it -- and only 53 of them are in the state Council of Ministers.

Satyendra Tiwari is one such "minister", but he has not attended a single cabinet meeting. He does not need to either, for he is merely the member of a "specialist committee" who has been conferred the status of a minister by a benevolent chief minister. Not many in the state administration have a clue to what Tiwari or his committee does. In fact, the state's General Administration Department (GAD), which looks after the needs of ministers, does not even have his address. Nevertheless Tiwari enjoys all the paraphernalia that goes with being a minister -- a car with a red light, a staff of secretaries and peons, medical facilities and free air travel.

Tiwari is not the only recipient of such state government largesse. Last week, when Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Manak Agarwal was appointed chairman of the loss-making Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (MPTDC), he was conferred the status of a cabinet minister -- making him the 127th minister outside Digvijay's ministry. The 53-member "real" Council of Ministers already exceeds the one-tenth norm in the 320-member Assembly. And with the 127 "unofficial" ministers, the state exchequer now pays for the upkeep of 180 ministers. The result is a surfeit of cars with red lights on the roads of Bhopal. On an average, each minister costs the state Rs 1 lakh per month. The state Government thus ends up paying almost Rs 1.8 crore a month just to keep in good humour a bunch of Congressmen who otherwise did not qualify for Digvijay's "A-Team".

The opposition BJP, which is raring to make a comeback in the state after nearly four and half years out of power, has dubbed the system of making "honorary" ministers a waste of public funds and misuse of authority by the chief minister. "This is yet another dubious record created by Digvijay Singh," thunders former chief minister Sunderlal Patwa. "It shows the height that can be reached in open loot of public funds. It is a naked attempt to garner political support by misusing authority."

For Digvijay, however, granting ministerial favours is an expedient way of keeping his partymen happy in an election year. This is the chief minister's way of rewarding his loyalists, maintaining balance among various groups within the Congress and rehabilitating politicians who were rejected by the people in the last assembly elections. It's an art he learnt at the feet of his guru, Arjun Singh, who as chief minister set the trend by conferring ministerial status on heads of government corporations and public-sector undertakings. The senior Singh sought to widen his political base thus. The recipients of his largesse were mostly important MLAs who could not be accommodated in the state ministry. Digvijay has gone a step further, extending his generosity to even those holding nondescript jobs like membership of the state women's commission.

The chief minister, however, sees nothing wrong with his peculiar method of appointing ministers outside the ministry. He says the posts are "purely ornamental". But what about the cost to the treasury? "I have given ministerial status only to those engaged in official work and the Government spends money on them in any case," says Digvijay. By conferring the minister of state status on the chairpersons of all district panchayats, he argues, he has tried to impart dignity to various public offices. Says his political aide, Mahavir Prasad Vashishth: "It made the office important and gave a boost to panchayati raj."

Digvijay resorted to such tactics within a year of becoming the chief minister in December 1993. With his own partymen showing increasing signs of restlessness, he conferred ministerial status on 45 chairpersons of district panchayats. In some cases, the panchayats were too poor to afford a car for the elected representatives, but there was no stopping the ministers without portfolios. In their enthusiasm to display their new-found status, some of them mounted red lights on their motor cycles!

Some ministerial appointments, could at best be termed hilarious. Congressman Sashi Bhushan Bajpeyi was made a cabinet minister because he heads an advisory committee to commemorate the freedom struggle. And college lecturer Shafquat Mohammed Khan became a minister of state because he is the vice-chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Sports Council.

By free-market standards, a minister's salary amounts to a mere pittance. Ministers of all ranks -- cabinet, minister of state or deputy -- get the identical salaries and daily allowances: Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 per month respectively. Entertainment allowance, however, varies. While it is Rs 1,000 per month in case of cabinet ministers, ministers of state get Rs 500 per month and deputy ministers Rs 300 per month. But these unappetising salaries are more than made up by the perks, which include a free house or a house rent of Rs 4,000 per month in lieu, a chauffeur-driven car with 250 litres of free petrol per month, free medical care for the minister and family members, telephone at the office and residence and a staff comprising one private secretary, one private assistant, one lower-division clerk and two peons.

Rare is the minister who does not have half a dozen peons at his residence, posing as domestic servants or gardeners and the like. The chiefs of several corporations and public undertakings keep more than two or three vehicles, which are shown as "pool vehicles" in official records. Ministers of all ranks are entitled to free air travel, a free stay in circuit houses and state guest houses in Delhi and other places as well as cars provided by the local administration during travel.

No minister is worth his salt if he hasn't made a few foreign jaunts at the state's expense. gad records are silent on the foreign trips of the state's ministers, though sources in the state administration say that each time a minister goes abroad, the government ends up paying at least Rs 3 lakh. And half of the 127 "honorary" ministers have already travelled abroad at least once. There are many to have made several foreign trips -- like MPTDC vice-chairman Iftiquar Husain who holds minister of state status. Husain's pet project is to promote tourism in Europe. Others, not lucky enough to grab a foreign "assignment" are a disgruntled lot, especially since their good times may well come to an end by December when the state elects a new assembly. Laments B.N. Satnami, chairperson of the Madhya Pradesh Scheduled Caste Finance and Development Corporation: "I have not had an opportunity to go overseas till now. In fact, I have not even travelled by air so far."

The munificence of the chief minister has emboldened some to seek other "perks". For instance, earlier this year Shobharam Bhalavi, chairman of the state Tribal Finance and Development Corporation (TFDC) and an honorary cabinet minister, demanded from the corporation household goods like blankets, quilts, pillows, bedsheets, buckets, crockery, utensils, stove and furniture. But the large army of ministers has its uses. During the last Lok Sabha elections, Bhalavi used his official vehicles for campaigning. Such was his enthusiasm that it took an objection from TFDC Managing Director Robert Hrangdawala to force him to backtrack. But apparently there's no harm in trying, and some do get away with misuse of their official positions.

The in-house generosity on the chief minister's part will no doubt do a world of good to the ruling party in an election year. But it's hardly likely to cheer up the state's already strapped treasury. Or the poor taxpayer.

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