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KAUTILYA
Comrades
in Arms
The
evil that men do lives after them-but sometimes the sons change all that
By
Jairam Ramesh
 The
past six weeks have seen the death of three outstanding young Indians.
Rajesh Pilot was easily the most energetic of politicians and had overcome
many odds to carve out a niche for himself. Arvind Das was one of the
finest commentators on Bihar and his The Republic of Bihar (1992) is essential
reading for understanding the state. Rangarajan Kumaramangalam was superbly
gifted-genetically and intellectually-and was the only man who had photos
of Vajpayee and Advani along with statuettes of Lenin and Nehru in his
home study!
Of the three,
although he had worked intimately with Pilot on Kashmir during 1993-95
and had been captivated by his indomitable courage and dynamism, Kautilya
knew Ranga the best. There was also a family link. Ranga's father Mohan
and Kautilya's father-in-law K.V. Ramanathan had been part of a team along
with Wadud Khan and Hiten Bhaya that set up the Steel Authority of India
in 1972, India's earliest attempt at PSU reform.
Kautilya's
first encounter with Ranga took place in April 1987 when the former made
a presentation on privatisation of Delhi's power distribution system to
the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The man who opposed the idea vociferously
in the meeting was the MP from Salem who was also leader of the DESU(Delhi
Electric Supply Undertaking, as it was then called) Employees Association.
The proposal died.
Ironically,
on January 15, 1999, when a similar presentation was made by Kautilya
to the newly elected Chief Minister of Delhi, the man supporting it most
enthusiastically was the Union Power Minister, the same individual who
had shot it down 12 years ago. His receptivity to new ideas was instantaneous:
a chat over coffee one morning in mid-January 2000 led to the idea of
a memorandum of agreement on power reforms between the Centre and states,
with Karnataka becoming the first state to come on board in February.
Just before his death, Ranga and Kautilya bemoaned how the newly created
electricity regulators had become Bhasmasuras who needed to have their
roles more sharply focused.
RADICAL
RANGA: A second memory is of those momentous days in June-July 1991
when the reforms package was being formulated. The issue was what to do
with the MRTP Act, a legacy of Ranga's father. Any company whose assets
exceeded Rs.100 crore had to get the government's nod to expand or start
new businesses, a process that could take between three and five years-apart
from the "greasing" it involved. The debate was whether to increase
the threshold limit or abolish the provision altogether. When Ranga and
Kautilya met finance minister Manmohan Singh, he advised Ranga thus: "Ask
yourself what your father would have done now." Outside the Finance
Minister's room, Ranga remarked: "Yaar, Sardar ne to mujhe phasa
diya!" Perhaps that is why he took on his reluctant senior minister,
lobbied with the Prime Minister directly and ushered in a most radical
policy change in July 1991.
A third watershed
relates to Ranga's brief tenure as Union Coal Minister. Two individuals-
Ranga's father and then coal secretary K.S.R. Chari-were responsible for
the nationalisation of India's coal industry between October 1971 and
January 1973. However, by 1985 itself Chari had become disillusioned with
the way the politicians, the bureaucrats and the trade unions had destroyed
the basic objectives of nationalisation. Chari then chaired various committees
that recommended major policy changes. Small steps were taken by Manmohan
Singh in 1993 to allow private investment for specified captive consumption
purposes. P. Chidambaram proposed bold legislation in early 1997 to reform
the coal industry but his efforts were thwarted by his own cabinet colleagues.
At long last, it was left to Ranga to introduce a bill in Parliament on
April 24 this year to undo what his father had done earlier. But the bill
faces stiff opposition.
Lord Keynes
was once berated by a critic for shifting his stance on a particular issue.
Exasperated, the greatest economist of the 20th century is supposed to
have said: "When presented with facts, I change my mind. What do
you do, Sir?" Some months back in the presence of the Karnataka Chief
Minister, it was the trade unionist Ranga who was insisting on the full
closure of the hopelessly unviable Bharat Gold Mines at Kolar while the
case for keeping it going with a reduced labour force was being made by
a liberalisation-wallah, namely Kautilya!
Finally,
the sad memory of forenoon coffee on December 6, 1992. Ranga was very
confident that the day would pass off peacefully. This was reassuring
since he was very much part of P.V. Narasimha Rao's A-Team on Ayodhya.
Alas, events proved him totally wrong. Too bad we will never know his
version of that dark chapter in our recent history.
(The
author is with the Congress party. These are his personal views.)
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