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DEATHQUAKE;
INEFFICIENT STATE
Is
Keshubhai Up To It?
Gujarat's
chief minister is hardpressed to explain his sluggish response.
By Swapan
Dasgupta
For
71-year-old Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, it's been a remarkably
inauspicious second innings. He has once again been plagued by bad luck.
If it was the over-ambitious Shankersinh Vaghela who ruined his happiness
in 1995, it is nature that has come to haunt him this time. In June 1998
there was the devastating Kandla cyclone, the debilitating drought that
affected 17 districts in 2000 and 22 districts this year and the damaging
floods in Ahmedabad city in August 2000. Capping it all is the January
26 earthquake. No wonder Keshubhai has earned for himself the sobriquet,
the "mahasankatdharak" chief minister (it would loosely translate
as Mr Disaster).
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| CENSURE:
The issue is of leadership and credibility and on both counts Keshubhai(second
from left) is under a cloud |
It's black
humour at its cruel best but it could come to dog the chief minister and
the ruling BJP in Gujarat in the coming months. With rescue and relief
work plagued by familiar inefficiency and callousness, Keshubhai will
need all the political and administrative acumen to extricate himself
from the debris of quake-affected Gujarat. He will have to dispel an impression
that he is not the most suitable man for this exacting job.
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| ROLE
MODELS: RSS workers(above) and Bajarang Dal activists (below) were
in the forefront of the non-official relief and rescue efforts |
The problem
isn't one of resources. The entire bill for the reconstruction of Gujarat
is set to touch Rs 20,000 crore but at least half this amount is likely
to be contributed by civil society. "It will take us a year to rebuild
the state," says Nirma chief Karsanbhai Patel, reflecting the self-confidence
of a socially conscious, entrepreneurial society. Reconstruction in Gujarat
has a momentum of its own that can't be measured by the norms set in less
developed parts of India.
The
issue is one of leadership and credibility. On both these counts there
is a question mark hanging over Keshubhai. Over the years, the man who
started out as a relentless crusader against sloth and corruption has
reinvented himself as a leader constantly willing to make compromises.
 After
the earthquake, this image is fast turning out to be a political liability.
The collapse and debilitation of 171 buildings that led to nearly 700
deaths in Ahmedabad weren't due only to shoddy construction and faulty
design. In popular perception, however, this disaster is being blamed
on the Government's indulgence of unscrupulous builders. This isn't borne
out by facts. The recently introduced impact fee that enabled builders
to regularise unauthorised constructions and planning violations was aimed
at protecting the BJP's middle class base against an overzealous judiciary.
But after the quake it is being perceived as evidence of a politician-mafia
nexus. "Wherever I go, I am confronted by angry citizens demanding
to know why the Government didn't take action against the real-estate
sharks," says Praful Raval, BJP councillor from Nawrangpura in Ahmedabad.
In a bid to contain the damage, the Government has now seized the documents
relating to the 171 buildings from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
This is
good populism but doesn't address another related issue. In political
circles, Keshubhai is being seen as the patron of officials who are short
on either competence or integrity. Keshubhai handpicked the collector
of Kutch whose loss of nerve on January 26 delayed rescue efforts by nearly
24 hours. Chief Secretary L.N.S. Mukundan was at the receiving end of
a 1999 CAG report into public investments in the infamous CRB Capital
case and the chief minister defended him in the Assembly. Keshubhai also
had a long feud with his excitable Food and Civil Supplies Minister Jaspal
Singh over an official who was ultimately suspended after a CBI raid.
"There are three kinds of officials who thrive under Keshubhai,"
said a minister. "Those who are favoured by the chief minister's
family, those who are recommended by the RSS and those who manage the
chief secretary."
This could
be an over-statement. Judged against many former chief ministers, Keshubhai
is relatively upright. But in political terms he suffers more for his
bouts of generosity towards the undeserving because the BJP has made a
virtue of being a party with a difference. The BJP is judged by its own
high standards of sanctimoniousness and doesn't come out smelling of roses.
In a sense,
Keshubhai has complicated matters for himself. After the Vaghela revolt
of 1995, he consciously removed all potential challengers to his leadership.
Former state general secretary Narendra Modi was banished to Delhi and
painted as a villain; Surat strongman Kanshiram Rana moved to the Centre
as a cabinet minister; and former chief minister Suresh Mehta had to cope
with a rival propped up by Keshubhai in Kutch. By a convoluted system
of departmental fragmentation, Keshubhai has also ensured that all crucial
decisions are ultimately referred to his office.
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