|
STATES: GUJARAT
Leader In Paralysis
Unable to inspire and lead, a tired Keshubhai is overwhelmed by the
challenge of reconstruction
By Uday Mahurkar
| |
 |
| |
SHELL SHOCK:
The state needs direction but the chief minister can't even communicate |
Keshubhai Patel
has had such a rough patch in the recent past that the occasional accolade
actually catches the Gujarat chief minister by surprise. And so it was
when Keshubhai recently visited Dudhai, a village in Kutch district that
was devastated by the killer earthquake on Republic Day. When he announced
that a room each would be built for the eight lakh families uprooted by
the tragedy before June 30, the gathering of around 1,000 people cheered.
But it wasn't such a surprise after all: as Keshubhai would have realised
later, the cheers were meant more for former Delhi chief minister Sahib
Singh Verma-also present on the occasion-than him. Verma's Rashtriya Swabhiman
Trust has promised to build new houses within three months at a cost of
Rs 12 crore.
Dudhai is lucky to have a benefactor like Verma
but the same cannot be said of many of the 7,000 other villages where
thousands have died and lakhs rendered homeless. Although NGOs have tried
to reach out, these villages largely depend on the Keshubhai Government
for succour. And so far, the Government has only let them down.
|
AT THE RECEIVING END
|
|
Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel
is facing criticism for:
# A general slothfulness and inability
to inspire at executive as well as the political level.
# Losing command over the state bureaucracy.
# Lack of coordination in relief effort
and an inability to take quick decisions.
# Forgetting electoral promises.
|
There is a dangerous drift in governance in the
quake-ravaged state which has much to do with Keshubhai's style of functioning.
In the days since the earthquake, he has rarely spoken with senior officers
in Kutch. Lack of planning and ad-hocism, so grave considering the magnitude
of the tragedy, is becoming more and more pronounced in Gandhinagar with
each passing day.
If the situation weren't so grim, the Keshubhai
Government's blundering reaction would have been the cause of much comic
relief. On a crucial issue like giving cash doles to the affected, as
many as 11 government orders were issued in 10 days. Worse, in Gandhidham,
one of the worst-hit areas, three IAS officers were changed in a span
of 20 days: first, A.K. Luke was despatched from Gandhinagar only to be
replaced 10 days later by G.L. Bhagat. Last week, A.K. Nigam was asked
to take Bhagat's place. Says Ramesh Shah, a Gandhidham businessman: "There
is only one word to describe the Government: irresponsible."
| |
 |
| |
SMALL MERCIES: But
for the help of NGOs, the affected would have been worse off |
Even established norms were rarely followed while
tackling the crisis. Most of the two-dozen IAS officers who were despatched
to Kutch to oversee relief operations were not given written orders detailing
their responsibilities. This hampered relief operations as officers were
reluctant to take quick decisions, especially those involving finance.
To make matters worse, there is a wide rift between a section of the IAS
lobby and the Government. This follows CBI raids on the residences of
two IAS officers and their suspension and a subsequent statement by State
Home Minister Haren Pandya that "some of the officers are under close
scrutiny of the state Government for their conduct". A day before
the earthquake, at a meeting of the state IAS Officers' Association, some
officers charged that the Government was being run by a couple of senior
bureaucrats close to politicians.
Some of the blame for the frosty relations between
the political leadership and the bureaucracy lies with the RSS. For some
time now, it has been actively promoting officers of the Gujarat Administrative
Service (GAS) at the expense of those in the IAS under the flawed perception
that "most IAS officers being outsiders are not rooted to the local
traditions and atmosphere while GAS officers are".
|
METRO TODAY
Web
Exclusives