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STATES: GUJARAT
Reeling Estate
The RSS and the VHP earn public goodwill
even as the state BJP leadership finds itself in the hot seat over links
with the building mafia
By Uday Mahurkar
The two belong
to the same parivar. But oddly enough, one is at the receiving end while
the other is busy lapping up the praise. Almost three years after the
BJP rode to power in Gujarat on the crest of an anti-corruption campaign
and one month after the killer earthquake, the state is witnessing a strange
phenomenon. While there is seemingly no end to the shower of brickbats
for the BJP for its messy post-earthquake reaction, the flow of praise
for the RSS is as yet unending.
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ABSCONDING: Residents of
the Shikhar building hope builder Nyalchand (circled) is caught
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Increasingly, it is the BJP leadership which
is becoming the target of a concerted public attack over its post-earthquake
management and its alleged links with some of the builders and land sharks
responsible for the series of building collapses on January 26 which caused
700-odd deaths in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's premier city. Says Atul Shah, a
small businessman: "The collapse of buildings constructed with substandard
material has brought skeletons tumbling out of the BJP leadership's cupboard.
It's the party's loyal voter and the poor BJP worker who feel let down."
On the other hand, in Bhachau, the worst-affected
tehsil in the disaster, a recent spectacle points out precisely the difference
in the public perception between the RSS-Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) combine
and the BJP. A delegation calls on Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel to complain
about the slow pace of relief and rehabilitation measures being taken
by the Government, but is later full of praise for the work being done
by the RSS and the VHP. Says Chagganbhai Koli, Congress leader and president
of the Bhachau Taluka Panchayat, who was part of the delegation: "The
BJP Government failed miserably. But the RSS and the VHP came to our rescue.
It's a month now and the VHP is still running its makeshift hospital in
Bhachau."
Clearly, the committed BJP worker has lost faith
in the party's leadership. There were 5,000 BJP workers from across the
state who took up active relief work in Kutch in the first fortnight but
most of them chose to work under the RSS' umbrella, preferring the khaki
knicker to the saffron scarf. Amongst them were such leaders as the state
BJP General Secretary Jayantibhai Kevat, a leader recently drafted from
the RSS. In a bid to cement its image the BJP leadership even dispatched
10,000 saffron scarves from Ahmedabad to Kutch. But there were few takers.
In Ahmedabad the public disenchantment with
the BJP leadership threatened to take the shape of an agitation as stories
about the alleged links of the BJP leaders, particularly Revenue and Finance
Minister Vajubhai Vala, with dubious builders and land sharks surfaced.
The disenchantment snowballed after the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
(AMC) first decided to demolish a badly affected multi-storey building,
Shivalik, and then reversed its decision, apparently under pressure from
Vala whose son is a partner in a multi-crore multiplex in Ahmedabad built
by Chiman Agrawal, Shivalik's builder. The multiplex, which too suffered
damage on January 26, was inaugurated with much fanfare late last year
in the presence of Vala and Keshubhai.
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FRIENDS
IN NEED: Post-quake Gujarat saw tireless RSS workers win public approval |
Says Vala-a builder by profession-whose alleged
involvement in land deals has to a great extent been responsible for the
dent in the BJP's image: "I am facing a trial by the media. True,
Agrawal is our partner in the multiplex project. But I have nothing to
do with the Shivalik building. I didn't call up anybody in the AMC to
stop Shivalik's demolition. What's more, except the multiplex, my business
interests are primarily in Rajkot."
Few believe Vala when he says that his real-estate
interests are largely restricted to Rajkot, his hometown. INDIA TODAY
learnt that Vala has shown more than usual interest in land cases outside
Rajkot. A senior IAS officer, Captain B.K. Sinha, had to pay the price
last year when he tried to uphold the rule of the law in cases allegedly
involving Vala's interest. One of these concerned 40,000 sq m of land
earmarked under the Ahmedabad town planning scheme for the expansion of
the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Vala tried every trick
in the trade to grab the land but each time Sinha saw through his game.
In the end, not surprisingly, Sinha found himself transferred.
Sinha was, in fact, merely paying the price
for his unflinching fight against the land mafia. Barely two days after
Keshubhai took over in March 1998, Sinha sealed illegal portions in as
many as 30 buildings and added another 40-odd to the list in the next
few months. A clamour for his head sprung up in the builders' lobby. Even
some BJP leaders joined the anti-Sinha tirade.
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