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STATES: UTTARANCHAL
The Swamy Of Inertia
With the assembly elections due in six months, the BJP is in
a fix over its unconventional chief minister
By Sharad Gupta in Dehradun
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BLISSFULLY INEPT: Swami has little to show for his days
in office while dissent in the BJP and charges of inefficiency leave
him unmoved
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Ruling party politicians
are seldom known to give credit to rivals. But Uttaranchal Chief Minister
Nityanand Swami is cast in a different mould. At a public function in
Kumaon not too long ago, Swami acknowledged that the credit for "almost
all development activities that have taken place in Uttaranchal so far
should go to former Congress chief minister Narain Dutt Tiwari. In fact,
I still consult him before taking any major decision". On the dais,
Tiwari almost squirmed in embarrassment at the fulsome praise of his political
rival, but Swami's own partymen were seething with rage. BJP cadres took
to the streets, shouting anti-Swami slogans and even burning effigies
at a few places. Such expression of dissent against its own chief minister
is a rarity in the BJP but the 73-year-old chief minister himself is,
in many ways, a rarity.
For one, he is a chief minister who has not
won a popular election. In fact, he has not even contested one, preferring
the safe route through the Hardwar-Dehradun graduate constituency seat
in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council. If administrative acumen or
experience was a criterion to head a government, Swami would not even
have been in the running for chief ministership of the newly formed state
nine months ago. It was a stroke of luck and old-fashioned factional politics
in the BJP that catapulted him to the chair. With warring BJP factions
in Uttaranchal failing to agree on any single candidate, the ubiquitous
party high command stepped in. Swami's impeccable integrity and simple
ways and the fact that he was a contemporary of the likes of Atal Bihari
Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani stood him in good stead, outweighing the
fact that the only administrative experience he has had was in running
for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council. But in nearly 10 months in
office, Swami has little to show by way of governance. His unconventional
ways have amused many but rattled his party leadership. With just six
months to go for the first assembly elections in the new state of Uttaranchal,
BJP leaders are wondering whether the party stands a chance of retaining
power with Swami at the helm.
At the moment, the septuagenarian does not inspire
confidence. As chief minister, his style and schedules are unique. No
frisking outside his doors which are always open-anyone can walk into
his office and register a grievance. Complainants even get to meet him.
When Swami is unusually busy, he makes sure one of his officers is deputed.
Most visitors come away with the feeling they have got a fair deal. A
Congress MLA, Indira Hridiyesh recently went on record that no Congress
chief minister had been as helpful to her as Swami was.
That's one thing that can be said for him. Swami
has good links with almost all parties. And with good reason: during his
five-decade-long career in politics, he has been in the RSS, the Jan Sangh,
Congress and the BJP. Nearly 30 years ago, he failed to win an assembly
election on a Jan Sangh ticket. So he decided to try his luck with the
Congress. The then Congress chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Hemvati Nandan
Bahuguna was willing to oblige and offered the then Jan Sanghi his support
for legislative council polls in 1969. Swami, who till then used to cycle
daily to attend the RSS shakhas, promptly joined the Congress bandwagon.
Years later, he returned to the BJP to seek its support for his candidacy
as Legislative Council chairman. If Swami had not become chief minister,
perhaps no one would even have known that he was not a local, but a Haryanvi
from Mahendragarh district. When the agitation for Uttaranchal was at
its peak, Swami was never around. So when his name cropped up for chief
ministership his critics began to questions his commitment to Uttaranchal.
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