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STATES: UTTARANCHAL
Too Many Cooks
For a man with virtually
no administrative experience, Swami does not feel the handicap. There
are almost a dozen aides assisting him in day-to-day work. One is an architect,
some others are RSS full-timers. One of his OSDs, to whom the chief minister
is said to be very close to, is his own son-in-law Sunil Harivyasi. Swami
has the perfect defence: "An OSD should be a person in whom one can
confide. He should know what you like to eat and what you like to wear.
Who can know it better than my son-in-law?"
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"An
OSD should be
a person who knows what I would like to eat and wear. Who better
than my
son-in-law?"
Nityanand Swami, Chief Minister, Uttaranchal
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By chief ministerial standards, Swami's schedule
is hardly punishing. Yet, twice in the past six months he has fainted-once
inside the state Assembly and the second time while addressing a public
rally in Kumaon on April 25. The reason offered for his sudden illness
was excessive heat due to "malfunctioning of air conditioners".
That's a charitable view. For most of his party colleagues who have been
baying for his blood suggest the malfunctioning is cerebral. "He
is old and inefficient," says a senior minister. Many others echo
such sentiments in private, but none of them want to come out openly fearing
the party high command's wrath, with assembly elections barely six months
away. "It's a directionless and confused government led by an inexperienced
chief minister," says Suryakant Dhasmana of Congress.
Swami may refute the charge that he is directionless
but even his aides admit that he often presents a picture of confusion.
He is known to blindly sign files put before him without raising even
a single query. Ask him about his achievements during the few months in
office and he is remarkably candid: he lists the installation of a few
traffic lights in Dehradun and the clearing of the Dehradun-Mussoorie
road after a landslide early this year as major achievements. Ask him
why among all states Uttaranchal alone did not have a transport corporation
and Swami, all naivete, replies, "Corporations are owned by others
and hence cause losses to the government."
As for targets to be achieved, here are Swami's
priorities: construct a stadium and community centres, upgrade some degree
colleges. It is this kind of skewed prioritisation in the government agenda
that prompted state Samajwadi Party (SP) President Vinod Badathwal to
remark, "The chief minister is yet to realise that he is not heading
a municipal corporation but an entire state."
With many in-house opponents baying for Swami's
blood, the BJP is a divided house, yet it can take comfort from the fact
that the Congress, where senior leaders like Tiwari, Harish Rawat and
others do not see eye to eye and often work at cross-purposes, is no better.
The two other parties-SP and Bahujan Samaj Party-have limited presence
in the new state.
Thus, despite his many weaknesses, the BJP leadership
will in all probability continue to bear Swami's burden as the state gears
up for its first assembly elections six months on. "He is still our
best bet and we are not going to replace him," says BJP General Secretary
P.L. Khandelwal. The party high command may be trying hard to get its
state-level leaders to close ranks. It is a tough task. For Swami, the
compromise chief minister, it is better it stays that way.
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