Edits

Editorials

India Today
Sep 28,1998

Divide and Rule

Smaller states may be the answer to the mess in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar

Edits Laloo Prasad Yadav's declaration of war against the idea of Vananchal -- Jharkhand, if you like -- is more than a mere iteration of the Indian politician's congenital inconsistency. After all, till a few weeks ago Laloo was a votary of Vananchal. Such whimsicality reflects Laloo's divorce from good government -- or even justice and equity. The issue here is not Vananchal, it is not even small states; it is governance. By opposing Vananchal, Laloo is only seeking to mask the ineptitude of the Rashtriya Janata Dal regime. If statehood is conferred on south Bihar, the rest of the province will go bankrupt. The Vananchal belt contributes 70 per cent of Bihar's revenue. However, only 15 per cent of this money is reinvested in the region. The autochthonous Vananchalis live amid almost half of India's mineral resources -- but also amid grinding poverty. Ethnic aspiration, drain of wealth and administrative convenience make for too compelling a logic. Laloo can delay Vananchal, not deny it.

To be fair, unwieldy size is not the exclusive prerogative of Bihar. In north India itself, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are similar victims of geography. The formation of Uttaranchal and Chhatisgarh amounts to merely tinkering with the problem. In Uttar Pradesh there have been sporadic demands for Poorvanchal in the east and Rohilkhand in the west. The unrelenting misery of the eastern districts, accentuated during the current floods, is evidence that Lucknow is simply too distant an authority. In the south, there are regional inequalities in Andhra Pradesh. There is a case for a second States Reorganisation Commission (SRC). It has been 43 years since the first SRC submitted its report. India has changed a lot since then -- and, as even Laloo will agree, become a lot more ungovernable. The new SRC should be asked to redraw the internal boundaries of India using only the administrative criterion. The politician has had his say, let's see if the cartographer can do better.

Thought Policeman Naqvi
Somebody tell the junior I&B minister to control his illiberal streak

If Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had not belonged to the ruling BJP, he would have spent his days in the 12th Lok Sabha as just another backbencher with a plethora of bees in his bonnet. Unfortunately for India, Naqvi's idiosyncrasies have now been vested with state authority since he is the minister of state for information and broadcasting (I&B). Naqvi's six months in office have comprised one long comedy of terrors. His latest crusade is against a video that depicts Lata Mangeshkar singing Vande Mataram to A.R. Rahman's music. It is a video which has captivated India as an aesthetically pleasing, catchy rendition of old fashioned patriotism. Naqvi, ever the oddball, has concluded that the video insults the national flag. A sequence which shows a group of people raising the Indian tricolour has been frowned upon as it begins with the flag lying on the ground -- draped, as it were, around Mother India.

The video has outraged Naqvi so much that he has decided to set up a special cell in the I&B Ministry dedicated to monitoring satellite channels and beating back the "vulgar invasion from foreign skies". A few months ago, he left even hard-nosed lawyers bewildered by suggesting the Government invoke the Copyright Act to prevent "misuse" of bhajans and scriptures by pop stars. It is easy to suggest that such people be ignored, that every society has its extreme fringe which too is entitled to its views. The point is the symbols and heritage of this land -- flag, literature, music, history -- are the wealth of every Indian. Each citizen has the right to reinterpret this legacy within the realms of civilised conduct -- and without any minister wagging a finger at him. Such sensibilities, of course, seem beyond Naqvi. Until his seniors inculcate the virtues of liberalism in him, he will continue to be the Vajpayee Government's walking-talking public relations disaster.

Issue Contents | Write to us | Subscriptions | Syndication