Congress: Politics and politicking

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi

Congress has mastered the art of politics and politicking. No wonder, the party has remained in power for over half a century in the country since 1947.

The business of “distancing” from either the statements and policy decisions of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or a party leader is what keeps happening at regular intervals, so much so that it has become a joke in the media fraternity. No one in the party knows who will distance himself from one statement made by the PM, a Cabinet Minister or a party General Secretary.

The so called inner party democracy, seen in the utterances of Digvijay Singh and Keshav Rao on a host of issues, is intended to kill several birds with one stone.

One idea of both Rao and Singh is to pursue a so called “left agenda” in the party. They want to be identified as “left leaning” politicians within the party, taking inspiration from the views which Jawaharlal Nehru, the first real modern political elite, without the baggage of royalty and zamindari, held at one point of time. They have managed rope in Rahul Gandhi in their agenda who talks a similar language. No wonder, Digvijay is said to be the political adviser of the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

What Digvijay Singh wrote in Economic Times on Maoism was a calibrated and well thought of political strategy. He wanted to endear himself to the Maoists and also their sympathizers – tribals. These are the areas from where Congress has been decimated over the years in the political battles.

Keshav Rao, a Rajya Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh and an important party functionary followed suit. He has found the Rajya Sabha as an ideal platform to air his views, knowing fully well that it would be noticed everywhere, he can distribute the verbatim speech to the media as an e-mail attachment and also the party bosses from where he takes the cue and draws power from.

The second idea behind the duo’s verbal indulgence is to play the opposition within the ruling party. They want to have the space of the opposition as well, taking the ideas and then selling it to corner all the space which the opposition might have. Just go back to Sharm-al-sheikh where Manmohan Singh practically threw away the nation’s foreign policy interests. Sensing the mood of the nation, Congress was quick in playing to the gallery and for almost two weeks disassociated with the joint statement of India and Pakistan.

So when the Congress goes campaigning in areas where there is Maoist presence, they can always proclaim see “we talk of changing the lives, bringing development and talk of socio-economic change”.

If they go to urban areas, metropolis and approach the middle-upper class for votes, they will site P Chidambaram’s much-publicised tough policy to get their votes. It is like saying “Heads I win, Tails you lose”. Congress wants to have it in all situations. It is also like the jhola chhap doctor who claims he can cure all ailments.

Another bird which they want to politically kill is obviously the Prime Minister so that he is discredited over a period of time and it is easier for the crown prince to assume charge. After all, you need a pretext to remove somebody and that too from a post as high as that of the Prime Minister.

Sharm-al-Sheikh was the beginning of the end of Manmohan Singh’s second tenure. Perhaps the only independent decision which he took in the lackluster tenure was signing the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. Not surprising to see that after the Nuclear Liability Bill was passed in Parliament, the PM goes to Tirupati to thank the Lords – “Mission accomplished”.

What happened on August 31 in Rajya Sabha when Keshav Rao set the tone for the embarrassment of the government was not only a loss of face for HRD minister Kapil Sibal but also the Prime Minister. The Education Tribunal Bill has the full support of Singh, an academician-turned-politician. The beneficiaries in this Bill would largely have been the US-based universities and colleges like the Nuclear Liability Bill in which the beneficiaries would primarily be the US companies. In a way it was the second Sharm-al-Sheikh for the PM.

So Sibal rushed to the Prime Minister after the Bill was deferred in the Rajya Sabha to draw a future strategy as the author of the debacle Keshav Rao was defended by a section of the government and the party with the likes of Pawan Kumar Bansal and Janardan Dwivedi endorsing what Rao said.

This business of double-speak was in full flow in the “saffron terror” remark of Chidambaram. After trying to create a space for the “Left” in the party, Congress mandarins also want to create a space for the “Right” in their ranks. Janardan Dwivedi, the Brahmin leader, Hindi speech writer of Sonia Gandhi and her one time Hindi tutor, chooses to attack Chidambaram on the issue.

After championing the cause of the Batla House accused, Digvijay Singh joins the bandwagon saying saffron is the colour of valour and has religious connotations. Why don’t you say that you want the votes of Muslims, Hindus and everybody and can go on contradicting yourself time and again for this. You want to reflect all shades of opinion yourself – Left, Right, Centre and even extreme Left.

Congress in the pre-independence era was a sort of umbrella organization for everyone – the casteists, the extreme Leftists, the extreme Rightists, the Centrist and what not. The Raos, Singhs and Dwivedis, Manishankar Aiyars want to recreate it 70-80 years later not realizing that the world has moved on, people read between the lines and the same party (Congress) has led to the extinction of political innocence of the Indian electorate.

(September 2010)

Dr Singh is pride of Punjab and India: Rahul

Amitabh Shukla in Amritsar

May 11, 2009

Strongly batting for Manmohan Singh as the next prime minister, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Monday described him as not only the pride of Punjab but the entire country.

"Manmohan Singh is pride of Punjab and India," Rahul, who is on his third visit to the state during the current Lok Sabha elections, said.

Hailing Dr Singh, Gandhi said that at the beginning of the elections there were two candidates for primeministership -- L K Advani [Images] and Manmohan Singh.

"But, when the election campaign is ending, it has now become clear that there is only one name for the post of prime minister and that is Manmohan Singh," Gandhi said, exuding confidence that Manmohan Singh would become the prime minister again 'so that all sections can prosper'.

He said the United Progressive Alliance government will always stand for the aam aadmi (common man) unlike the National Democratic Alliance, which during its tenure, ignored various sections of society, including the poor, the farmers and the Dalits.

"When the Congress government came to power in 2004, Sonia Gandhi [Images], Manmohan Singh and we all made just one promise that we will work for the aam aadmi, farmers of Punjab, mazdoor (labourers), Dalit and that it will be their government. We functioned as per our promise," he said, slamming the NDA for 'thinking' about the rich and upper classes.

Claiming that the Opposition parties were making a new promise daily, Gandhi ridiculed NDA's slogan of 'India shining' during the last Lok Sabha elections in 2004, saying the slogan in English was only meant for the privileged.

He said the BJP leaders told the entire country that India is shining. "But they did not go to the houses of the poor, the farmers, the Dalit and other weaker sections. They just went to the houses of the rich. You (voters) then showed them the door," he said.

The biggest achievement of the UPA in its five year rule was employment guarantee scheme providing for 100 days of assured employment during the year, the young Congress leader said.

Listing out other achievements of the government, he said the UPA waived agriculture loans worth Rs 70,000 crore and facilitated every citizen of the country to secure any information under the Right to Information Act.

Referring to former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu, who was a key ally of the erstwhile NDA government, Gandhi said he had looked down on the farmers 'saying there are call centres and business and so there was no need for agriculturists'.

"There is great need of farmers. They provide us food. We are not going to leave them," Gandhi said. (PTI)

http://election.rediff.com/report/2009/may/11/loksabhapoll-singh-is-pride-of-punjab.htm

Cong HQ change: Many uneasy over address linked to Sangh man

Amitabh Shukla

Congress will soon have a new address, but its location on the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg is making many a party worker uneasy.

The ruling party does not want to associate its headquarters with the name of Upadhyay, the Jan Sangh ideologue, revered by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar alike. Party managers are busy in finding ways and means to circumvent the problem with sources saying that the entrance of the party headquarters could be located on a side road, called Kotla Road.

This would help avoid the name of Deen Dayal Upadhyay on all official stationary and communication of the party, which is 125 year old now. Party president Sonia Gandhi had laid the foundation of the new headquarters on December 28, 2009 the foundation day of the Congress.

"At present, our headquarters is on Akbar Road, which is named after an emperor who was the harbinger of secular politics. The new address is slightly problematic," said a party leader.

The new headquarters would be the permanent address of the party as the present AICC headquarters at 24 Akbar Road, is being handed over to the Directorate of Estates, Ministry of Urban Development.

The Congress' decision to move from the present address came following a Supreme Court directive to all political parties to shift their offices from Lutyen's Delhi to the institutional areas of the city.

24 Akbar Road was the bungalow alloted to late AICC general secretary G K Moopanar who handed it over to the party soon after it lost power for the first time at the Centre in 1977. The AICC headquarters earlier used to be at 5, Rajendra Prasad Road which was abandoned by the party after the 1977 defeat. Before the 1969 split, the AICC headquarters used to be on 7, Jantar Mantar road, currently having the head office of the Janata Dal (United).

It had been there since the days of independence after being shifted from Anand Bhawan in Allahabad, the bungalow which Moti Lal Nehru donated to the party. Though the party built the swanky Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan in the 1990s, to be used as party HQ, it did not shift there and its activities continued from 24, Akbar Road. The building is now used by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

After the inauguration of the Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, the party had lost the 1989 elections.

It is learnt that the new HQ would be a modern building with a convention centre and separate rooms to house offices of general secretaries and secretaries. Offices will also be there for frontal organisations of the party.

A large and modern media room would also be part of the building with facilities for uplinking and wi-fi zone for computers. A spacious underground parking lot too has been planned.

(December 6, 2009)

Black money issue a poll stunt: Rahul

Amitabh Shukla

Ajmer (Rajasthan), May 4

The Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi today termed BJP as pro-rich and claimed that the saffron party rake up just before elections issues on terrorism and black money -- two fronts, which the Congress general secretary said NDA failed miserably to tackle during its tenure.

"Before the election, they (BJP) started talking about money stashed in Swiss bank accounts. They did not take any step towards when they were in power. Why don't they talk about corruption in the previous government of Rajasthan?" he said addressing an election rally here.

On terrorism, Gandhi lashed out at BJP leader L K Advani for his claim of being a "strong leader" saying, "What kind of a strong leader is he who did not know that terrorists were being released?"

Gandhi was referring to the 1999 IA plane hijacking, during which three dreaded terrorists were freed at Kandahar in Afghanistan.

The Gandhi-scion also said while Congress worked for the poor, BJP was a party for the rich."Congress' thought and concern are for all sections in society -- poor, worker, farmers, backwards, tribals... but for them (BJP) it (their thought) is only for the rich people," he said. Gandhi also charged BJP with trying to hide the real India and showing least concern for the poor and cited the saffron party's India Shining slogan during the 2004 elections to drive home his point.

Gandhi said India was not shining in the homes of poor, backward, tribals, and people living in slums and hamlets. "When we came to power (2004), we promised that ours will be the government of the poor and we did it successfully," the young Congress leader claimed referring to schemes like NREGA and waiver to the farmers.

Quoting former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, a partner of the NDA then, Gandhi said Naidu had viewed "what was the need of the farmer as there were call centers, BPOs and IT industries".

"They eat the food produced by the farmer and talk like this. When we gave a loan waiver, the India Shining people said why are you wasting money?" Gandhi said.

If the Country had to progress, it had to be of all sections and poor are integral part of it, Gandhi said.

"They (BJP) want to divide the country on the basis of the rich and the poor. For Congress, it has to be a inclusive and united march towards progress," he said.

Accusing the saffron party of not talking about fundamental issues like poverty and development, Gandhi said they (BJP) talk of money stashed in Swiss bank accounts and terrorism where they failed miserably during their tenure. —PTI

(2009)

Will 2009 Be the Year of Rahul?

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi | Jan 05, 2009

Rahul Gandhi slowly emerged out of the self-imposed cocoon in the year that went by but in the New Year which will see Lok Sabha elections will he have a bigger role.

This is a question that is hotly discussed in Congress circles and outside.

With the Congress buoyed over the poll victory in three states and being part of government in Jammu and Kashmir, Gandhi was hailed as the "third pole" in Congress after Party President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"The Congress is now on the threshold of 3-G technology; we have stood for third generation leaders who are progressive and dynamic and who can provide good governance," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi says.

But the party appears in no hurry to pitchfork him to the front as one who may be taking over. Sonia Gandhi had answered the question on Independence Day that "certainly" Manmohan Singh will be the Prime Minister if the UPA comes back to power.

In fact, early 2008 saw the AICC not approving senior leader Arjun Singh's statement that there was no harm in projecting Rahul as the PM candidate. That time, party leaders had made it known that Manmohan Singh did not like the idea when he was occupying the prime ministerial chair.

Gandhi, who was inducted as the General Secretary of the AICC in September 2007 and made in-charge of the frontal organisations of NSUI and the IYC, took the opportunity head on.

Gandhi started the process of democratising the functioning of the NSUI and the IYC holding organisational elections for the NSUI in Uttarakhand and IYC in Punjab, to be replicated in these organisations in the rest of the country.

Even though the adoption of the same model in the parent party may not be anyday soon, the 38-year old leader, in a candid admission, described patronage, money, dynasty and relatives as a "bane" which prevents the youth from joining politics.

He described himself as someone who benefited from it as his father, grandmother and great grandfather were the Prime Ministers of the country at a meeting in Uttarakhand.

The year 2008 proved to be a watershed for Gandhi as he came on his own and showed maturity as a politician proving the critics wrong that he would not be able to find his feet in the hurly-burly of Indian politics.

Not only was he made the in-charge of NSUI and the IYC, Gandhi was made a member of several panels within the Congress, prominent being the Future Challenges Committee, the Publicity Committee and the Manifesto Committee.

Party insiders say that in the meetings of these committees and others, they receive valuable inputs from the youth leader and political insight which clearly indicate that he has come of age and is ready to fulfill bigger tasks in the party or the government.

Congress leaders point out that for the first time in 2008, Gandhi seriously looked beyond the family pocket borough of Amethi-Rae Bareilly and the state of Uttar Pradesh.

In the recently-held Assembly elections which the Congress won 3-2, party veterans like Veerappa Moily gave credit to the Amethi MP for the victory, describing him as the "star" and another General Secretary Prithviraj Chavan referring to him as the "third pole" of the party.

Critics say that out of sycophancy senior Congress leaders are going all out for their praise about the scion of what is called the first political family of the country.

Union Minister Arjun Singh started this when he said that "there was nothing wrong" in making Gandhi the Prime Minister of the country. The AICC was not impressed.

But now more leaders are coming out in the open. General Secretary Digvijay Singh says, "Rahul is fully competent to occupy the post of Prime Minister." The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister is not known to speak out of turn in the Congress and his comments found wider acceptability in the party.

Those associated with Gandhi and the Congress say that he is the "Unique Selling Proposition" or the USP of the party in a country which has 65 per cent of its population below the age of 38.

"No other party has a youth ambassador, an icon with whom the youth can connect to and this gives the Congress a headstart and a distinct advantage," says a Congress leader.

He says the question is how to cash in on this USP of the Congress into distinct electoral advantage in the next round of elections.

Gandhi has emerged as the soft, suave, new generation politician of the 21st century who is not bound by political conventions, can make honest admissions, is focused and not bothered about the Opposition barbs, he says.

The young brigade in the Congress rallies around him and hails him as their leader, inside and outside Parliament. This group comprises of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasad, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora and Sandeep Dikshit amongst others.

When Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati attacked the young leader saying that he cleanses himself with soap after meeting dalits, Gandhi preferred not to reply in the same language as most politicians would do.

BJP President Rajnath Singh referred to him as a 'bachcha (child)' in politics in a remark which was not considered charitable.

Gandhi admitted that he was a 'bachcha' but said that a majority of the country was indeed 'bachcha' and senior politicians would have to look at this segment seriously.

http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?651007

Wealth From Cities Can Bridge Rich And Poor Disconnect: Rahul

By AMITABH SHUKLA

AMETHI - Speaking at the first convocation of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Information Technology, Amethi campus, a part of IIFT, Allahabad, the Congress leader said, “there are two India’s; one that is connected... rich and moving fast, the other is poor India... where 60 to 70 percent of the people live”.

He said the rich India was growing at a rate of nine percent and even during global economic recession, the rate of growth was seven percent.

“The connected India is growing fast. The cities are generating enough money. The gap can be filled. This is a mission which you all have to do,” the Amethi MP said, amid applause from over 200 fresh graduates.

Rahul said he had two roles to play, one was that of a politician where he has to see the “bigger picture” and the other was that of a human being where he has to be “sensitive” to certain values.

Remarking on the country’s growth in the last 60 years, the leader said, India has achieved a lot during this period.

“There were no roads, electricity and health care 60 years ago. The villages were not well connected. We have been able to bridge that through roads, health care and IT,” he said.

“The job we have in the next 20-30 years is to make the unconnected India into a connected India,” he said, adding that this could be brought about in multiple ways by making roads, using IT, improving healthcare and enhancing development.

Rahul said if this is achieved in the coming years then the major part of the country would look like cities in terms of development indices and parameters. (PTI)

(August 27, 2009)

http://www.indiajournal.com/pages/event.php?id=8126

Not a single penny spent on social welfare in Indian capital

Amitabh Shukla

Nov 29, 2007

Documents accessed by Hindustan Times show that the Social Welfare Department has failed to spend even a single penny on several schemes in the first seven months of this year, leading to all round failure in providing relief to vulnerable sections of society.

The department has funds to provide scholarship to 800 disabled persons a year. In the first seven months of the financial year, however, no one has actually got the benefit.

The disabled unfriendly bureaucracy of the state government has another disgrace to its name. It has to give unemployment allowance to 2,380 disabled persons but has failed to identify even a single person so far.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Most of the government schemes have failed to reach the intended beneficiaries. The department is supposed to provide financial assistance to 3,750 widows but again has failed to give a single assistance. The department has to set up 10 juvenile shelter homes but seven months have lapsed in the year and none has been set up so far.

There are several other areas where the Social Welfare Department has failed miserably. A primary school for the deaf is to be built at Nehru Vihar.

The status report shows that so far, the work has not been initiated and no money has been spent at all. The other schemes where no money has been spent and no work done, despite a financial sanction, include development programme for the mentally retarded and national programme for the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities.

A halfway home was supposed to be built for the improved mental patients, discharged from IHBAS at Shahdara. The work is still to be initiated. The development of Tahirpur leprosy complex and development of Sewa Kuteer complex for the visually challenged too faced a roadblock.

Old age homes for which Rs 4.5 crore has been sanctioned remains unutilised. The list with the HT shows there are a large number of schemes in which not even a single penny has been spent in the financial year.

“In about four remaining months of the financial year, officials will hurry to spend the money and will come up with ill-conceived schemes and give dole to those who do not need assistance at all. It’s a dismal picture,” said a senior official, who did not wish to be named.

When contacted, Social Welfare Minister Yoganand Shastri said responsibility would be fixed, if laxity was found on the part of the officials in implementing the schemes of the government. “We would ensure that in the remaining months, the schemes conceptualised by the government gets implemented,” said Shastri.

Source: Hindustan Times

Bangladesh is being Pakistanised: Shahriar Kabir

The Hindustan Times, September 24, 2003


Amitabh Shukla
September 23

Journalist, film-maker, writer and human rights activist Shahriar Kabir was in India recently to

mobilise support for the South Asian Coalition Against Communalism and Fundamentalism. In and out of jail, Kabir spoke to Amitabh Shukla on the conditions prevailing in his country and need for a platform to fight fundamentalism. Excerpts from the interview:

How strong is fundamentalism in Bangladesh?

Under the present regime, fundamentalists of all hues have become quite strong. Global Islamic

terrorist groups have also spread their tentacles in the country and this is disturbing for the civil society in South Asia. Around 15 such groups operate from Bangladesh, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad of Maulana Azhar Masood. They have the tacit support of the government and are

spreading the message of intolerance and violence.

What kind of support do you see for South Asian

Coalition Against Communalism and Fundamentalism?

We held the first conference of the group in Dhaka in 2001 and the next conference will be in Delhi in end-2003-early 2004. The support has been from all sections, including several politicians, journalists, activists and intellectuals from India and neighbouring countries. It was formed because the people who are fighting fundamentalism do not have a platform of their own while fundamentalist groups are organised.

What is the condition of the Hindu minority in Bangladesh?

Their condition is deteriorating by the day. The percentage of Hindus in Bangladesh is decreasing due to migration. Secularism has been wiped out from the Constitution and the extremist groups are having a sway. The Hindus are increasingly finding it difficult to live in the country as the government is looking the other way and political parties are shy of supporting their cause.

How could this trend be reversed?

We are creating awareness in the country and countering the propaganda of the fundamentalists.

We are getting support from various quarters. If secularism becomes the mainstay of Bangla-deshi polity, things would turn for the better. The government is to blame for the growth of the

undemocratic forces.

How do the people of Bangladesh see India?

In general, the image of India is quite good. They see it as a friend who helped the country in the struggle for independence. However, over the years, some flawed policy on the part of India has distanced the two countries. Ironically, Pakistan is now becoming closer to the ruling groups. This happened because Bangladesh was ruled by the military rulers for a long time and the fundamentalists gained control. Bangladesh is undergoing an Islamisation and Pakistanisation at present. This is violating human rights and the spirit of secularism.

Congress to end 'quota system' in selecting poll candidates

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI)

Congress President Sonia Gandhi's call to end the "quota system" in ticket distribution would come up in the crucial meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the party which will finalise the candidates for the coming assembly polls in six states.

"The first meeting of the CEC to finalise party tickets likely to be held on October 19," Congress media department chief M Veerappa Moily said.

Gandhi had called for an end to the quota system at a party meeting last month in the capital saying that "hard decisions" would have to be taken and there should be no "interference" in the process of ticket distribution.

According to sources, the quota system refers to the process in which senior party leaders choose the candidates, some of them from their family and acquaintances and neglect merit, past political record, age and winability of the candidate.

"The interests of the party is sacrificed at the alter of self-gratifying interests of some leaders," said an AICC functionary, explaining the new political paradigm of the party.

"For our self-interest and ambitions we lose in elections and make the party weak," Gandhi had said in the CWC meeting while giving a call for the end of the quota system.

In the poll-bound states of Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where the stakes are very high for the Congress, this will be for the first time that the new experiment of the party will be seen on the ground.

(Oct 12, 2008)

Sheila marks nine years as Delhi’s chief minister

Amitabh Shukla

December 4, 2007

Under the stewardship of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, the Congress government in Delhi completed nine years of uninterrupted rule on Monday. The feat will be officially celebrated only on December 15, when Dikshit took oath of office and secrecy in her second term.

Dikshit, who began her political career in Kannauj in UP, finally found a political home in Delhi when she became the Chief Minister for the first time on December 3, 1998. A rank outsider in Delhi politics, the Punjab-born Dikshit was brought in as the president of a faction-ridden Delhi Congress in 1997. Fed up with the BJP’s tenure and rise in price of onion, people voted the Congress to power. Sixty nine-year-old Dikshit has not looked back since then.

She had a tough time initially, as local Congress leaders flaunted their political muscle. She continued battling during the entire tenure and it was only during her second term that she managed to outwit her detractors and put her stamp of authority in Delhi politics.

After she won the 2003 elections, she was made to wait for over 10 days before she was given a nod to take charge. The election results, however, had made it clear that development had become the only agenda of the people of Delhi. In the politically crucial Assembly elections, the Congress lost power in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh but retained Delhi, making Dikshit much stronger in the Congress. The results of the Lok Sabha elections also went in her favour with the Congress winning six out of the seven seats.

Political observers say the battle ahead in the election year is more difficult for Congress and Dikshit. “The party would be fighting anti-incumbency at two levels — Centre and state. Moreover, no Congress government has won three consecutive elections after 1977,” said a Congress leader. The dent in the Congress vote bank has already become apparent from the loss the party suffered during the MCD elections this year.

Dikshit, however, successfully managed to shift the blame to the state Congress president Ram Babu Sharma who was later removed. The Congress leaders are now unanimous that Dikshit has been given a free hand for the Assembly elections and has been seemingly made powerful to ensure that the party performs a miracle in Delhi.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/261253.aspx

'Change visibe everywhere'

Amitabh Shukla, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, December 04, 2007

First Published: 01:50 IST(4/12/2007)

Last Updated: 01:52 IST(4/12/2007)

She is perhaps the only woman Chief Minister in the country who has completed an uninterrupted tenure of 9 years and is all set to complete 10 years next year. In an interview with Amitabh Shukla, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit says she tried to take the challenges head on and turn them into opportunities. Excerpts:

Q: How do you see the last nine years as a Chief Minister of Delhi?

A: I see it with a great amount of satisfaction. Change is visible in all fields. There have been challenges on almost every front but we have met them successfully.

Q: You have now entered the election year and would face the electorate next year. How would the government and the party gear up to meet the challenge?

A: We will continue to work in the same manner, which we have been doing for the last 9 years. We have a picture of the city in mind and have dreams and would want continuity to fulfill all these. We will face the electorate with this bigger picture of development of the city.

Q: You can perhaps cite several achievements in your tenure. Do you have any regrets as far as governance is concerned?

A: We could perhaps have done much better in all fields. Had it not been for the multiplicity of authorities, we could have achieved a lot. I feel that land should be with the Delhi government along with law and order. If multiplicity ends, the decision making process would be much faster. However, we still nurse the dream to make Delhi a world-class city even with the constraints.

Q: You are the first woman CM to complete nine continuous years in office. How do you see the feat?

A: Well, this is for you people (journalists) and the citizens of the city to decide.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/261258.aspx

THE SANYASI...

By Amitabh Shukla

Those who have surrendered their ego at the feet of the Lord undergo penance and endure all physical hardships to begin a fresh chapter of life. I came to learn about this while travelling in Uttarakhand hills recently to cover the elections in the state.

The Garhwal Hills, called Devbhumi, as four of the most sacred shrines of Hinduism – Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri – attract thousands of people from across the country after the winters when the doors of the temples after opened after the snow melts.

While going up the hill from Rishikesh, I saw at least six different groups of pilgrims on their way to the holy shrine on foot. They had walked all the way from Rishikesh and had planned to cover the entire journey on foot. The taxi driver, a local, told me that several pilgrims trek more than 300 kms during the pilgrim season. Curiosity got better of me and I stopped at the wayside to talk to a group of two men, bearded and wearing the gerua clothes which signifies abandoning the worldly comforts.

“Baba, where are you going?” I asked. The sanyasi replied – “To the char dham yatra”. But the temple doors must be closed at this time of the year and it is still two months away before it opens. “I will go upto the place where nature takes me to on the banks of the Bhagirathi,” said the Sanyasi, pointing to the holy river at a distance. Then he said: “I will wait at the temple gate and would be one of the first to offer flowers to the Lord,” he said.

“But why walk all the way when you can get a bus service for a small fee?” I insisted. It was here that I realised that the person to whom I was talking was spiritually evolved. “The abode of the gods is so beautiful. He wants his devotees to appreciate the mountains, the forests, the clouds and the snow and there is no better way of enjoying god’s hospitality than by walking to his abode,” said the sanyasi, who must be in his late 30s.

“People speak lies all year round and then go to God once a year thinking that he will be forgiven. They repeat it every year till the body becomes too old and the soul parts company and finds a new body. If one cannot even walk up to the abode of God and dedicate a part of the life span to selfless service of the Lord, how will the sins be written off?” the Sanyasi asked me.

I had no answers.

Then he broke into a melodious bhajan. His companion did the chorus and suddenly a truth dawned on me.

Hardwar and Rishikesh

Amitabh Shukla

Roaming on the banks of the holy river Ganga in Rishikesh sometime ago during a break from office, a question came to my mind. How can an office goer, who is into the daily grind of a metropolitan city keep a balance between his internal (spiritual) and external (material) growth?

With the religious and spiritual impact of the twin cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh deep on my conditioning at that point of time, the question kept troubling me in the ashram where I was putting up for 3 days. The next day itself, I got talking to a Swami of the Ashram. “You don’t have to look anywhere else. Just read the Bhagwad Gita. I am sure, you do not understand Sanskrit. Go for an English translation and explanation,” said the young Swami who was doing a three-month course on Yoga in the Ashram.

“I have read Gita a few times. The teachings does affect me for a while but when the problems around me manifests, I react from my conditioning and forget the teachings. The subconscious remains worried due to something or the other and sometimes without any reason,” I told the Swami honestly.

It was at this point that the young teacher, perhaps younger to me in age but much more qualified in spiritual matters, taught me the theory of doing your duty irrespective of the results. This was what Krishna taught Arjun on the battlefield of Mahabharata. I had read it but the way it was put before me was an eye and mind opener.

“There is no harm in action but dependence on the fruits of action is dangerous,” quoted the Swami from the Gita. “You cannot control anything of the world, you cannot change the world. Why bother about something on which you have no control at all,” the Swami continued. Referring to attachment, he said: “You only have control on your work, the type of work you do and how much you do. Just do it honestly to the best of your ability. You cannot control the rest – the fruits and the rewards which come along.

“You plant a sapling. You can just water it and put manure. You cannot decide how many branches would come out and how many leaves would be there on the grown up plant. This is the theory of nature”.

The example of the sapling immediately connected the theory of karma as enunciated by Krishna in all its myriad variations with my doubts. “The law of nature demands that you should not worry about the results if you have done your work honestly and best of your ability,” the Swami said. “Live life full, enjoy it to the hilt but maintain a distance from desire and ambition,” was his parting advice.

(2010)

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THE TANTRIK

Amitabh Shukla

The year was 2001 and the month March. I was posted in Ranchi in Jharkhand and was on a professional assignment to cover the life and problems of the primitive Asura tribe, living in the newly formed state.

The place, close to Netarhat on the border of Chhatisgarh, where the tribe lived, was completely secluded. There were no roads to boast of and our vehicle could not take on the rogours of what passed off as a road. It broke down. Three of us – an anthropologist friend and a local teacher decided to walk the remaining 3 kms to the Asura village.

After getting to know the tribe from close quarters and taking notes for my write-up, we decided to wind up and proceed back to the state Capital. It was then that, I noticed a non-tribal, sitting on a chair and enjoying the natural beauty of the place. Journalistic curiosity and the odds led me to his modest government accommodation.

He was a clerk working in the rural bank located in the village – the only sign of any government presence apart from the slogans to eradicate pulse and polio on the walls. He soon revealed that he was a Tantrik. Getting to know a tantrik, who looked like a normal person, instead of skeletons in hand, led our small group to ask a series of questions.

“I roamed in all places, including the cremation grounds for several years. Then my guru ordered me to become a normal householder and bear children. I got a job and settled down in this place,” said the tantrik. He added: “I am in tantra and also a grihasth. Being a householder is a divine order for me and has to be complied”.

As the conversation blossomed, I asked him about the negatives associated with Tantra - skeleton worship, liquor, sexual rituals etc. “There are several schools of tantra. The one I follow is the worship of the female power in the form of Durga,” he said.

“I am her child, she is my mother. I cry before her. I dance with ecstasy before her. I laugh with her. She advises me, helps me and my disciples out of the problems,” said the 40-year old tantrik.

The tantrik answered my spiritual queries with such simplicity and humbleness that I immediately believed him. “A son can become wayward but a mother never abandons him. You just have to ask the divine mother with a true and pure heart and she will fulfill what you ask for,” he reasoned.

What led to a true and pure heart? “Concentration and meditation,” replied the Tantrik. “When a heart is cleansed after years of struggle, it never yearns for the worldly goods and physical pleasure. Whatever you ask the mother, is for your disciples and your surroundings, never for yourself,” he continued.

But what is Tantra then? “The intensity of devotion which makes one closer to the Goddess. Extreme penance and detachment. Following the divine directions and using the powers bestowed by the mother for welfare,” he summed up.

We had another meeting at a different venue when the Tantrik had gone to his disciple’s house for spiritual counseling. The discussion was more intense and the answers satisfied my spiritual quest. Why don’t you publicise yourself and reach a wider audience. “You reached me at an inaccessible place. This was ordained by the divine forces. “Those who truly seek the mother’s blessings never go unblessed,” said the Tantrik.

New Year resolution

Amitabh Shukla

I tried various New Year resolutions over the years. I could not stick to any one of them for more than a fortnight. None of them worked as the basis of taking the resolution was a “New Year” which merely changes the date, calendar and the diaries. All days are the same, including December 31 or January 1.

Only a firm resolution from the inner self is going to work. And this requires practice and training of a much longer duration. Keeping the five senses in their right place – in the firm grip of the individual after all is no mean task and only the enlightened have managed to do so.

A friend casually asked, “what would be your New Year resolution this time?” I had no simple answers. “My resolution would be to gain control on my five senses which go astray at the slightest provocation,” I told my friend. “I have been trying to manage them unsuccessfully for quite sometime now”. My friend now got confused.

But, you seem to be a reasonably balanced person! These was a question hidden in his conversation. “Everybody is born with a balance. Only the conditioning and untrained senses makes him different,” I told him, quoting from a book which I had read recently. The book was the source of my acquired wisdom.

Everyone likes to hear good things about himself or herself, likes to touch soft things in life, see the beautiful face of the earth and nature’s creation, taste the best cuisine from around the globe and finally smell the perfumes from international houses. “Breaking this routine and acquiring mastery over them is the biggest challenge for the human being,” the book said and I quoted it to my friend.

“I see no harm if you want good things in life. Why for god’s sake would you eat dal and roti if continental cuisine too were available at the same table? Why would you take bath with plain water of cologne too was available in the bathroom?” he had a series of questions to challenge my thoughts on the issue.

You could still take a vow not to lie, not to hurt anyone, control anger etc etc,” the friend continued. “Why go for such vague things?” he finally asked.

I could not convince my friend with my answers, acquired from books. “There is nothing wrong in enjoying what you get in due course but yearning for them and becoming a slave to your five senses is problematic. I have a simple resolution, this New Year – Help me overcome the dominating role which my senses play in my life”. My friend promised to get back to me after a month and ask how much I had succeeded.

(January 2, 2011)

TALE OF TWO DONKEYS..

OFF-TRACK

Amitabh Shukla

I never realised that watching the simple activity of laying of a new road in my colony would prove to be a learning lesson for me. Watching the activity for a few days in a row has made by some sort of an expert on the behavior and attitude of donkeys, the favourite animal of the Dhobi (washerman).

One fine morning, I was woken by the sound of municipal trucks offloading stones for relaying the colony road. The job of distributing this important material in road building in every nook and corner of the colony was handed over to the donkeys, more precisely, their owners.

Sheer curiosity led me to watch donkeys and their behavioral psychology for three days in a row. Now, the owner of Chunnu-Munnu, the two donkeys who ferried the stones below the road in my flat, had devised a simple strategy.

He loaded the stones in jute cloth bags on the back of the donkeys. Chunnu-Munnu walked to the place where the small pile of stones were to be offloaded without the need for any direction. No goading and bad mouthing. They simply stood at the place, waiting with extreme patience till their owner arrived and offloaded it. After the load was taken off, they walked back to the place where the loading was being done. A simple work done with clockwork precision and timing.

Chunnu-Munnu never made any noise in the entire exercise. I thought they must have got thoroughly bored with the work. They never did. Even if they did, it never appeared in their behaviour.

The exercise continued for three days. I kept watching the two animals from my balcony in an attempt to understand them better. Their approach to work baffled me. No fooling around, not looking anywhere except down below and no pretensions.

My journalistic curiosity finally led me to strike a conversation with the owner of Chunnu and Munnu. He went on giving a lecture on the virtue of donkeys and even described it as the best friend a person like him has. “They are intelligent as you have seen yourself. Once, they have seen the place of work, they never lose their way. Whatever the distraction may be, they are as steadfast in their work as no animal can ever be,” the owner said.

Pleased with the work of the two donkeys, the owner gave them names – Chunnu and Munnu. “They are obedient, honest to their work, do not threaten anyone by making noises and eat only when asked to,” continued the owner.

I learned that both Chunnu and Munnu and can walk all the three kms to their home in a village without losing their way. “If I purchase something from the market, load it on them and ask them to move, they will stop only at my house and no where else,” said the proud owner.

After learning the “donkey lesson”, I decided to have a fresh look on two other animals who roam around in the colony – dogs and stray cattle. I started looking at the virtues of donkeys in these animals. But the street dog barked at me when I came home late at night after an evening shift. Then the Bull has created so much of a havoc in the colony and people change their way when they see it approaching.

Now, I was convinced about the “hidden talent” of the donkeys. It still, however, baffles me when somebody uses the word “donkey” in abuses.

(January 2011)

MFIs: Devils or contributors to rural prosperity

Amitabh Shukla / New Delhi

Policy makers are trying to regulate microfinance institutions so that they can become engines of progress

The Microfinance institutions operating in the country have come under an intense scrutiny, something which had not happened ever since they started operating in the country a few years ago, replacing the traditional money lenders in several places.

While a section in the government dubs them as modern money lenders, charging rates of interest unheard of in the banking sector, a section of cooperatives, farmers’ group, NGOs working at the grassroots level seem to indicate that they have brought in money in the rural sector and have helped a large number of self help groups.

Villains contributing to rural distress or institutions which have helped alleviate rural poverty that is the question dominating the policy makers, government, Self-help groups, NGOs and civil society activists now.

The public outcry led to a situation where the Andhra Pradesh government brought out an Ordinance pushing the microfinance institutions in the corner, a situation of extreme distress which they had never experienced in the recent past. Suicides of farmers in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Vidarbha (Maharashtra) were the reasons from the Ordinance along with political populism and pressure generated by the political parties.

A senior government official said that subprime lending or the loans extended to people with poor repaying capacity is one of the primary reasons for the defaults. He said this is followed by coercive methods, often humiliating, which have led to suicides in some cases.

Vijay Mahajan, President of the Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), a group comprising all the large companies in the sector, argues that 80 per cent of the microfinance institutions are regulated by the Reserve Bank of India as non-banking financial companies and they have to submit monetary statement to the banking regulator.Mahajan, who is also the Chairman of Basix, counters the allegations leveled against the microfinance institutions but also promises that certain things need to be looked into by the companies and they were already doing that.

He points out that some fly by night operators and those institutions not in the organized sector, have brought in a bad name to micro credit and even the organized players would help the government bring them to book. The top officials of the MFIN have been meeting the government officials to put forward their demands and seek a solution to the crisis in which they find themselves.

Due to the crisis, triggered by the AP Ordinance, the finance ministry plans to introduce a new legislation for the nation’s microfinance industry, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written statement to the Rajya Sabha. The new rules brought loan collections in Andhra to a near halt, leading to a plunge in shares of the largest micro-lender.

The Micro Finance (Development & Regulation) Bill, 2010, will be developed in consultation with the central bank, Meena said.

The Reserve Bank of India a few weeks ago appointed a sub- committee led by Y.H. Malegam to study the nation’s microfinance companies and recommend ways to make their interest rates “reasonable,” Meena said. The Malegam committee will submit their report in three months, he said.

At a function in New Delhi, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee too made it clear that the idea was not to strangulate the MFIs, but to regulate it so that the interest that they charge is not exorbitant and the method of realisation, under no circumstances is quick.

How these MFIs differ from the concept of Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh is that they work for profit unlike the not-for-profit model and work like a normal corporate entity and see giving micro credit as a business. While Yunus’ model is based on a mechanism to lift people out of the poverty cycle, the model of the MFIs is based on profits and they see it more as a business rather than anything else.Sensing that the noose is tightening around them, the prominent microfinance companies have agreed to reduce the interest rate to 24 per cent effective, initially to the borrowers in Andhra Pradesh.

They have also decided to switch to the monthly recovery system from the weekly system which causes tension in the households.The sops offered by the MFIs do not stop here. They have decided to announce a scheme of restructuring loans of their highly indebted borrowers, share the credit history of their borrowers and create a common database and affirmed that they do not and will not use coercive policies.Besides, they have decided to expose the unregistered entities pretending to the MFIs and promised to take strict action against their own errant staff for any violation of the MFIN code of conduct.

The other promises of the MFI’s include setting up of a telephone helpline to record complaints, establish regional Ombudspersons, set up an Eminent Persons Group to probe into the suicide allegations and bring in more transparency in the entire system.Now let us see why the MFIs are needed in a poor rural setting, more so in our country.

It is amply clear now that more than subsidies poor need access to easy credit. We have already seen that absence of formal employment has made most of the rural poor what is called non-bankable. The result is visible.

The moneylenders come in the picture and this cycle forces the poor to borrow from them at exorbitant interest rates as high as 100-200 per cent in some cases. In fact the loan taken by one generation continues to the other due to the high rate of interest.As the MFIs chipped in, the experience of the last over ten years, has shown that providing finance to small entrepreneur and farmers – the poor - is productive. Given loans at market rates, they repay their loans and use the proceeds to increase their income and assets. This is an eye-opener and least surprising since the only realistic alternative for them is to borrow from informal market at an interest much higher than market rates.

There are several success stories around the country how the livelihood of people have changed due to timely and easy credit, how women have become self-sufficient by running cottage industries with the help, how the unemployed turned small-time entrepreneurs and how the rural economies of a particular area has changed for the good.

Community banks, Self-help groups, NGOs and grassroots savings and credit groups around the world have shown that these micro loans can be profitable for borrowers and for the lenders, making microfinance one of the most effective poverty reducing strategies.

Not surprising that nearly half of the MFIs working today have come into existence in the last five years as Sa-Dhan, the Association of Community Development Finance Institutions, has pointed out in its handbook. This reflects the high growth of number of MFIs in recent years.

It also points out that the not-for-profit MFIs still dominate in the sector but the non banking finance companies (NBFCs) are catching up very fast.Lured by the mullah, most of the new entrants in microfinance and the erstwhile not-for-proft MFIs are converting into NBFC and they cover the overwhelming majority of collective outreach and loan portfolios of all MFIs.

Traditionally the southern region was the backbone of the MFIs but Sa-Dhan points out that even as it still retains the leadership in terms of concentration of MFIs, the eastern region has strongly emerged as the next preferred destination while the north-eastern region lags far behind.Before the big advent of MFIs, the Self Help Groups were there besides the moneylenders.

In SHG, credit is linked to savings, there is focus on capacity-building among borrowers and the rate of interest is almost half with option of monthly repayment.

What made matters worse is that in states like Andhra Pradesh, the MFIs chose the easy route of tapping into established SHGs for advancing loans. This was viable in the early stages but, over time, it has led to the problem of multiple lending and excessive debt burdens.Moreover, MFI credit, for the most part, went for consumption – for family weddings, buying consumer goods instead of income generation. What went to agriculture could not be returned back as returns in agriculture are so low that it is inconceivable that it can service interest rates of around 30 per cent that MFIs charge.

In some cases, MFI credit went for commercial agricultural farming and when the crops failed, it led to severe distress in the household, even leading to suicides.Government feels regulation is needed, it is a must. A delicate balancing act needs to be done in this as not to kill the availability of credit and also not to bring in a new set of moneylenders in the guise of MFIs. Weaving microfinance in and around livelihood seems to be the way out.

(December 2010)

Fishing in troubled waters..

OFF - TRACK

Amitabh Shukla

A visit to my home state Bihar always throws some surprises. My recent visit was no different. At a time when the floods were all over the place, my visit opened my eyes to a new enterprise – fish catching.


In my seven days of stay at my hometown Bettiah, a small mofussil town in north Bihar, it rained incessantly for 5 days. Bored to death with the forceful confinement in my home, I decided to venture out when it didn’t rain one fine day. I chose to visit Birgunj, a border town of Nepal which is 65 kms from my house. As one can take his vehicle to Nepal after paying a nominal amount of Rs 25, I borrowed my father’s car to have a long drive and enjoy the countryside.

Enjoy, I did but after driving for 40 kms, I reached a milestone where it was written that Raxaul, the Indian border town was 20 kms, I had to stop my vehicle. There was a huge traffic jam. Truck drivers, taking goods to Nepal, were taking rest while the private vehicle owners were anxiously waiting for the jam to clear. I went to the spot where the jam started. A crowd of 30 odd villagers were squatting on the road and not allowing any traffic. Curiosity got better of me and I inquired the reason. I was told that of the 230 adult villagers in the village, food grains in flood relief was given to only 200 and 30 people were left out. “We want the District Magistrate and the Block Development Officer here to disburse the remaining material,” shouted a villager.

A village mukhia (elected headman) soon came in. He insisted that only 200 voters lived in the village as per the voter list. The protesting villagers shouted back saying that 30 people attained 18 years of age in the last 3 years since the electoral list was last updated. The argument continued and the drivers of vehicles lined on both sides of the trouble spot got restless. As there was no possibility of the argument ending and clearing of traffic, I decided to return back.

At leisure now, I could explore the countryside. There was nothing much to see except paddy fields at some places and flood waters on both sides of the road. It was fishing everywhere in the waters. Males from 6 to 60 years, almost everybody was engaged in fishing. Every few metres, the fish catchers sat with their hooks and bait to get their quota of meal for the evening. They simply caught the fish and put it in a polythene bag lying besides them.

Others were fishing on a bigger scale. They tore apart their mosquito nets and used it for fishing. Simply dipping it in water and taking it out yielded at least 2-3 small fishes per dip. I craved to join these people and bring my own mosquito net the next day. For the moment, I decided to purchase some fish for the evening meal. It came dirt cheap – cheaper than onions. The next day, I had to abandon the idea of fishing as it rained again and forced me the remain in the confines of my home.
(Oct 3, 2007)