People's Democracy

The symbolism is ominous. One of the first of the many high-rise buildings to come tumbling down in Ahmedabad on the Republic Day was called the 15^th August apartments. The two weeks since the earthquake devastation in the Kutch, leaving behind the trial of death, destruction and misery unprecedented in independent India, saw a response of callous ineptitude by the governmental authorities. A directionless authority displaying utter incapability of coordinating relief operations has compounded the tragedy.

The silver lining of this tragedy has been the massive and often moving, expression of human solidarity. Relief in terms of men, material and resources have poured in from all quarters in an unprecedented manner. To those of us who went there to contribute our mite, what was appalling was to see huge stockpiles of material which was not reached to people who required it the most barely a few kilometers away. Even fresh blood decayed while human beings were languishing in the hospitals in the capital city in Ahmedabad.

The Prime Minister, himself, virtually conceded this monumental administrative failure when he accepted the suggestion made by the author at the all-party meeting, to constitute a National Committee of political parties and other agencies to monitor, oversee and coordinate the relief operations. This was exactly a week ago. As has been this government’s wont, no such committee has been constituted till date.

Apart from such inhuman procrastination, there are other deeply disturbing aspects of the manner in which the Central and the state governments are handling the situation.

First, the governments seems to be speaking in many voices, mostly contradictory. While the Finance Minister opined that there was no need for additional taxation to raise resources, the Prime Minister went ahead and imposed a two per cent surcharge on income and corporate tax through an ordinance. While the Railway Minister’s populism sees no reason to hike the fares, the Prime Minister goes ahead and announces that this is inevitable. While the Home Ministry puts the number of dead as over 16,000, the Defence Minister estimates it to be not less than a lakh (for once, he is closer to the truth). While the loss of damage as a result of the earthquake was estimated at Rs. 13,500 crores in the paper circulated to the all-party meeting, the group of ministers on disaster management put out an estimate of Rs. 20,875 crores.

Apart from giving confusing signals at a time when the country is to rise as one man to meet the situation, such contradictory statements only confirm the fact that at a time of crisis, the left hand of the government does not know what the right hand is doing.

Secondly, one should be glad that the state government in Gujarat is headed by the BJP. It is, indeed, cruel that such considerations should ever come into play. The response of the Central government at the time of the super cyclone in Orissa, or the floods in West Bengal, was guided solely by partisan political interests than human compassion. The strident cries for the ouster of the then Orissa Chief Minister, when Bhubaneswar was without electricity and communications for a week hampering the relief efforts, were not echoed now when Ahmedabad virtually had little disruption in power and communications. Measely amounts of money was allocated to both Orissa and Bengal to meet the tragedies unlike the present flurry of fund raising. While the people of Gujarat have been mercifully spared of such treatment, such an approach by the highest seat of authority is, indeed, disturbing.

Thirdly, the most appalling aspect of the state government’s ineptitude has been reports suggesting that the apparent paralysis of the administration may be deliberate, to allow the RSS outfits to appear as the sole champion of relief activities. This is both callous and inhuman. In fact, reports (The Hindu, February 7, 2001) suggest that the earlier reports of looting of relief material, which were universally condemned, could have been done by certain RSS outfits! Senior leaders of the RSS, with great alacrity, described the looted trucks as those carrying something written in Urdu! Reports also reveal that relief was prevented from reaching Muslim-dominated villages. Further, the VHP howls out an obnoxious threat, warning the government not to accept the Rs. 20 crore assistance offered by the Pope. Can there be anything more criminal than communalising the atmosphere in the face of death and awesome tragedy?

By delaying the constitution of the National Committee, the Prime Minister is allowing such nefarious politicisation of relief work at the cost of death and misery of lakhs of people.

Finally, it would be a national tragedy if the Gujarat devastation were to be treated as the excuse for the government to settle its financial mess in the forthcoming budget. Already indications suggest that the harsh measures required in the forthcoming budget to tackle the government’s financial profligacy are to be explained away as being inevitable in the light of this devastating earthquake.

Consider the fact that the present surcharge comes at a time when the government has admitted in the Rajya Sabha (unstarred question 221: 25 July, 2000) that as of 31.3.2000, the total amount of outstanding amounts on account of income and corporate tax and custom and excise duties was a whopping Rs. 62,392 crores. Of this, the total amount of corporate tax itself is Rs. 28,348 crores. The top 100 tax assessees themselves owe Rs. 23,199 crores, ie, more than the revised estimate of loss due to the quake. The least that the government can do is to recover this amount. Instead of advertising their concern for the quake victims, the least that the corporate sector can do is to pay these dues. Yet, the surcharge is imposed across the board!

If such are the parameters of the governance, then the foundations of the Republic can never be sound. The supreme human concern to provide utmost relief and solace to those who have survived the awesome ordeal in Gujarat, cannot be allowed to be clouded by partisan considerations. This would be inhuman.