People's Democracy

MADHYA PRADESH

Will The Congress Learn From Its Debacle?

 Jaswinder Singh

THE Congress repeated its Gujarat blunder in Madhya Pradesh. When people voted out the Sundarlal Patwa government in 1993, they had hoped that those who had fomented communal riots in the state would e brought to book. However, even though the Congress was in power for ten years, the report on Bhopal communal riots was neither made public nor placed in the state assembly. The leaked portions of the report severely indict the senior BJP and RSS leaders, including Patwa. An FIR had been registered against the VHP leader Giriraj Kishore for an inflammatory speech at Bhopal, about three years ago, but the police chose not to act. Another complaint was filed against Togadia at Indore, about a year ago, but the police did not act in this case either. The people were prepared to come forward to fight the communal elements but the Congress government remained paralysed.

Encouraged by this situation, the RSS took out a procession in capital Bhopal with weapons being openly brandished and inflammatory slogans raised. It held camps to impart training to swayamsevaks and volunteers in firearms, and terrorised the minorities. The chief minister did admit that some RSS men were engaged in bomb making, but he said so only when he was about to vacate his chair. RSS men even prevented the inspector general of police from reaching the venue of a rally during the so-called Hindu samagam at Jhabua. The town remained under the RSS control for two days while the administration remained paralysed.

In the Malwa region, the RSS controlled Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad was busy dividing the tribals on communal lines, with crores of rupees at its disposal. But the state government remained a silent spectator and did not get it inquired into, even after persistent demand. How could one, then, be convinced of its secular credentials? After the Godhra incident, Digvijay Singh stated at the National Integration Council that the curriculum being followed by the Saraswati Shishu Mandir would be re-examined. This was not done. On the contrary, one of his ministers, Deepak Saxena, gave free land along with a grant of one lakh rupees to the Saraswati Shishu Mandir.

The bankruptcy of the Congress party and government was evident from the fact that its chief minister Digvijay Singh was seeking to corner the Sangh Parivar on those very issues which the Parivar was raising. This only prepared the ground for a spread of the Sangh ideology. The Hindu Jagran Manch created a vicious communal atmosphere in the entire Malwa region over the Bhojshala issue. RSS chief K S Sudharshan led yatras in Ratlam, Jhabua, Dhar and Indore. Instead of combating the communal elements, however, Diggy Raja asked the centre to open the Bhojshala. This despite the fact that the State Minorities Commission and the Waqf Board have concrete proof that it is a mausoleum of Kamal Maula and even the central government and Uma Bharti’s ministry had submitted an affidavit in the High Court accepting the validity of these documents. Digvijay Singh even promised that once Sonia Gandhi became the prime minister, the Bhojshala’s doors would be opened for the Hindus.

When the state was reeling under a severe drought and people, particularly the Adivasis, were dying of starvation, Uma Bharti was asking that the first roti should be kept apart for Mother Cow. However, not to be left behind, Congressmen too were busy protecting cows with blankets while the poor were shivering in cold and had become dispensable vis-à-vis the cow. Clearly, the Congress failed to read the writing on the wall.

This soft Hindtuva line proved the nemesis of Digvijay Singh. He advocated that jyotish be given the status of science. The role of Asharam Bapu, Morari Bapu and others in expanding the Sangh Parivar’s influence is well known. But Digvijay Singh and his ministers not only knelt in front of them but also granted land for their ashrams. However, precisely these ashrams turned into BJP offices during the elections. The Rawatpura Sarkar episode remained in headlines during the entire election campaign. This priest of the Hanumana temple called for an end to the terror of one of the ministers in Digvijay government. But, instead of combating it, even Digvijay Singh visited him many times, just as his government had bowed down before his pressure many times in the past. The fact is that the BJP is the natural choice for such sarkars, and they too are aware that they can prosper only with government support. Digvijay Singh even visited this guru of Uma Bharti to seek his blessings.

A section of the press and political pundits have tried to blame the “third front” parties for the Congress defeat. It was said that if only the Congress had fought in association with these forces, the BJP could have been prevented from assuming power. But their simple arithmetic does not fit in with the political complexities. It is true that, as compared to 1998, the BJP managed to increase its votes by 3.24 per cent while the Congress lost 9.4 per cent of its votes. This means that about 6 per cent of its votes went to independent candidates and other parties this time. But, instead of finding out where the Congress votes went, it would be more appropriate to find out why it slipped away in the first place. It declined, among other things, because of the Congress government’s vacillating position on secularism and because of its anti-tribal policies.

As for its anti-people stance, instead of filling up 85,000 vacant posts, the Congress government abolished them. It retrenched 28,000 daily wage workers who were not taken back despite court orders. Twelve thousand factories were closed down in the last ten years. The educated unemployed were recruited as shiksha karmis, panchayat karmis and health workers but on wages much below the minimum wage and, instead of regularising them, their demands were trampled down by force. When the government created free trade zones, it only freed the capitalists from any obligation to follow the labour laws.

The media have sufficiently highlighted the condition of roads and the situation of water and power supply. Apart from this, forcible recoveries were made in the midst of a drought. Peasants were not getting electricity but had to pay fake and excessively inflated bills. Irrigation facilities were not expanded. Even after collecting a mandi tax, no efforts were made to stop the exploitation of peasants at the mandis. Amid the deplorable condition of schools, massive increases in fees were effected. There was a proliferation of private educational institutions and there were attempts to privatise the health services in the name of bhagidari committees. Naturally, all these things were not taken kindly by the people.

In sum, the Digvijay Singh government earnestly followed the centre’s policy of cutback in social spending, while his policy is itself a part of the conditions laid down by the World Bank that views all social spending as a waste. The chief minister was happy that the prime minister and his ministers were eulogising his steps, little realising that the discontent his policies were generating would gobble up his own government. But what is unfortunate is that the Congress does not so far appear prepared to review its policies.