National

The Five-Year Hitch

Factionalism, law and order, 'activist' governor...Digvijay Singh couldn't have asked for worse

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The Five-Year Hitch
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TALK of the assembly elections and senior Congressmen are wont to tell you that while Rajasthan and Delhi will be easy, it will be difficult for the party to pull it off in Madhya Pradesh. The reasons are not far to seek. In a smooth five-year tenure, chief minister Digvijay Singh has managed to stay out of the news, and all for the right reasons. Development projects have been largely on course; law and order has not been cause for undue concern. Now suddenly during the last few months of the regime, the situation in the state seems to be careening out of the chief minister's tight control. Add to it the traditional intra-party Congress sparring, the anti-incumbency factor and an 'activist' governor, and the chief minister's troubles in an election year are a veritable handful.

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On the heels of a series of attacks on Christian missionaries, allegedly carried out by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists, came the rape of nuns at Jhabua and atrocities on tribals. And just when Jhabua was being swept under the carpet has come the news of four tribals being raped in Bastar. Last week when top state officials were probing the rape at Bastar, in nearby Dantewada district at least 16 policemen were killed when Naxalites belonging to the PWG group triggered a landmine blast. Digvijay seemed totally under siege.

In normal times, incidents like these are enough to attract attention; but now with assembly elections just round the corner, Digvijay finds not just powerful rivals BJP, but his own party members at his throat. No sooner had party president Sonia Gandhi condemned the attack in Jhabua that AICC general secretary Madhavrao Scindia said he had "asked Digvijay Singh to trace down the culprits and take stringent action against them". Congress sources say the strongest attacks on their own government had come from partymen, rather than the BJP, which has been put on the defensive with reports that members of the saffron family were behind the attacks on Christian missionaries.

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According to party sources, the divisions in the Congress leadership is beyond doubt. In an ever-changing power equation, Arjun Singh and Madhavrao Scindia are reportedly on one side, with Motilal Vora siding with Digvijay; then there are the Shukla brothers, who are trying to consolidate their once strong pocketborough in Chattisgarh.

Not that the Congress has not been preparing for the elections in right earnest. In true Sonia style, there have been a spate of committees to look at the elections. There is the election committee comprising 14 senior party leaders from the state—and MP has more Congress heavyweights in one state than anywhere else, including Arjun Singh, Vora, S.C. Shukla, V.C. Shukla, Ajit Jogi and Digvijay himself.

Then there is the working presidents system which divides the state into four electoral zones, headed by four leaders. The trouble with this, sources say, is that all the four appointed are known anti-Digvijay men. Ajit Jogi and Rajamani Patel, close to Arjun, will look after Chattisgarh and the Vindhya region respectively; Parasram Bhardwaj, a trusted V.C. Shukla man, is in charge of Mahakoshal; while Balendu Shukla, a Scindia loyalist, is to look after Madhya Bharat.

In addition, there is the campaign committee which has more than 200 members, including serving and former MPs and serving and ex-MLAs—in short just about every Congressman of any standing has been included.

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IN times such as these, Congressmen are optimistic about just one thing: the BJP's 'misrule' at the Centre, they say, is going to negate all that is wrong with the Congress. Says CWC member Jitendra Prasada: "The BJP's rule has exposed the party. Gone is the talk of good administration and longevity. Now it is a question of sheer survival."

Congress poll managers also insist that some decisions taken by the Digvijay government have indeed redeemed it in the eyes of its voters. The fight against corruption, they say, is being fought in right earnest. Points out Ramesh Chennithala, member of the party's election committee: "We have taken action against members of our cabinet in MP, including deputy chief minister Pyarelal Kanwar, against whom the Lok Ayukta is investigating charges of corruption. The message that goes down is clear: ours is a government willing to recognise a problem when it sees one."

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Congressmen say that though there are inner-party differences, with Sonia at the helm things are going to change. "It is true," Jogi claims. "With Sonia as president, state leaders are aware of their responsibilities. We are well prepared."

In the election year, Digvijay has been handing out the right kind of sops: authorisation of shanties, ownership rights for rural poor, ex-gratia for ex-servicemen, 16 new districts, increase in grants to temples and mosques and increase in the retirement age of government workers and teachers.

Even as party members seem to be groping for direction, opposition to his rule has come from an unusual quarter: BJP-appointed governor Bhai Mahavir. Several actions by the governor have raised eyebrows. When BJP MP R.K. Kusumaria raised the issue of rape of tribals in Panna district, the governor asked the director general of police for his report into 'police inaction'. The DGP has not complied. When the government decided to distribute land deeds, Mahavir objected again. There is also disagreement over prosecuting those under the purview of the Lok Ayukta.

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In fact, things have reached such a pass that the governor has also opposed the transfer of the Rajgarh Palace by the chief minister to a private hotel group. In a letter to the chief minister, he apprehended that the palace would be destroyed if converted into a hotel. But when the governor hinted at a 'deal', Digvijay threatened to take him to court. Even in turbulent chief minister-governor relationships, this one surely is a rarity.

But partymen point to another aspect of Digvijay's administration that they say may cost the party dearly: his excessive dependence upon the bureaucracy. After taking over in 1993, there have been a series of incidents in which Digvijay has blindly sided with officials, even at the cost of annoying his own MLAs. For instance, when a bus fell down a river in Dewas district in 1993, the collector and superintendent of police disappeared. The Congress MLA who reached the spot was practically lynched. When his own partymen demanded action against officials on the floor of the assembly, Digvijay said the officials were working and there was no question of any action. Despite atrocities and gross human rights violation on tribals in the Khargone district and the public outcry that followed, the chief minister refused to move out district officials, who were accused of spreading terror. The National Human Rights Commission that went to probe the matter suggested that the officials be moved out. Still no go. It took express orders from the Election Commission during the 1998 February general elections to move out the highly unpopular officials. By then, the damage had been done.

Worse, state government officials are now coming into direct confrontation with the different layers of village panchayats, who were handpicked by the chief minister in an effort to beef up his rural constituency. The purpose of panchayats, they say, is being defeated. In a recent incident, the panchayat at a village in Satna had been chargesheeted by the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) because the village headman had dared to levy a charge of 25 paise on issuing ration cards, which had been approved in principle by members of his village. According to party sources, incidents like these abound and have alienated a strong section of the village bureaucracy whom Digvijay has been banking upon to help him out in his re-election bid.

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Shaky political alliances have not made matters any easier. As during the February general election, Digvijay had shrewdly worked on an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). But the trouble, as usual, rested with Kanshi Ram's famed power of negotiations. While the Congress seemed keen to accommodate the BSP, Kanshi Ram had been asking for more than what's on offer. And last weekend, Kanshi Ram dropped his bombshell. The BSP, he said, would contest all the 320 assembly seats in the state. For the Congress, it can only be bad news. But in times of rape and bomb blasts, good news seems to be consistently eluding the powerful 'Diggy Raja'.

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