Government of Utmost Hapiness

MP CM believes that a promise a day keeps Congress away

NK SINGH

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan loves to make promises.

His political opponents call him Ghosna Veer ---- announcement warrior. The derisive Hindi term conjures up image of a Don Quixote, a knight in shining armour, out to save his subjects by creating a canopy of announcements to shield them from Unhappiness.

Sample this. In the first ten years of his tenure he made nearly 8,000 promises. The average comes to more than two announcements a day. During the last three years, as he settled in his job, the speed slowed down --- onlyy 1,500 announcements, at the rate of 1.3 per day.

Every time the chief minister climbs a stage to make a public speech, heartbeat of his officers in Vallabh Bhavan, the state secretariat, goes up. They tighten their belts, waiting for the unexpected. Often they learn about decisions having grave implications for public finances through public address systems.

He is a compulsive announcer, prone to making promises at the drop of a hat. Last week he visited Mandsaur to console family members of farmers killed in police firing. In Nayakheda village, near Neemuch, he noticed an under construction road. Without losing time, he announced that the road will be named after Chensukh Patidar, one of the slain farmer from that village.

Surprise announcements keep coming at breakneck speed. Officials are at their wit’s end keeping track of all the promises. For, Chouhan is known to make announcements even on the sidelines of functions!

Sunday 11 June 2017 was a typical day in Chouhan’s life. That day in a Bhopal tent he took to stage and made one dozen announcements within a few minutes: purchase of farm produce below minimum support price will be considered a criminal act, agricultural land will not be acquired without farmers’ consent, everybody born in MP will be given land, Soyabean will be procured at MSP, loan at zero percent interest to even those farmers who have defaulted, adopt Amul system for milk purchase, copies of land records free of cost at the doorsteps of farmers every year, open state land use advisory board, a farm production and marketing commission, a village knowledge centre, a fund to purchase farm produce at MSP, kisan bazaars in urban area.

Now harried officials are finding ways to implement these announcements.The mandarins of finance department are sweeping the debris, wondering where to find Rs 45,000 crores to fulfil these promises.

The guy is, if anything, large-hearted. Normally it is difficult to persuade a chief minister to make an announcement. BJP has had five chief ministers before Chouhan. VK Sakhlecha and Sunderlal Patwa were so tight-fisted that it was impossible to extract a single promise out of them. But even affable Kailash Joshi and easy-going Babulal Gaur were not given to making announcements at public meetings. Uma Bharti was prone to playing to gallery, but quite prudent when it came to loosening purse strings.

In Chouhan’s case, however, even before you raise a demand, he is ready to grant it, as it happens during the recent farmers’ agitation. After six farmers were killed in police firing last week, he announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh and then himself raised it to an astonishing Rs one crore. Q

The largesse makes Shivraj Singh Chouhan hugely popular. Narendra Modi addresses him as “most popular” chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.

At times he opens his mouth first and thinks later. For instance, he announced on June 11 that purchase of farm produce below MSP will be a criminal offence. The decision was modified next day later after traders went on a strike in protest. Now he assures the traders that they can negotiate the price with farmers if the product is below fair average quality. Last year from a public stage in Bhopal he had announced widening of Kolar Road. Later PWD discovered that there is no space available to widen the road.

The problem arises because majority of these announcements are not made normally the way a government conducts its official business. In Westminster form of democracy usually a decision is taken after a cabinet meeting, or a discussion in the legislature or brain storming of senior officials.

But in Chouhan’s case, cabinet  has become a hand maiden served with fait accompli. He rarely consults the finance department or his officers before making those announcements. The motto seems to whatever happens in MP, you hear it first from the CM.

No wonder many of the promises made by CM not fulfilled. Last year, many persons were injured in a storm at Ujjain during Simhastha. The CM rushed there and, while speaking to the injured, promised financial assistance. Many of them are yet to receive it.

According to official records, of the 8,000 promises made during his first ten years as chief minister, nearly 2,000 could not be fulfilled. In the last three years, he made about 1,500 promises. Of these only 10 per cent have been fulfilled. Apparently, Chouhan has many promises to keep and miles to go before hitting the election trail next year.


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