MP, A GRAZING GROUND FOR POLITICIANS

Leaders shortchange the State, make it a political orphan

NK SINGH

Country’s first high speed premium luxury train, Tejas, rolled out last week between Goa and Mumbai, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu's area. The second Tejas will ply between New Delhi and Chandigarh. Bhopal is, of course, no where in the picture.

Eighteen years ago, Madhavrao Scindia, who was Railway Minister then, gifted country’s first Shatabdi Express to Bhopal. It was a world class train. Anyone who has travelled by Shatabdi during its initial years was thrilled by its level of punctuality, cleanliness and quality of food. You could set your watch by the train’s arrival and departure. It was The Most Prestigious Train.

Now travelling by the same train has become a nightmare. Coaches stink. Seats are broken. So are most of the fixtures in toilets. Windowpanes are cracked. Doors don't close. You need to be a brave soul to visit its loo. Even Executive Class coaches are in dilapidated condition. Train rattles, making dreadful sounds, as if you are riding a bullock cart on a dirt track. Food is inedible, leading to periodic protests by passengers. Ticket has become costlier and the train has become slower. You are lucky if it runs on time.

I have not seen any politician from MP – people who can really change things, if they want to – concerned about this serious deterioration in services. Take the awful condition of our National Highways. Even roads leading out of Bhopal, the State capital, are not motorable. There is practically no road between Bhopal and Rajgarh. People have stopped driving to Sagar via Raisen for years now because of huge potholes. No one in his right mind drives to Jabalpur, another NH, if a train is available.

So bad is the situation that courts, including National Green Tribunal, have intervened periodically. But do you remember a single important politician who raised this issue?

Ever since Narendra Modi Government has come to power in Delhi, no one likes to talk about the 2013 Supreme Court order to relocate lions from over-populated Gir to Kumo? BJP politician don't raise such issues because they are mortally afraid of party High Command. And if Congress touches it, the issue gets politicised.

The harsh truth is that MP has become a political orphan. There is no one to protect its interest in New Delhi. Ironically, under the present dispensation, MP has the largest contingent of ministers in central government. Until Anil Madhav Dave’s death last month, eight ministers were supposed to represent MP in central government. Every 10th minister was from this State.

They represent MP. But it seems that they don't even think about the State that has sent them to Parliament. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar represents MP. But one does not recall him ever talking about MP, much less protect its interest. Another minister from MP, MJ Akbar is a truly global citizen. MP is but a speck of dust for him on the map.

Bluntly put, outsiders have made MP a grazing ground. People who have not set their foot even once in MP are routinely sent to parliament. The Constitution had conceptualised Rajya Sabha as the Council of States. But how can you expect Ganesan La, president of Tamil Nadu BJP, to protect MP’s interest in Delhi? O. Rajagopal, another Member of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh, was vociferous about issues in Kerala, his home State. But he was least bothered about MP.

The phenomenon cuts across party lines. Congress had MPs like Maulana Obaidullah Khan Azmi, who was, as his name suggests, from Azamgarh. Sikander Bakht, JK Jain, Bhai Mahavir, Chandan Mitra ---- the list is endless. Why, even ‘ethical’ LK Advani was supposed to live in Gwalior, at least on paper.

MP is one of those States where parochial feelings are non-existent. It has liberally accommodated them all. But they never returned anything to the State.

Can you imagine such a scenario in States like Tamil Nadu?

Am I being parochial? Look, what happens to a State when politicians care about it.

Indore is the only city which can boast of having an IIM as well as an IIT. Bhopal has a world class institution called Indian Institute of Sciences, thanks to Arjun Singh. Kamal Nath could persuade Hindustan Lever to put up a plant in backward Chhindwara, with zero connectivity.

Bhopal has three institutions of its own kind in the country - Indian Institute of Forest Management, Museum of Man and National Judicial Academy. The city also has a campus of National Law University. MP is the only State which has two Institutes of Hotel Management at Bhopal and Gwalior thanks to local politicians who cared. Uma Bharti brought to Bhopal a regional centre of Sports Academy of India.

All this was possible because these politicians cared about their State and wanted it to progress.

MP’s interests can be protected only by strong leaders with deep roots in the State, not by politicians who use it as grazing ground, not by politicians who think that leaders in Delhi are Bhagwan Ka Avatar.

(Email: nksexpress@gmail.com. Tweets @nksexpress.)