MP a haven for vote bank politics

NK SINGH

The employees and officers of Bhopal Municipal Corporation go ahead with their anti-encroachment drive, demolishing unauthorised buildings, seizing illegal kiosks and removing handcarts that chock our footpaths and roads. Their sense of duty is admirable because they go about their jobs forgetting their bruised egos and battered bodies.

But that sense of duty seems to be missing among those who are supposed to control and protect these employees and officers. One is still waiting for some sign of action from the Government regarding the series of ugly incidents that shook Bhopal in mid-August 2016.

A ruling party MLA, along with his supporters, attacked a municipal store at Bhopal in broad daylight. He brazenly instigated his supporters to loot the hand carts and kiosks that had been seized by the civic body under its anti-encroachment drive. 

The unruly crowd plundered the store and beat up government employees who tried to stop the loot. The police force and the executive magistrate present on the spot remained mute spectators to the orgy of lawlessness.

When the municipal corporation officials went to the police, it refused to register their FIR. Apparently, the police are waiting for a nod from its political masters because an influential leader of the ruling party is the main accused. The BJP MLA, Surendra Nath Singh, is laughing all the way to the vote bank. Or so he thinks.

If the BJP can do it, can the Congress be far behind? Three days after this loot, the leader of the opposition in Bhopal Municipal Corporation, Mohammad Sagir, led a belligerent crowd of Congress workers to Minto Hall, the old assembly building. They beat up municipal staff and damaged a JCB machine.

The Congressmen were, ironically, protesting against the shifting of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of peace and non-violence. No action has been taken in that case too.

A soft state

The events in the capital city of Madhya Pradesh over the past few days have exposed the ugly underbelly of politics. Have we become a soft state, ensnared in vote bank politics? The deadly combination of a soft state and populist policies has given birth to a mafia that enjoys political patronage because of its ability to garner votes.

This process has not taken place overnight. It has nothing to do with a BJP being in power or a Shivraj Singh Chouhan heading the affairs of the state. It is a culmination of the rot that set in a decaying system decades ago.

The consequences are awful. Bhopal, the city of lakes, has become a city of gumtis and jhuggi-jhopri. The Arjun Singh government triggered a mushroom growth of slums by giving ownership rights to the encroachers in early 80s. The sprawling gumtis that chock city’s arteries have become a goldmine for politicians and government employees patronising it.

The unauthorized mini buses operated by influential transport mafia have brought the city’s Rs 400 crore BRTS system to its knees. All this is happening because the state is soft and the politicians smell votes.

Is soft state good politics? Do populist policies garner more votes? Well, the law of diminishing returns applies here too. In any case, what the ruling party cannot hope to compete with the Opposition in this sphere. Many leaders have demonstrated that people appreciate good governance.

FIR against 1 lakh farmers in Modi's Gujarat

When Narendra Modi came to power in Gujarat in 2001, electricity theft was rampant in the rural areas. Theft rate was a staggering 70 per cent. Shortly before 2007 assembly elections Modi did what probably no politician in his right mind would do in this country. 

His government took action against three lakh people for power theft. Five special police stations were set up across the state to deal with power theft. They registered FIRs against 100,000 farmers! Thousands were arrested.

In the ensuing elections, the opposition Congress made the action against farmers a poll issue. The party plastered the state with large posters of farmers in handcuffs to garner votes. Yet the BJP returned to power with a two-third majority in 2007. Some lesson for MP, where Rs 4,000 crore worth of power is stolen every year?

Absence of soft state means you have to take hard decisions. After 2002 Gujarat riots, Modi had emerged as the poster boy of Hindutva. Yet his government did not hesitate in demolishing 265 Hindu temples in Gandhinagar, the state capital, in 2008 under an anti-encroachment drive.

VHP supremo Ashok Singhal then compared Modi to Aurangzeb and Mahmud Ghazni, who had demolished hundreds temples inmedieval Gujarat. The Hindutva lobby was not too pleased.

Yet Gujarat brought back BJP with thumping majority in 2012 assembly elections.  Apparently, people love a government that governs.

Powers That Be, my column in DB Post of 25 Sept 2016

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