Author: Uday Mahurkar
Publication: India Today
Date: March 12, 2001
The two belong to the same parivar.
But oddly enough, one is at the receiving end while the other is busy lapping
up the praise. Almost three years after the BJP rode to power
in Gujarat on the crest of an anti-corruption campaign and one month after
the killer earthquake, the state is witnessing a strange phenomenon.
While there is seemingly no end to the shower of brickbats for the BJP
for its messy post-earthquake reaction, the flow of praise for the RSS
is as yet unending.
Increasingly, it is the BJP leadership
which is becoming the target of a concerted public attack over its post-earthquake
management and its alleged links with some of the builders and land sharks
responsible for the series of building collapses on January 26 which caused
700-odd deaths in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's premier city. Says Atul
Shah, a small businessman: "The collapse of buildings constructed with
substandard material has brought skeletons tumbling out of the BJP leadership's
cupboard. It's the party's loyal voter and the poor BJP worker
who feel let down."
On the other hand, in Bhachau, the
worst-affected tehsil in the disaster, a recent spectacle points out precisely
the difference in the public perception between the RSS-Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP) combine and the BJP. A delegation calls on Chief Minister
Keshubhai Patel to complain about the slow pace of relief and rehabilitation
measures being taken by the Government, but is later full of praise for
the work being done by the RSS and the VHP. Says Chagganbhai
Koli, Congress leader and president of the Bhachau Taluka Panchayat, who
was part of the delegation: "The BJP Government failed miserably.
But the RSS and the VHP came to our rescue. It's a month now
and the VHP is still running its makeshift hospital in Bhachau."
Clearly, the committed BJP worker
has lost faith in the party's leadership. There were 5,000
BJP workers from across the state who took up active relief work in Kutch
in the first fortnight but most of them chose to work under the RSS' umbrella,
preferring the khaki knicker to the saffron scarf. Amongst
them were such leaders as the state BJP General Secretary Jayantibhai Kevat,
a leader recently drafted from the RSS. In a bid to cement
its image the BJP leadership even dispatched 10,000 saffron scarves from
Ahmedabad to Kutch. But there were few takers.
In Ahmedabad the public disenchantment
with the BJP leadership threatened to take the shape of an agitation as
stories about the alleged links of the BJP leaders, particularly Revenue
and Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala, with dubious builders and land sharks
surfaced. The disenchantment snowballed after the Ahmedabad
Municipal Corporation (AMC) first decided to demolish a badly affected
multi-storey building, Shivalik, and then reversed its decision, apparently
under pressure from Vala whose son is a partner in a multi-crore multiplex
in Ahmedabad built by Chiman Agrawal, Shivalik's builder. The
multiplex, which too suffered damage on January 26, was inaugurated with
much fanfare late last year in the presence of Vala and Keshubhai.
Says Vala-a builder by profession-whose
alleged involvement in land deals has to a great extent been responsible
for the dent in the BJP's image: "I am facing a trial by the media.
True, Agrawal is our partner in the multiplex project. But
I have nothing to do with the Shivalik building. I didn't call
up anybody in the AMC to stop Shivalik's demolition. What's
more, except the multiplex, my business interests are primarily in Rajkot."
Few believe Vala when he says that
his real-estate interests are largely restricted to Rajkot, his hometown.
INDIA TODAY learnt that Vala has shown more than usual interest in land
cases outside Rajkot. A senior IAS officer, Captain B.K.
Sinha, had to pay the price last year when he tried to uphold the rule
of the law in cases allegedly involving Vala's interest. One
of these concerned 40,000 sq m of land earmarked under the Ahmedabad town
planning scheme for the expansion of the Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad. Vala tried every trick in the trade to grab the
land but each time Sinha saw through his game. In the end,
not surprisingly, Sinha found himself transferred.
Sinha was, in fact, merely paying
the price for his unflinching fight against the land mafia.
Barely two days after Keshubhai took over in March 1998, Sinha sealed illegal
portions in as many as 30 buildings and added another 40-odd to the list
in the next few months. A clamour for his head sprung up in
the builders' lobby. Even some BJP leaders joined the anti-Sinha
tirade.
The last straw came in May 1999
when, in an unprecedented step, Sinha got the AMC to issue a newspaper
ad that listed 40 buildings with illegal constructions. The
ad called upon clients to beware of these buildings before buying flats
or shops in them. It specified the various violations in these
buildings, right from floor space index infraction and lack of firefighting
facilities to "building use" permissions and absence of parking slots.
This led to a series of cancellations of flat and shop bookings by clients,
thus shaking the builders lobby. Next, a month later, Sinha
was transferred as Keshubhai couldn't resist the pressure from his powerful
partymen any more.
Meanwhile Vala received a notice
from the Gujarat High Court last week, following a PIL seeking a CBI probe
into the disappearance of important files relating to the Shikhar building
from the office of the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA).
Satish Nyalchand. Shikhar's absconding builder, is Agarwal's
partner in the building while Agarwal is Vala's son's partner in the Ahmedabad
multiplex.
In the meantime, Vala finds himself
in the eye of another storm brewing in Rajkot. Last week the
police registered a case against Vala's younger son Ketan on a complaint
by a flat owner who alleged that his building had cracked on January 26
because of substandard construction by builders. Apart from
naming the main builder, the complainant named Ketan too because he, the
complaint alleges, is a partner in the building project. Vala
says Ketan has nothing to do with that project.
The alleged scams involving Vala
and the mysterious silence of the state BJP leadership and Keshubhai in
the matter put the BJP in a very piquant situation. The BJP
leadership's dubious connections with the real estate sharks have poured
cold water over a series of good work done by the Keshubhai Government
in its three-year tenure.
The image of the BJP as a spotless
party-a claim which the party repeatedly made while in the opposition-lies
buried. As a senior RSS leader concedes: "To old-timers like
us who spent their entire lives preaching high moral principles, its seems
as if the BJP leadership in Gujarat has sullied a mission." Adds another:
"In spite of the RSS-VHP combine's good work, it will be nearly impossible
for them to convert that goodwill into votes for the BJP in the near future."
An average BJP worker, who is severely disenchanted with the party leadership's
behaviour, is likely to agree with that.
