Author: T V R Shenoy
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: June 16, 2004
URL: http://us.rediff.com/news/2004/jun/16flip.htm
In 1996, Indrajit Gupta of the CPI
told the prime minister-designate that he wanted to be considered for the
office of Union home minister. Deve Gowda tried to dissuade him, pointing
out that the office had lost much of its lustre in the Narasimha Rao years,
with vital departments such as personnel reporting to the prime minister's
office. "You will have nothing better to do than to look after Centre-state
relations!"
"Well then," the veteran Communist
responded, "I shall try to do something for the federal structure. There
has been too much centralisation in India."
Eight years later, decentralisation
-- both economic and political -- seems to be the flavour of the day. But
in an ironical twist, it is Comrade Gupta's marching partners on the Left
who find themselves on the wrong side of the fence. And this is going to
lead to some increasingly uncomfortable moments for the United Progressive
Alliance.
For instance, how will the Congress
reconcile the views of the Left Front with those of the Telangana Rashtra
Samiti? The latter was created with the exclusive purpose of carving out
the separate state of Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh. The Left is opposed
to this, an attitude that became a problem during the drafting of the Common
Minimum Programme. (The Congress is carefully neutral, the BJP is mildly
in favour, and the Telugu Desam is totally opposed.)
Now it is the turn of Shibu Soren
to start asking uncomfortable questions.
The new Union minister for coal
and mines has suggested that the headquarters of Coal India Limited be
moved from Kolkata to Ranchi. I am sure the idea springs from the fact
that Soren is leader of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and that Ranchi happens
to be the capital of Jharkhand. But the idea has some merit irrespective
of the politics which inspired it.
Jharkhand was created because its
people were tired of being ruled and exploited by outsiders. The Chhota
Nagpur belt has been renowned for its mineral resources going back at least
to the nineteenth century. But the wealth never seemed to find its way
into the pockets of the people living there; it was always being used for
the benefit of Patna and Kolkata. The rise of Laloo Prasad Yadav proved
to be one burden too many even for the long-suffering Jharkhandis, convincing
them that the only relief was a complete separation from Bihar.
But that still left the problem
of economic emancipation from Kolkata. Making that city the headquarters
of Coal India was never anything more than an echo of the colonial era.
I suppose it made a certain amount of sense back in the days when there
was no city in the Chhota Nagpur belt that had any decent communication
facilities -- which, of course, goes a long way to prove the case that
the area was being exploited for others' gains -- but that excuse holds
no water today.
In fact, Kolkata has had a poor
record over the past five decades of encouraging economic development in
other urban areas. Take a look at West Bengal itself and you would be hard
put to name any other major industrial or commercial centre outside the
state capital and its hinterland. (Compare that to states such as, say,
Tamil Nadu or Maharashtra, where it is possible to think of putting up
factories well away from Chennai or Mumbai.)
Predictably, Shibu Soren's proposal
has drawn flak in West Bengal. Both the Left Front and Mamata Banerjee's
Trinamool Congress have come together to resist any attempt to move Coal
Bhavan to Ranchi. Ideology and economic common sense matter little when
the interests of the state are concerned.
Actually, I suspect it is as much
a bureaucratic response as it is an emotional one. The creaking and antiquated
structure which is India's babudom is urban-oriented to a fault. And when
I say 'urban' I refer to the major metropolitan cities, not even relatively
small towns like Ranchi. But there is no small hypocrisy involved when
the Left Front tries to justify its opposition to Shibu Soren on the grounds
of protecting 'workers' rights.' Shouldn't the 'party of the proletariat'
place the interests of the poor tribals working in the collieries above
the perks of the pen-pushers in Kolkata?
Shibu Soren has called the Left
Front's bluff. Will the Communists live up to their own calls for decentralisation,
or will they expose themselves as just another set of regional politicians
lacking a truly national perspective?
