Rajasthan ruling party MLAs present memorandum to PM against CM Jagannath Pahadia

When half the Rajasthan Cabinet and a large number of ruling party MLAs descended on New Delhi last fortnight, it seemed that the entire secretariat in Jaipur was in the process of moving to the capital. But the politicians weren't in town for any official work. Their mission was to present a well-documented memorandum to the prime minister against Jagannath Pahadia, 49, the lanky and bespectacled chief minister of the state.With a steady flow of complaints against the only Harijan chief minister in India, Pahadia's fate seemed sealed last week. Says the memorandum presented to Mrs Gandhi by five ruling party MLAs on April 6: "Inept handling of government affairs by the chief minister has badly tarred the image of the party in the state."The number of complaints listed against Pahadia exceed 313 - the number of days he has been in office. The most important are: he has been wooing the opportunists, and even people hostile to Mrs Gandhi have been given Cabinet berths, the state's finances are in a mess, power generation has failed to pick up, prices of essential commodities are soaring, there is no respite from the worsening law and order situation, the public distribution system has completely broken down, Pahadia is encouraging casteism and the administration is completely paralysed.Concrete Evidence: Although Pahadia and his supporters maintain that the Government is not responsible for the rot, the charges are backed by documentary evidence. The most serious complaint against the chief minister, who holds charge of key departments like finance, home, and power besides 10 others, is that the state has suffered heavily on account of major lapses in plan allocations. The state Government could spend only Rs 92 crore last year as against the allocated Rs 300 crore.The recovery of internal revenue has come down by over 12 per cent, forcing the Government to resort to an overdraft of over Rs 108 crore from the Reserve Bank of India the highest overdraft in the country. Rajasthan is the only state whose per capita income declined during the Congress(I) regime. Badri Prashad Gupta, state planning minister, admitted in the last Assembly session that the per capita income which was Rs 969 during 1977-78 plummeted to Rs 913 during the last financial year.The deputation also met Rajiv Gandhi and told him that Pahadia rarely takes his job seriously and that over 5,000 files are awaiting his orders for the last five months. Over 50 irrigation schemes, 90 probes against corrupt officials, and over a dozen new power projects are gathering dust. Says a senior official of the Rajasthan Government: "We have lost track of many files because they never returned to the concerned departments. If some files were sent back they carried the orders that 'CM has seen the files' or 'he desires to speak', which means no decision." Pahadia, who spends every third day in New Delhi in a bungalow which was allotted to him when he was Union minister of state for finance, receives a car load of urgent files contained in specially designed brown leather cases during every visit but the files are sent back without his signatures.Bad Administration: The excruciating delays in decision making have confounded the already tardy administration. Perhaps for the first time in Rajasthan's history, budget utilisation by various departments could not exceed even 30 per cent of the budget allocation. And his well-publicised purges of senior officials - 23 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers were transferred on one day alone - have created more problems. Laments Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, former chief minister, "The state is without any government for the past one year."The most disquieting aspect of Pahadia's stint in office is that he has failed to tackle the dissidents within his party. Since he was foisted as chief minister by Sanjay Gandhi, over the claims of many senior Congress (I) leaders, Pahadia has been in trouble from the day he assumed office on June 6, 1980. He took 10 days to appoint three Cabinet ministers and five deputy ministers, because the old guard and supporters of Mohan Lai Sukhadia, MP and former chief minister, refused to join his Cabinet.Pahadia incurred widespread displeasure when he inducted defectors from the opposition into his Cabinet. He even went to the extent of getting Poonam Chand Bishnoi elected as speaker of the Assembly. Bishnoi had unsuccessfully contested against the Congress(I) candidate in the 1980 Lok Sabha election. Also, Mangi Lai Arya and Abdul Rehman Chaudhury, deputy ministers in Pahadia's team, were active Janata Party leaders till the Assembly elections. Interestingly, Pahadia was the only chief minister who ran the state with just three Cabinet ministers and five deputy ministers for over eight months.Uneven Ministry: And, ironically, when he expanded his Cabinet twice in February this year, it created more problems. The swearing-in ceremony was delayed for over an hour-and-a-half because the two persons selected by Pahadia failed to turn up. After the expansion he was accused of casteism and of not giving representation to all districts of the state. His present 21-member Cabinet has six Scheduled Caste ministers-the largest group in his team. For the first time in Rajasthan's political history not a single Rajput has been made a Cabinet rank minister or even a minister of state. Narendara Singh Bhati, deputy minister for tourism, is the only representative of the Rajputs who dominated state politics for over 25 years. Besides this, 12 of the 26 districts have not been represented, while Bayana (Pahadia's district) has bagged three ministerial berths.Predictably, vitriol flowed in the Assembly when it opened for the budget session last month. None of the prominent Congress(I) MLAs came forward to defend the chief minister against a forceful attack by the Opposition. At one stage Pahadia was heckled by ruling party MLAs when he failed to satisfy them on the alleged attack by policemen on the journalists who had gone to Weir to cover his election to the state Assembly. Ayyaz Maharaj, 28, a Congress(I) MLA, exchanged blows in the lobby with Chaudhury. Ayyaz said: "The minister used derogatory language against the prime minister. So I had to give a befitting reply."Dissident Delegations: Earlier, the campaign against Pahadia had received a boost on the eve of the budget session, when Mrs Gandhi despatched Buta Singh, minister of state for shipping and transport, to make an on-the-spot study. Singh, who spent two days in Jaipur and attended the meetings of the Congress(I) legislature party, submitted a 14-page report which was strongly against the chief minister. A few weeks earlier, the prime minister in a surprising move gave a hearing to two anti-Pahadia delegations from Rajasthan. The delegations comprised senior party leaders like Harideo Joshi, former chief minister, Ram Kishore Vyas, former Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC-I) ct.ef and newly appointed governor of Assam, and Janardan Singh Gehlot, former general secretary of the All India Youth Congress(I).While Mrs Gandhi refused to replace Pahadia she agreed with the dissidents that his style of functioning needed improvement. In a major move. Chief Secretary G.K. Bhanot was replaced with M.M.K. Wali, a Kashmiri Muslim, without the prior knowledge of the chief minister. Wali reversed the chief minister's order issued earlier appointing some senior IAS officials.Last month Mrs Gandhi gave Pahadia a bit of her mind when she ordered a last minute change for the party's candidate for the assembly's deputy speaker post. Ahmad Bux Sindhi, an MLA from Jodhpur, was instructed by New Delhi to file his nomination on the last day, and the chief minister came to know of it when the change had already taken place. In addition Ram Narain Chaudhary, a Pahadia protege, was asked to step down from the PCC(I) presidentship because he was accused of inciting intra-party feuds instead of controlling them. Even after four months of his appointment as PCC(I) chief, Chaudhary had not been able to announce the names of other office bearers and the entire organisation had been paralysed.Lobbying: While the search is on for a suitable replacement for Pahadia, many aspirants have started lobbying for the coveted post. Prominent among them are Paras Ram Maderana, a Jat MLA, Joshi, Dinesh Swami, MP, and Girdhari Lal Vyas, MP. Dissidents have even suggested the name of Sheesh Ram Ola, a Harijan MLA. One of the deputationists told Rajiv Gandhi, "Ola will at least consult his colleagues and MLAs before taking any decision. He will also abide by the party high command's orders while Pahadia seems determined to flout them."But Pahadia and his supporters deny any responsibility for the current situation in the state, and allege that high caste politicians are behind the anti-Pahadia campaign. Says Surya Kumar, 46, Congress(I) MLA from Nainwa constituency, "Some persons who have enjoyed power for long are creating trouble for their own interests. The chief minister is facing challenges from within the party. And some biased newspapers are responsible for painting a bad picture of the Government."Since the 136-member Congress(I) legislature party is divided into various factions led by Sukhadia, Joshi, and Pahadia, any change in leadership will not be smooth. Even if all the 135 MLAs are against Pahadia he will not be replaced if Mrs Gandhi wants him to stay. But he will have to quit if she doesn't, even if all the 135 support him. Pahadia is aware of this stark reality. Says he, "I am a humble servant of my party. I have not been asked to resign so far. If I am asked to resign, I will do so without a murmur." Whether his exit will benefit the ruling party or not is debatable but it will certainly put an end to one of the most inefficient administrations in the country.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 22, 2013 08:52 IST--- ENDS ---

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Rajasthan ruling party MLAs present memorandum to PM against CM Jagannath Pahadia

When half the Rajasthan Cabinet and a large number of ruling party MLAs descended on New Delhi last fortnight, it seemed that the entire secretariat in Jaipur was in the process of moving to the capital.

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