Shivraj Singh Chauhan's stupendous 'blunder' | N.D.Sharma

Published on 26-12-2007 In National

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Shivraj Singh Chauhan's stupendous 'blunder'

Shivraj Singh Chauhan committed a stupendous 'blunder', which can be seen as the root of all his present troubles. After he became the Chief Minister two years ago, he did not follow the tradition of cultivating the Leader of the Opposition or some other weighty leader in the main opposition party.

The Chief Ministers in Madhya Pradesh in the past quarter century had been working in close cooperation with the opposition leaders. The latter had always come to the aid of the chief minister in times of crisis, instead of trying to pin him down. In return, the opposition leaders enjoyed powers far beyond those of the cabinet ministers.

Vikram Verma, now a Rajya Sabha member and vice-president of the BJP, was the Leader of the Opposition during Digvijay Singh's first term. Not even once did he raise an issue, inside the Assembly or outside, which could discomfit the Chief Minister. An astute and industrious leader, Verma would always train his guns on Singh's cabinet colleagues, more ferociously on those who were creating problems for the Chief Minister.

Present PCC chief Subhash Yadav was one of the ministers constantly nagging Digvijay Singh. One day in the Assembly, Verma demanded Yadav's resignation or his dismissal from the cabinet in view of the Lokayukta finding that he (Yadav) had made illegal appointments in the Apex Bank (Yadav was chairman of the Apex Bank also). There was quite a ruckus in the Assembly.

The Lokayukta had not yet finalised his finding but had written to the Chief Minister, seeking the government' comments. No special intelligence is required to guess where Verma got his ammunition against Yadav. The inevitable outcome was that Yadav surrendered to the Chief Minister.

Verma hails from Dhar. So does the present Leader of the Opposition Jamuna Devi. She was a senior member of Digvijay Singh's cabinet. The Dhar district administration was virtually at the beck and call of Verma so much so that Devi was always whining as no official, the Collector downwards, was listening to her. Digvijay Singh would attend to Verma's recommendations on top priority.

Digvijay Singh had an equally cosy relationship with Babulal Gaur who had become the Leader of the Opposition during Singh's second term. Gaur, in fact, had an excellent relationship with most of the Congress leaders including Arjun Singh and Kamal Nath. When he became the Chief Minister after Uma Bharati's resignation in the wake of the Hubli court case, Gaur was so frequently hobnobbing with the Congress leaders that his own party men dubbed him as the Congress chief minister of the BJP government.

In the State politics, Chief Minister Gaur had an excellent relationship with Leader of the Opposition Jamuna Devi. As chief minister, Gaur had no problems from the Congress. All his problems, and he had some nasty ones, came from within the BJP only.

Gauri Shankar Shejwar, who was the Leader of the Opposition for some time before Babulal Gaur during Digvijay Singh's second term, had no communication line in the Congress but his problem was that he had no communication line even in his own party. Consequently, he could not cause much damage to Digvijay Singh or his government.

The tradition of "constructive" cooperation between the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition started during Arjun Singh's time in the early eighties.

He enjoyed, and still enjoys, almost legendary friendship with veteran BJP leader Sunderlal Patwa who was the Leader of the Opposition during Arjun Singh's term. Arjun Singh had, among other things, turned a blind eye to the activities of Mohammad Shafi, a notorious narcotics smuggler from Mandsaur and a close friend of Patwa. (Shafi was last heard to be in a Tamil Nadu jail a few years ago).

When Patwa became the Chief Minister in 1990, Shyama Charan Shukla was the Leader of the Opposition, but the Congress MLAs were mostly from the Arjun Singh camp. So, Patwa had smooth sailing till his government was dismissed after the Babri Masjid demolition.

As chief minister, Patwa did not forget his friend. It was during Patwa's time that an application was made to the sessions' court for the closure of a murder case in which Arjun Singh's involvement was hinted at by a judicial commission of inquiry.

Patwa had an affable relationship with chief minister Digvijay Singh also. He would always come to the aid of the latter in his times of crisis, in exchange for small favours such as the waiving of a few lakhs of rupees of sales tax for his nephew's business concern or permission to retain the land, which Patwa, as chief minister, had allotted to his relatives in Neemuch. It's another matter that the allotment was found by an inquiry committee appointed by Digvijay Singh as having been as illegal.

Motilal Vora, when he became the chief minister, had a natural affinity with Kailash Joshi. Both are comparably mild-mannered politicians and unskilled at how to make the best use of the media. Shyama Charan Shukla was the chief minister for a while in the late eighties and it was too short a period for him to settle down. In any case, he was an old-fashioned politician, not conversant with the modern techniques of CM-Opposition cooperation.

Uma Bharati, who was the chief minister for nine months, did not appear to be inclined to seek friendship with the Congress. She had rather struck a terror in the hearts of the Congress leaders. As if with a vengeance, she had started taking on the senior bureaucrats who had played Digvijay Singh's game. She had directed her full attention to the cooperative sector, stinking with corruption, which had been controlled by Congress leaders for ages and had been a major source of funds for them.

Her Minister of Cooperatives Gopal Bhargava had the brief to expedite investigations and prosecute the culprits. An important Congress leader, a protégé of Arjun Singh, was on the verge of being sent to jail when the pressure was brought on Bhargava through predictable channels to go slow in the matter but he, with the support of Uma Bharati, resisted.

The things eased with Uma Bharati's exit. Babulal Gaur, who succeeded her, was only too happy to oblige the Congress leaders. So he took away the cooperative portfolio from Bhargava and gave it to Himmat Kothari, a Patwa man. Though the department has been restored to Bhargava, he is now a 'wiser' man.

Hunted by the opposition with corruption charges against himself and his wife Sadhana Singh, Chauhan, it appears, had never taken a keen interest in the tricks of smooth governance. Or maybe, he did not have good advisers who could tell him how to seek, and get, 'constructive' cooperation from the opposition.

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