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Rasheeda Bhagat

The Congress(I) President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, and the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Mr Ashok Gehlot_Though the State Government was commended for its handling of last year's drought, many feel much more needs to be done on the economic front.

in Jaipur

IF THE ordinary man in Jaipur, who has some links or the other with the villages of Rajasthan, is grateful to the Gehlot Government for good drought management, a section of the business community is unhappy with the Congress(I) Government for "its failure to get substantial investment in Rajasthan."

Articulating this concern, Mr K. L. Jain, president of the Rajasthan Chamber of Commerce, told Business Line that the Congress as a party, was quite ambivalent on its stand on economic liberalisation. "Sometimes they talk of economic reforms and sometimes they lean towards the Left and talk of socialism. I think it has been proved beyond doubt that the way forward for India is not the Left or the socialist way. The country has to have economic liberalisation. The hunger of the people cannot be satisfied by empty slogans but only by generating employment."

Mr Jain says that during the Gehlot regime, "in Rajasthan hardly any notable investment has taken place, and until that happens, we will continue to exploit our natural resources without giving them value addition." Mr Jain, who had strong Congress-affiliation during the Sukhadia era, makes clear his displeasure of the Gehlot Government by saying, "Mr Sukhadia was the architect of modern Rajasthan. The people in the Congress of today have done little more than slogan shouting."

Whether in the State or at the Centre, he feels the BJP has "more young and dynamic leaders, who have a vision for India, compared to the Congress." Returning to Rajasthan, he thinks both the "Congress and the BJP are neck and neck and either party could win. I don't have much faith in these opinion polls, which predict a big victory for the Congress, and they have to be taken with a pinch of salt. I think as far as the business community is concerned, we would like to cast our lot with the BJP, both in the State and the Centre."

Mr Jain does not think that in drought management too, exemplary work has been done. "Yes, Mr Gehlot has done some work and I don't doubt his integrity, but to make Rajasthan a really modern and economically strong State, any chief minister will have to do more than give pensions to widows or fill children's stomachs with ghugri (a sweet made of coarse wheat and jaggery)," he adds scathingly.

Mr M. S. Rathore, Professor and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies in Jaipur, does not agree that only "some work" has been done in drought management. "Of Mr Gehlot's five years in power, four were drought years, and the drought last year was one of the most severe Rajasthan has ever seen. But during that year, we saw the best drought management in the history of Rajasthan."

This, he says, was due to a couple of factors. The first was that the Chief Minister had the will to do something. "He is clean, honest and pro-poor. That was a major factor. But one can't say the same for his ministers, because one didn't see anything concrete from them."

But apart from Mr Gehlot's sincerity and resolve to combat the drought, says Prof Rathore, the drought management ended up being what it was "thanks to the civil society. The Akal Sangarsh Samiti, comprising more than 100 NGOs of Rajasthan, kept the pressure on the government to act in favour of the drought-affected people. The outcome of such constant pressure was that corruption was minimised, the food reached the poor and there was not a single death due to the drought." He added that it was here that the good network of roads put in place by the State government, came in handy, and food could be reached speedily to the worst affected areas. "But the worst thing that happened was that while human lives were saved, those of animals could not and thousands of cattle died due to lack of fodder."

But Prof Rathore agrees that investment of the magnitude required to take the state economically forward and create employment for its educated youth, has not come in. "True, the power supply situation has improved and other aspects of infrastructure, like good roads, are also in place. But thanks to bureaucratic delays and red tapism, Rajasthani businessmen and industrialists, settled elsewhere in India and the rest of the world, are not willing to invest in Rajasthan."

He said during one such investment drive, aimed to cash in on the "son of the soil" sentiment, backfired, and even those who had shown interest, quickly backed away, "saying don't use emotional blackmail on us. End the red tapism first and only then invite us to invest in Rajasthan."

Prof Rathore added that another crucial aspect that any future government of Rajasthan would have to address pertains to the swelling numbers of educated youth who remained unemployed.

Giving an example, he said that during a recent recruitment drive of the army in which there were hardly 100 posts, thousands of youngsters had applied, and the employment venue as well as the transport avenues leading to the venue, were literally flooded with the aspirants.

The result was hotels and food outlets being looted. "Similar was the case when there was a recruitment drive for the police. Again, for barely 100 posts, thousands of candidates came and there was no place in buses or trains."

Such incidents, which were accompanied by the frustrated youngsters indulging in lawlessness and violence, were a pointer "that if this situation is not tackled properly, we might have a Bihar like situation in Rajasthan too. On that front, I would think the Gehlot Government has failed," added Prof Rathore.

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