Columnists
King with the Midas touch
Aditya SinhaFirst Published : 08 May 2010 12:45:00 AM ISTLast Updated
: 08 May 2010 02:14:59 PM IST
Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister, Mr Kalaignar, claimed everyone was
picking on Union communications minister A Raja because Raja was a
Dalit. "That is why dominant forces are levelling malicious charges
against him," he mumbled.
Actually, the controversy arose when Raja fixed the allocation of
second generation (2G) services of spectrum for mobile and other
wireless services; Raja was alleged to have favoured two unknowns in
the telecom field, Swan telecom and Unitech, by fixing the auction in
such a way that no one else could hope to properly participate. The
two companies — which had backgrounds in real estate, a field without
obvious connections to telecom — obtained the 2G licences at throwaway
prices, which they subsequently sold at hefty premiums; the government
lost an estimated Rs 60,000 crore, say experts. Politically
influential persons may have personally earned Rs 5,000 to 10,000
crore.
When such sums of money are involved, controversy is usually stirred
up by business rivals. It could be that one or more of the big boys in
telecom — Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications or Tata Teleservices
— might be interested in seeing the 2G scam roil Parliament so that,
at the very least, they don't get hoodwinked when the 3G spectrum
auction happens. Incidentally, the 3G auction has been postponed on
several occasions; the Union Budget for 2009-'10 had counted on about
Rs 40,000 crore accruing from this auction, and if Union finance
minister Pranab Mukherjee allowed the postponement of an auction that
was going to make his job easier by Rs 40,000 crore then you can
imagine how seriously Prime Minister Manmohan Singh views the
controversy. (By Mr Kalaignar's logic, though, the postponement would
have been anti-Dalit).
If a leading telecom is interested in exposing the 2G scam, it is not
because it is interested in seeing Raja resign or go to jail. In fact,
business houses prefer corrupt politicians to remain because they are
easier to manipulate, and if something lucrative is around the corner,
the business houses would rather have the same corrupt minister in the
seat, but now at their mercy, rather than an unknown or inimical
person take his place. For instance, the UPA-2 desperately needs Mr
Kalaignar, having alienated the Yadavs with the Women's Reservation
Bill and Sharad Pawar with allegations of food inflation and IPL
tomfoolery; so if the question of replacing Raja arises then it would
have to be with another DMK MP. At least one company, Tata
Teleservices, would not want Raja replaced with textiles minister
Dayanidhi Maran, as his brother Kalanithi runs a rival business.
Recently there was speculation that Nira Radia, the lobbyist figuring
in Raja's tapped telephone conversations, is linked to Tata, but the
Tatas have denied this. There has also been speculation that some
telecom players would rather have Kanimozhi than Maran as
communications minister. But in the murky politics of Mr Kalaignar's
family, she's aligned with fertiliser minister M K Alagiri. Alagiri
does not want younger brother M K Stalin, now the deputy chief
minister, to become boss once Mr Kalaignar passes away, and had
recently made a series of discordant noises (in between trips to
Australia and the Maldives). For the time being, Mr Kalaignar seems to
have pacified Alagiri; he was at Alagiri's bungalow during his recent
visit to Delhi, and suddenly Alagiri is taking language lessons and
attending to files. (Probably Mr Kalaignar & Son realised they could
not accuse Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar of being anti-Dalit, even
though she has loudly voiced her exasperation with Alagiri's
behaviour, seeing that she is the daughter of Babu Jagjivan Ram).
One wonders, though, that whatever arrangement Mr Kalaignar has
proposed to Alagiri, the chief minister perhaps would not want to
upset the balance within his family; and the best way to do that is to
keep Raja as a minister. (It could also be that Mr Kalaignar doesn't
think his daughter has the intellectual wherewithal to handle such a
lucrative ministry). The word from Delhi is that during his trip Mr
Kalaignar met Congress boss Sonia Gandhi, and knowing that she wanted
two of the six Rajya Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu that are up for
election, he told her she would have the seats if Raja stayed.
This is admittedly a complex situation; which is why a simplistic
explanation like saying that all of this happened because Raja is a
Dalit is not only incorrect but also absurd. Telecom companies are
pro-profit and not pro-Dalit, so their rivals cannot be anti-Dalit.
The telephone-tapping agencies are not anti-Dalit. Nira Radia is not a
Dalit.
However, if Mr Kalaignar really wants to call a spade a spade, then he
ought to be courageous and question the Congress party's pro-Dalit
credentials. The UPA-2 only under great pressure agreed to enumerate
castes in the current census, the first time this is being done since
1931. One of the people against caste enumeration was Mr Kalaignar's
great chum, Union home minister P Chidambaram, who argued that
census-takers are not sociologically-sensitive enough to enumerate
caste. (This was actually not a reason but an excuse). Enumerating
caste is unlikely to benefit the upper castes; the gainers will be the
backward castes and the Dalit populace. If you are a Dalit, the
resistance to caste enumeration by Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram can
only look anti-Dalit; yet Mr Kalaignar kept his mouth shut. (The
Congress is fortunate to have a politically savvy decision-taker in
Pranab Mukherjee).
Mr Kalaignar will get other opportunities in the coming days. Events
in the recent weeks indicate Rahul Gandhi has given up on the Dalit
vote in UP. Mayawati proved she is a better politician when she pulled
out her garland of notes; she outsmarted Rahul on Dr Ambedkar's
birthday when he flagged off several rath yatras by subverting his
rallies; and she showed her indispensability to the UPA-2's survival
during the Opposition's two failed cut motions in Parliament. She has
the Dalit vote sewn up. The only way Rahul can hope to put on a good
Congress showing in UP in next year's municipal elections and then in
the assembly elections due in 2012 is to put together a non-Dalit
coalition. He needs to do well in UP if he's going to be credibly
projected as the prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 parliamentary
elections. But to successfully put together a coalition in UP, he will
have to woo backward caste voters and Dalit Muslim voters who are
bitterly opposed to Dalits. To successfully woo them, he will have to
make some symbolic anti-Dalit gesture at some point.
At that juncture, will Mr Kalaignar call him anti-Dalit? Probably not.
He perhaps uses this tactic only when there's a threat to the goose
that lays the golden egg, principled leader that he is.
About The Author;
Aditya Sinha is the Editor-in-Chief of 'The New Indian Express' and
is based in Chennai.
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