Daunting challenges, unfazed Kamal Nath

Old warhorse Kamal Nath looks set to make light of the seemingly unsurmountable challenges facing his party’s government in Madhya Pradesh. On return to power in the state after 15 long years, the Congress is confident of galvanising itself to cover a lot of ground to ensure substantial gains in the general elections, lying a few months away. Kamal Nath, who has mostly served at the Centre and has been in the Lok Sabha for over 40 years, marked his first foray into state politics with scorching pace of decision-making. The code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections should come into force in about 100 days. That explains the urgency in Kamal Nath’s steps.

There were two records of sorts on Monday. Governor Anandiben Patel administered oath to two chief ministers, one in Bhopal and the other in Raipur, on the same day. And, Kamal Nath signed four major files in less than four hours after taking oath.

Kamal Nath, 72, brought into play all his experience as a nine-time Member of Parliament, and as former Union Trade and Commerce Minister. He has also held Central portfolios of textiles, environment, surface transport and urban development. He had apparently done his homework well in advance. The Congress manifesto that has now taken shape of a promissory note had underlined loan waiver for farmers as a key point.

Kamal Nath took oath at 2.30 pm on Monday and at 4.30 he signed the file to waive off loans of farmers up to ₹2 lakh due till March 31, this year. The next decision was to amend policy to provide incentive to the industries, offering 70 per cent employment to local persons. The third decision was to establish garment parks in Bhopal, Jabalpur, Indore and Chhindwara to increase employment. The fourth decision is expected to cultivate the large constituency of women by raising assistance for girls’ marriages from ₹28,000 to ₹51,000. Interestingly, there is no income slab specified for the beneficiaries of this largesse.

Questions have been raised over feasibility of farm loan waivers as the state is already in debt to the tune of ₹1.87 lakh crore. The new government, however, feels 34 lakh farmers could benefit from the latest waiver that might put an additional burden of ₹ 35,000 crore on the coffers.

Kamal Nath is expected to summon all his experience and skill to seek investors’ support. He says he has already been in been talks with the Tatas to invest in the state. He has, however, refused to hold Global investor’ summits. The young voters have high hopes from the new government. The state has not been able to draw investment from national and international industrial power houses. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan dispensation had hyped its effort on investments by organising global investors’ summits in the state that cost the exchequer several hundred crores. But the yield never matched the effort.

“Generating employment is the priority. The IT industry is in depression almost everywhere. But I have spoken to HCL chairman Shiv Nadar and some friends in Tata to suggest what could be done. I have also asked other friends to prepare a plan for the state in a month. I am working on it. But I would not splurge huge amounts to organise investors’ meets,” says the new Chief Minister.

Party sources say that Kamal Nath has been actively cultivating friends all over the world from his days as Union Commerce Minister. He is confident of getting some of them to either set up industries or to provide market for produce from the state.

The Chief Minister has asked bureaucrats to think out of the box and deliver. “I want to rectify the delivery system and leakages that can turn a scheme into a failure. Officials who pass the buck and are unwilling to redress the grievances won’t be tolerated,” Kamal Nath said.

The State Chamber of commerce and Industries has welcomed the “incentives for jobs initiative.” The chairman of MPCCI, RS Goswami, said the MSME sector has the potential to provide the maximum number of jobs. It has been lying untapped due to the licence raj system of the previous government.

Kamal Nath’s goodwill cuts across the political spectrum. He invited three former chief ministers of the BJP as well as major leaders of other parties. A show of strong opposition unity was seen on the dais. The onus of sustaining the momentum rests with the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP held all but three of the 29 Lok Sabha seats from the state in Lok Sabha. The recent Assembly elections suggest that the BJP could lose at least another 14. Almost half of the Hindi heartland has slipped out the BJP’s hands with the return of Congress in Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan. Kamal Nath may demit the office of the PCC chief. But he will need to anchor the party and the combined opposition in the state to extend the advantage.

This article first appeared in the National Herald on Sunday.