Tuesday, Aug 05, 2003
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Gujarat
By Manas Dasgupta
After repeatedly asserting that there could be no rethink after the Cabinet decided about a month ago on a nearly three-fold hike in the power tariff rates, Mr. Modi has now appointed a Cabinet sub-committee for "negotiations" with the farmers. The State Electricity Board has agreed to issue electricity bills at the old rates pending finalisation of the structure by the sub-committee. The change came after the former Chief Minister and senior party leader, Keshubhai Patel, attacked Mr. Modi for the "unbearable burden" imposed on the farmers already reeling under the impact of four consecutive droughts and other natural calamities. Most of the members from the organisational wing in the coordination committee also took strong exception to the Cabinet taking "unilateral" decisions on such important issues. In the face of the Congress-sponsored farmers' agitation to oppose the hike, the Government had taken the stand that the increase was inevitable, had been imposed at the recommendation of the Statutory Electricity Regulatory Commission and maintained that the power rates in the State were still lower than in most Congress-ruled States. Mr. Modi, who had refused to meet the farmers' delegations on the issue, had to "cave in" to Mr. Patel's onslaught. For the Congress State unit president, Shankarsinh Waghela, the hike came in handy for resuming the verbal war against Mr. Modi. The agitation over the hike in court fees had met with grand success encouraging the Congress to call for a "village bandh" and "raasta roko" agitation on August 8. Considering the response the Congress received from farmers, lawyers and students in the local level demonstrations against the power tariff hike, the court fee hike and the school and colleges fees hike, the August 8 bandh would have been a major success but the appointment of the Cabinet sub-committee. The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, farmers' wing of the Sangh Parivar, which was forced to support the agitation in the interests of the farming community, though it politically benefited the Congress, managed to wriggle out saying the issue was still open. The left wing farmers' organisations and all other non-Congress farm bodies too have decided to boycott the Congress-sponsored agitation. The bewildered Congress leaders have been trying to argue it out saying that the offer of "negotiations" is merely a ploy and that the farmers would not get any relief from the "bankrupt" Government that depended on the Asian Development Bank loans for survival. Restructuring of the power tariff and reduction in subsidy to the farm sector is an important condition for the sanctioning of loans by the ADB. The Congress, however, has not given up hopes of making the bandh a success but knows it will need a much effort to galvanise the agitated farmers.
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