Express Adda: Once the election is over, you have to take care of people without differentiating, says Vasundhara Raje

During my first tenure, I was learning on the job. Luckily for me, Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave me a good opportunity. I used to ask myself why I got foreign affairs. You have to see the heart of the government through the personnel ministry, look at atomic energy and space, and the Planning Commission too. I got a crash course in everything and realised someone up there was preparing me for a job in the future. I made mistakes as a rookie but I had this to fall back upon. The second time around, you try to keep those earlier mistakes in mind. But things will pop up, and the best you can do is play the ball back right.

When I first came to the government, I believed in the theory of continuity. And we did that. A lot of good things happened during my period because, financially we had turned the state around, and had become a revenue surplus (state) from one which was in debt. We believed that the next guy will take it one step further, thereby creating a situation where Rajasthan would become economically more sound. That’s what we’re working for together. When we’re in government, everybody belongs to us and the state is our family. We need to work with them with love, affection and discipline. But I was extremely disappointed to see that the person from the Congress instead took the whole thing apart. We have gone into a Rs 2,10,000-crore debt, which doesn’t happen in five years time.

CM MEETS CM: Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, dropped in at the Express Adda. He welcomed Raje and dispelled the fear that Rajasthan might take away industries from Maharashtra. “I am here to welcome the CM of Rajasthan. I feel that both cooperative federalism and competitive federalism benefits our country. So, I feel that there is no competition at all. We are all working in the same direction. I think those who say this are doing nothing but undermining the strength of Maharashtra,” he said.

Rajasthan’s first cow protection minister

I don’t have the world’s first cow minister, Madhya Pradesh does. We have an agriculture ministry under which we have an animal husbandry section. It has horticulture, fisheries and we have now added cows. Rajasthan has problems with drought. Because we have over five lakh animals in the field, it’s important to oversee it, as poor people depend on them when crops fail. We have this cushion to fall back on and for this reason we don’t have as many suicides as in Vidarbha. We have to see that these animals do not starve and veterinary doctors are around to treat them.

It was a full house at The guppy pop up at Olive, Mahalaxmi, with politicians, entrepreneurs, businessmen and bureaucrats in the audience.

The farmer death at Jantar Mantar 

The way it happened was particularly horrific. People egged this poor person on to the tree, somebody else wrote a suicide note because his father told me categorically that it’s not his handwriting. We know the family and they are not badly off and the father also said they have no problems at the farm and even have vehicles in the driveway. He said, unfortunately, you people have created a situation which should not have happened. So between the politicians and the media, a situation was created where this man finally slipped. Good work cannot happen in districts and states if media worries about their TRPs.

(L-R) Anami Narayan Roy, Ex-Director General of Police, Maharashtra; Sanjay Pugalia, Editor in Chief, TV18 Broadcast Ltd; Anant Goenka, Wholetime Director & Head – New Media, The Indian Express.

Land Acquisition Bill

I’ve never had a problem because we work with farmers, and make them partners in the process. When I made the Mahindra World City, for example, 25 per cent of the land was given back to the farmers, after being commercialised. And they are happy with whatever we are doing with it. Now, for example, in Barmer and Jaisalmer where we are executing solar power projects, the huge areas of land are owned by farmers. The issue there is that it’s a banjar area and they don’t earn much from it. The government asked the farmer to deal directly with the company. So you become a partner in the business and get an income from it.

Rajesh Chaturvedi, Chairman, Adfactors PR (left); and Maneck Davar, Chairman, Spenta Multimedia.

College days in Mumbai

I lived in Mumbai till I got married. I love fish. People hate the smell of the sea, but I love it. My college was wonderful because I got the opportunity to meet so many people, and make friends. Though I would have loved to study English literature because I love to read, the three years in economics stood me in good stead because I remember some parts of that and I can put it to use occasionally.

Employment opportunities

Skill is very important to us and apart from that, we are upgrading all our education facilities with universities like Amity. We are creating skill sets among the youth that will empower them to do the kind of jobs they are interested in. There are ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) solely responsible for the subjects that they are interested in. We are also trying to create bodies within universities where you can create young entrepreneurs. We will talk about project reports and teach children about SMEs. We did this as a pilot project in Ajmer University and now, about seven more across the state.

Yunus Khan, Minister of Public Works Department, Transport, Rajasthan (left); Kiran Maheshwari, Minister of Public Health Engineering, Ground Water, Rajasthan.

On reservations for women

We did this with women in the Municipal and the Panchayat elections. We said 50 per cent reservation should be given to women. Everyone said to me this is silly. These women are not even educated. But I said we have to start. Before the elections, people said: ‘You see these ghoonghats? We will have to go with these ladies and we will have to do all the work.’ I said let’s see. After four years, when I went back to the districts at the Panchayats, these women had their ghoonghats up and there were no men hanging around. I think they were back home making tea. The women knew exactly what they were doing. They were signing and they were making decisions. So the unthinkable had happened. You see the difference? We are buttressed by something that was taken to court by the Congress. We said the people who contest for elections must be qualified. Huge amounts of money go to municipalities and panchayats. If they don’t know how to deal with it, it will go very wrong. Minimum education has to be up to class eight, ten and twelve. And I’m happy to tell you that most people went to court. But we did it so strategically that it was not struck down. We found candidates when people said there wouldn’t be any. I have now a huge talent pool, from IIT, IIM, business management graduates and all kinds of educational qualifications, and I’m really proud because there’s a team which will make a difference. And the people at village level say, ‘More power to their elbows. We’re very happy you’re making a difference in our lives.’ I don’t think we can do better than that. The gods and these people do it.

On being from a family of politicians

In the days when my parents held camps, there were no cars or helicopters. There were jeeps and it was hard travel. They set up schools, and people were like family. My mother told me there is no caste or creed, and once the election is over, you have to take care of people without differentiating. If you love them, they will love you back. Different members of the family are from different parties. There is just no time to dine together regularly but we respect each other. If we ever do find ourselves at the same table, we argue, fight and shout, but we finally agree to disagree. And the one thing we agree about is how to deal with people. We are always proud and tune in if the other is making a speech. We’ve not got where we are because of lineage but because we have worked hard for it.

Inviting investors from Maharashtra

Before you attack him (Devendra Fadnavis), let me make one thing clear. There is no taking of industries from anyone. Road shows have been done in other states as well. If someone has spent 100 years in Maharashtra, they have loved the state. They have put up factories and they are certainly not going to uproot them. But what we are asking is that if you have the spare money and you are thinking of investing, then we will welcome you with open arms. The media was creating unnecessary hype, even in Kolkata.

VOICE BANK

Ranjana Smetacek – Director General, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India

Rajasthan has done a good job in procuring drugs. Recently we’ve heard there are going to be budget slashes and that this may change.
We are going to continue with it but there are going to be budget cuts because of the distressing financial situations that we have inherited from the UPA government in Delhi and from the previous government in Rajasthan. We have to take care of debts and at the same time provide money for all the ongoing schemes.

Neelkanth Mishra – Director, Equity Research at Credit Suisse

Most of our Indian states are bigger than some countries. Given the size of your state, what are the attempts to improve federalism?
Just like the Centre is giving the states more leeway to do things, we are also talking to districts. It is important that those divisions become self-sufficient and it’s important that all the officials working there — collectors, tehsildars, night tehsildars, patwaris, BDOs and in line departments such as roads, electricity, drinking water, irrigation — become entities who deliver for their people. It is about working together and not just about the elected representative.

Nikhil Sahni – Senior President, Government Relationship Management, Yes Bank

If you have a vision 2050 for Rajasthan, which are the sectors that will contribute to the overall growth of the state? The first one is education and skill development. Skill is a real passion and in the 2003-2008 government, it was one of the first things we did. We called it livelihood mission. We are also going into investments and infrastructure, and health too. We discovered that we are short of 5,000-6,000 doctors and trying to find out how many and how fast we can produce more doctors.