Ahmedabad, 24 August 2012

As DeshGujarat has extensively reported throughout this month, the Gujarat Congress has come up with a scheme for providing low-cost housing to Gujarati women in urban areas. Charmingly titled Ghar nu ghar, this scheme invited Gujarati women from various urban areas to fill out a form (a copy of a form is attached towards the end of this article) and register themselves to realize their dream of having a home.

As one dwells more into the mechanics of how Gujarat Congress has played this dream scheme out, one cannot help but notice the vacuous promises and fraudulent intent that accompany it. I have reported some infirmities with the administration of the scheme here.

First and foremost, these forms bear the letterhead of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee – a mere political party – which has no authority whatsoever to announce or administer such a scheme until it actually wins the elections and forms the government.

Secondly, this form states in the last page – in the last but second bullet-point – that from among the applications received by the Gujarat Congress, houses will be allotted by way of drawing of lots. As I have asked in my op-ed, does this mean that after Gujarat Congress wins 2012 elections (assuming it does) and the Gujarat Housing Board implements this scheme, those who apply under that legitimate and authorized scheme will have to wait till these 28 lakh applicants are first allotted houses by way of drawing of lots? It is pretty clear how bizarre the consequence can be.

True that the buzz created due to registration of over 28 lakh women in this scheme – which marked the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi – has apparently made the Narendra Modi government activate the generally defunct GHB to implement some of its schemes. After all, GHB is the body in-charge of providing low-cost urban housing. The government will have some answering to do on why the GHB was rendered defunct till 2011.

Interestingly, however, the methodology of announcement of such a scheme is not the brainchild of Gujarat Congress. It bears eerie similarities to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s “tactical misrepresentation” under the ‘Rajiv Rattan Awas’ scheme in 2008 – an election year in Delhi.

In 2008, the Dikshit Government published several booklets and advertisements claiming that 60,000 flats were ready to be handed over for possession to the poor and slum dwellers. As a result of this, there was a rush of applications by the unsuspecting public with almost 2.7 lakh applications; similar to what Gujarat has witnessed in the past week.

A complaint was filed with the Delhi Lokayukta alleging violation of the norms of conduct and integrity expected of a public functionary under Section 7 of the Lokayukta Act. One of the main issues of contention was what exactly did Dikshit state as to the status of the 60,000 houses.

[Note: The Lokayukta report can be downloaded here ]

The Lokayukta studied the material available with it and observed that the booklet contained the following representation (originally in Hindi of which this is the English translation) along with a photo of Dikshit and another Minister:

“Today I am feeling proud while telling you that 60,000 houses instead of 50,000 [as promised during the commencement of the Rajiv Rattan Awas Scheme] are ready for providing shelter (“parivaro ki sar ki chhat banne ko taiyar hai”) to the even numbers of families as per the promise of your Government”.

“Time has come that the process of handing over of these 60,000 houses be started to those people of Delhi who are actually entitled for it”

While the fine print in certain clauses of the application forms did state that construction of 62,000 flats was proposed – and that was Dikshit’s defense throughout this complaint – the Delhi Lokayukta opined that a message by the Chief Minister was capable of dominating the will of the poor and illiterate public over fine print in application clauses.

What’s worse, Dikshit put forward an incorrect translation from a private agency empanelled with the Government seeking to justify her statements. This led the Lokayukta to conclude that the remorseless Dikshit gave “misleading and false information for the purpose of advantage in the ensuing elections”.

Moreover, at the time when an affidavit was filed by the Urban Department of the Delhi Government – in February 2010 – only 7,635 houses were ready and 5,227 houses were under construction and not a single house under Rajiv Rattan Awas scheme was allotted. Therefore, as the Delhi Lokayukta categorically concluded, “there appears to be no doubt that at the time of publication of advertisement/application form, 60,000 houses were neither ready nor could have been made ready within a reasonable time”.

The difference between Dikshit and Gujarat Congress is that the former was the incumbent Chief Minister having the authority to administer such a scheme while the latter, having been out of power since years, is desperate to rule Gujarat. Regardless, it is getting clearer that making harmful misrepresentations to voters during election years has become the forte of the Congress party.

This is a new low in Congress’ history and Gujarat politics. A befitting answer to this will, hopefully, come from the same Gujarati women who will realize how fraud is sold as hope under the aegis of Rajiv Gandhi.

Have a look at the form of Gujarat Congress’s Ghar nu Ghar(in PDF)