Corner plot politics

Shafi Rahman
July 3, 2008 INDIA TODAY

When it comes to splitting up the family silver, the nation's politicians are beginning to resemble eternally fractious Indian families.
As the Government doles out plots to political parties for the construction of their future headquarters, some are turning green with envy as bigger parties get their hands on posh properties while they are being given down-market addresses.
The Ministry of Urban Development is disbursing these plots following a Supreme Court order to evict parties from the heritage sites in the capital they have been squatting in for many years.
It was meant to be an act in good governance, but the allotment spree has produced a windfall for many parties, especially the ruling Congress.
In the capital, where the real estate business is often a blood sport, land is being lavishly bestowed upon a fortunate few.
As the land will be disbursed according to a party's combined strength in the two houses of Parliament, the policy allows for four acres to be given to parties with more than 200 MPs, two acres to parties having 101-200 MPs, one acre to those with 51-100 MPs and half an acre to parties that are 26-50 MPs strong.
The other parties fume that the criteria have been devised in this manner to suit the Congress. With 217 MPs, it has already got its pound of flesh-four acres-on the capital's Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Marg.
The Opposition BJP, which is eligible for only two acres, has refused to take up the land offered to it on DDU Marg. It has written to the Ministry of Urban Development asking for the same amount of land as is earmarked for the Congress party.
"There should not be discrimination while allotting the land to the national parties. The present guidelines are discriminatory," says V.K. Malhotra, deputy leader of BJP in the Lok Sabha .
The smaller parties are also questioning the rationale behind anchoring the allotment of land to the present combined strength of parties in Parliament.
"They can't do it in an election year. The current strength of the parties is expected to change dramatically during the upcoming polls. The Government should immediately stop the allotment," says AIADMK leader V. Maitreyan.
Property hunt
Under the new policy, land will be allotted to parties according to their parliamentary strength.
A party must have at least seven MPs to become eligible.
The Congress gets four acres, BJP two and CPI(M) one.
Smaller parties feel they are being given a raw deal.
Most parties are eyeing plots on DDU Marg, a real-estate hot spot.
CPI(M) finds itself on a street named after its ideological foe
The Congress has played down the allegations made by other parties. "BJP may argue that since they have a 'waiting prime minister', he should be put next to the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Race Course Road.
Constitutionally, that argument is not valid," says All-India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary Tom Vadakken, "BJP has no national presence and should try to touch base with reality."
However, Maitreyan argues, "For national parties like BJP and the Congress, there won't be any dramatic shifts in the seats. But for regional parties like AIADMK and BSP, electoral fortunes change with every election."
BSP, without waiting for the Government allotment, has already started building its headquarters on Sardar Patel Marg in central Delhi. Those fortunate enough to be eligible for land are now involved in unseemly catfights for upmarket locations.
Land is being allotted in institutional areas near M.G. Road, Vasant Kunj, Safdarjung and DDU Marg, with many eyeing plots on the centrally-located DDU Marg.
"We have asked the ministry to allot land on DDU Marg. We are yet to get the final nod," says Jimmy George, national secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
NCP has also demanded that the Government hike its allocation as its parliamentary strength has gone up from 12 to 17. But the ministry insists that the allocation is based on the strength of parties on the date of the government order that detailed the guidelines two years ago.
Rashtriya Janata Dal has also been allotted land on DDU Marg, while the Shiv Sena is waiting for its turn. "We have been asked to go to Vasant Kunj, which is away from the city. This is not acceptable to us and we have asked for an allocation near DDU Marg," says Mohan Singh, chief whip of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the Lok Sabha.
One party turning red over its new address is CPI(M). The idea of having a party office in an enclave named after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya has not gone down well with the communists.
Especially when its would-be neighbours are Sangh-affiliated organisations like Sanskar Bharti, Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, Bhartiya Kisan Sangh and Sewa International.
According to the guidelines, in the case of parties that were allocated land earlier, fresh allotments shall be considered after deducting the quantum of land already distributed.
For example, CPI(M) was allotted a 1,197-sq m plot on Bhai Vir Singh Marg where it built its headquarters, A.K. Gopalan Bhavan. Now the party will get the remaining 2,850 sq m it is due on DDU Marg.
With subsidies being doled out, the CPI(M) central leadership may end up paying only Rs 60 lakh for a piece of land that is actually worth over Rs 50 crore.
So far, most parties have been making do by squatting in various government-owned properties. Around 40 houses are occupied by political parties and the Congress leads the pack, occupying 16 flats and bungalows.
The other parties that are squatting in bungalows are BJP (3), CPI (1), CPI(M) (2), SP (1) and BSP (1). BJP has been using 11, Ashoka Road as its party headquarters since March 21, 1985.
One of the properties the Congress has been holding on to is the office at 24, Akbar Road. First sanctioned to G.K. Moopanar, then general secretary of the party, in 1978, AICC shifted into the bungalow after being pushed out of its old office near Jantar Mantar following the party's split after the Emergency.
The plot on Raisina Road, now hosting the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, was allotted to the Congress for its national headquarters during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as prime minister.
The building was inaugurated by him at an inauspicious time of the day, Rahu Kalam, after arriving late from a function. Many Congressmen have blamed its subsequent political reverses on the jinxed date with the stars and delayed the full-fledged shift of the party headquarters into the new building.
After the Congress leadership distanced itself from the Gandhis, the first family started operating from the plot on Raisina Road, before returning to Akbar Road after Sitaram Kesari was defanged. The Raisina Road plot was later occupied by the multi-crore Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
The National Youth Congress office at 5, Raisina Road, which was allotted to AICC on July 5, 1976 "as a purely temporary measure", is another property occupied by the party. A few years back, the rent arrears of the office were estimated to be over Rs 18 lakh.
The Congress now plans to move its frontal organisations to the new headquarters with amenities like a media centre, a full-floor office for the Congress president and a conference hall to hold meetings of the Congress Working Committee.
By treating prime estate in the capital as their own and modifying the original structures, political parties have played havoc with the vision of Edwin Lutyen, the architect who planned New Delhi 100 years ago.
"These bungalows are meant to be residences. Political party offices have no business being there and should move out fast," says A.G.K. Menon, founder-member of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.
The parties have been given three years' time to vacate the bungalows, identified by the World Monuments Fund in New York as one of the planet's 100 most endangered heritage sites.
Another party Which won't be getting much land this time is CPI. It had taken the trouble to set up a full-fledged office on subsidised land in 1971.
The headquarters, Ajoy Bhavan, was designed by well-known architect R. Jhabwala and is seen by many as a combat-ready structure that meets the "necessities of future class war". "Some see the sprawling bunker inside the party office as a part of the security apparatus," says a CPI leader.
Others dismiss the underground hall, now a grand library, as a "bourgeois-deviation" by a top leader who had wanted to house a central air-conditioning system but whose plans were eventually shot down by others as it was considered incompatible with the principles of a proletarian party.
Such working class sentiments are rare in the race for an address that suits the working style of our political class.