Author: Aloke Tikku
Publication: The Statesman
Date: October 18, 2002
Trust the ruling party to ask the
government to gift-wrap a prime plot, as The Statesman reported yesterday.
And trust the CPI-M, ordinarily reflexive critics of the BJP, to abuse
?trust? to land a deal.
Like the BJP, the CPI-M too did
not want to pay one-fourth of the commercial rate for their party headquarters
but did not expect the government to change the rules for them. It floated
a trust instead in the memory of comrade AK Gopalan that would be eligible
for a plot of land at the concessional institutional rates.
This was in the early 1980s. The
foundation stone was laid in 1985 and construction completed within a few
years. The building, named AK Gopalan Bhavan, stands at 27-29, Bhai Vir
Singh Marg, Gole Market, and serves as the CPI-M's headquarters.
Queries at Gopalan Bhavan revealed
constructing the building was the only significant activity that the trust
had carried out. But certainly the trust would be carrying out some activities,
even if on paper? Irritated at the persistent questions on the trust's
performance, one party worker at the CPI-M office finally lost his cool.
?Why can't you understand this simple point,? he said. ?The trust was created
to construct this building. Now that it is complete, there is no need for
the trust?.
The CPI-M general secretary, Mr
Harkishen Singh Surjeet, who doubles up as chairman of the board of trustees
of AK Gopalan Trust other CPI-M leaders are board members suggested the
party worker was not far from the truth. But he had his explanation. Comrade
Gopalan spent his entire life propagating the ideology that the CPI-M stands
for. The party is perpetuating his memory by running the party from Gopalan
Bhavan, he said, suggesting that the activities of the party were co-terminus
with that of the trust.
Mr Surjeet obliquely conceded that
the trust was created with the sole purpose of getting the land for the
party headquarters at a highly concessional rate. To a question, Mr Surjeet
said the government had imposed certain conditions for allotment of land.
He did not remember all of them - it was a long time back, he said - but
did recall the condition that the land would be allotted in the name of
a trust.
Obviously, the CPI-M general secretary
is referring to conditions for getting land at a concessional rate. There
was nothing to stop the party from seeking allotment as a political party
- like the Congress did in 1975 - though this would have meant paying a
huge amount, several times higher than what a trust would have to pay.
But all this must sound odd? If
this is true, why did the urban development ministry not talk about this
violation when the Opposition blamed the government during the recent land
allotment controversy.
Possibly because though governments
give away prime land at throwaway prices - the public pays higher taxes
to make tip for the loss politicians do realise it is too precious to be
playing politics over it. Especially, when all of them have skeletons tucked
away in their cupboard.
