When a State satrap throws a party, his bhawan foots the massive bill

NEW DELHI, July 9: Where do political parties hold their meetings in air-conditioned comfort with uninterrupted power supply, hold rallies ...

NEW DELHI, July 9: Where do political parties hold their meetings in air-conditioned comfort with uninterrupted power supply, hold rallies without the police harassing them, and then to top it all, make the government pay for everything? The various State bhawans in the Capital.

Take this. Around 600 delegates came from Bihar to attend the launch rally of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and stayed in New Bihar Bhawan in the Capital for almost a week, from July 3 to July 8. The Bhawan hired six air-conditioned luxury coaches for them for five days, to show them around the city. By the time they left, the Bhawan had spent more than Rs two lakh just on their food and transport.

With the arrival of coalition politics at the Centre and with regional satraps calling the shots, the State guest houses have become the new nerve-centres of power intrigue. The result: the bhawans meant to lodge bureaucrats and politicians from the State who are in Delhi on “official work” have become the boarding, lodging and exhibition spots of the States’ ruling parties. Also, they are the places to keep MPs under “house arrest” to guard against defection and for clandestine confabulations. And more.

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So when Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav held a rally of the newly formed RJD on the manicured lawns of New Bihar Bhawan at Chanakyapuri, nobody batted an eyelid. Laloo’s supporters, who included only a handful of MLAs, were treated like VIPs.

“We can rent out the lawn to anybody for Rs 5,000 a day. So even the chief minister can use it,” says Narendra Chaudhary, the manager of New Bihar Bhawan. But the bhawan has not got even a single paise for the use of the lawns for the rally. However, the staff of the Bihar Bhawan are not unduly worried. “We will get the money from the government. After all, Laloo is the chief minister,” adds another employee of the Bhawan.

Laloo Prasad Yadav is not the only one who makes use of the state bhawan in a capacity other than that of the Chief Minister. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu holds the meetings of United Front (UF), of which he is the convenor, in the cool confines of the AP Bhawan conference hall, next to his luxurious suite.

The cold drinks, the snacks and the coffee, which make the rounds at the meetings are all paid by the state government. Sometimes the meetings are held over sumptuous lunch or dinner, again paid by the government of Andhra Pradesh.

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In May 1996, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to prove its majority to form the government, the MPs of the Third Front and other regional parties were kept in the bhawans of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and even Tamil Nadu.

The chief ministers of the states literally guarded the MPs, who were not allowed to even venture out of the premises.

All this is just one side of the great misuse story. To begin with, the air-conditioned luxury rooms in the bhawans are available to bureaucrats, present and former MPs and MLAs of the state at highly subsidised rates — ranging from Rs 20 to Rs 254. Even food is available at a nominal price.

“A room like the one in the bhawan will easily cost anything over Rs 1,500 in a good, decent hotel in Delhi. So why should not we make use of the facilities available,” says a former MLA staying at the Uttar Pradesh Bhawan for the past five days.

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He sheepishly admits that he is on a personal visit to Delhi “but then who will verify and how.”

But a perennial problem which the managing staff of the bhawans face is that many of the rooms remain occupied for months whereas rules limit the stay to a few days. And sometimes the occupants are people who are not entitled to be there in the first place. “There are a few ex-MLAs and even a businessman who have been occupying the rooms for the past two to six months. What can we do about it? They get permission from the Cabinet Coordination Department in Patna, which is responsible for allotting the rooms. We don’t have much say in it. At the most what we do is to shift the person in the Resident Commissioner’s quota if some minister lands up,” says the person manning the Old Bihar Bhawan reception.

Even for other Bhawans, permission to a person to stay there is given by the state Capital. “Many times a room is booked under the name of some MP or MLA but some other person comes and stays. We cannot check every person’s identity. You see, we cannot take any chances because everybody has links with the VIPs,” says an employee of Karnataka bhawan.

Other than the Bhawans, another government place which is plagued by this is the Rail Yatri Niwas under the Ministry of Railways. President of Rail Yatri Niwas workers’ union Harbhajan Sandhu complains that the rooms remain occupied by men from Hajipur, the constituency of Union Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. “They come and stay here for months and don’t pay,” he says.