No English please, we're at <I>Swadeshi Mela</I>, say PSUs

No English please, we're at Swadeshi Mela, say PSUs
TANVIR SIDDIQUI

AHMEDABAD, FEB 9: If you want to know why politicians usually like the public sector so much, come to the Swadeshi Mela, which is currently on at the Sardar Patel Stadium. A whole lot of government-owned companies have hired huge stalls at this annual show of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, virtually underwriting its financial cost.

Of course, big private companies like Nirma, Torrent, Ajanta Clocks, Sintex and Vadilal industries are there and are doing good business. But at least half the space is occupied by public sector outfits, including those on the sickbed, like the Gujarat Electricity Board and the Gujarat State Export Corporation, who have nothing to offer.

They have paid Rs 300 per square feet. And what use are they making of the space? The huge stall of Gujarat Minerals Development Corporation has only a poster and a table. A helpful attendant explains: ``Our material is lying somewhere else''. However, it does have a visitors' book.

The Gujarat State Financial Corporation only has handbills. TheGujarat Industrial Development Corporation has posters of its industrial estates. Some have been really imaginative. Like, the Gujarat Electricity Board, which has displayed its cables! The Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam has put up a model of the project, while the Gujarat Maritime Board has displayed the model of a ship. There is also the Information Department, with posters of Gokul Gram Yojana and other government schemes.

Expectedly, most of these stalls had very few visitors. Nevertheless, many boards and corporations have also hired volunteers of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch. At the stall of Gujarat State Exports Corporation, the SJM volunteer refused to reply to queries asked in English because it was a foreign language. Asked why all the posters were in English, she remarked, ``That is up to the corporation people''. Close by, a Japanese-made Sony sound system played the speech of Swadeshi stalwart Rajiv Dixit, blasting multinationals.

Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertiliser Company Chairman PradipsinhJadeja said participation in such fairs was part of their policy to promote business. How much fertiliser they hoped to sell? ``We reach the masses through such fairs'', he replied. But then Jadeja is not a professional chairman; he is a BJP leader.

So is Gujarat Electricity Board chairman Nalin Bhatt, who did not want to discuss the topic. However, Bhatt admitted that board had accumulated losses of Rs 2,500 crore. What he did not say was that the board was completely dependent on government hand-outs for its survival.

The only government-owned organisation which had an obvious justification for its presence at the mela was Indext-C, which helps in marketing of handicrafts. Its stalls and pavillion attracted maximum crowds and Indext-C Executive Director Jagat Patel said they expect a business of Rs 1.50 crore against an expenditure of Rs 20 lakh.