The name, Mr Jogi

The name, Mr Jogi
T.V.R. Shenoy

It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be taken for a fool," Mark Twain mused, "than to open it and remove all doubt." Ajit Jogi, the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, is far from being a fool. He was a civil servant before he joined politics. He then served as the official spokesman of the Congress. No, Ajit Jogi cannot be accused of lack of intellect, but the poor man is unlucky enough to have Sonia Gandhi as his Supreme Leader -- and no captain can be wiser than his general.

The Congress president has been led to believe that raising the Balco issue will embarrass the government. Since Congress bosses are infallible this means the Jogis of the world too must recite their catechism. This has resulted in the Chhattisgarh chief minister being led out on a limb. In response to the Balco issue, he came out with three statements -- an assessment, an accusation, and a threat.

Jogi's assessment is that the public sector undertaking at the centre of the storm, Bharat Aluminium, is worth Rs 5,000 crore. He has levelled the accusation that the government of India is selling Balco for a mere Rs 551 crore, barely a tenth of the actual value. This, says the chief minister, is because someone in the prime minister's office was given a Rs 100 crore bribe, with a Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Chhattisgarh getting a share of the loot. Finally, Jogi has threatened to cancel Balco's license to mine bauxite if the proposed sale goes through as contemplated.

Jogi's accusations should not be dismissed as the usual garbage when the Opposition is trying to smear the ministry of the day. I am happy to see that the Disinvestment Minister, Arun Shourie, has picked up the gauntlet. He has challenged Jogi to name the man who allegedly accepted a bribe, or, failing that, prepare to be sued.

I do hope the chief minister is prepared to stand by his words. Long years of experience mean that a Laloo Prasad Yadav or an E. K. Nayanar may be dismissed with contempt, but one expects better of a man with Jogi's record. I am a little surprised that he didn't come out with the name of the man who supposedly took a bribe immediately, but better late than never. So when, Mr Chief Minister, shall you come out with the revelation?

Let us now move on to the issue of Jogi's abilities as an assessor. He has publicly stated that Balco is worth Rs 5,000 crore, and that selling 51 per cent for Rs 551 crore is a sell-out. I will not argue with the chief minister of Chhattisgarh over the value of the public sector undertaking. But, once again, I do believe that Ajit Jogi should be prepared to put his money -- or at least his entrepreneurial abilities -- where his mouth is.

Fifty one per cent of Rs. 5,000 crore is Rs 2,550 crore. Is Jogi willing to find a business house which shall put up such an amount for a 51 per cent stake in Balco? That is, after all, his own assessment of what a fair price should be. I think everybody will be happy if he can do so. Speaking for the government, the disinvestment minister has already publicly stated that he will seize the offer. With such a windfall in hand, the government will make a tidy sum even after having to pay off Sterlite (the firm that bid Rs 551 crore). Again, I hope the chief minister is as good as his word.

Of course, it might not have been necessary to pay Sterlite if Ajit Jogi could have backed up his accusation about a mole in the prime minister's office. If proved true that would automatically nullify the deal. It might even bring down the Vajpayee ministry, a prospect that should delight the Congress. For that reason if nothing else, Jogi should have revealed all he knows by now. So what, pray, is holding back the former spokesman from speaking?

Finally, there is the threat that Chattisgarh shall cancel any permits given to Balco. Yet again, I am loth to pass judgment until Jogi offers something more substantial than mere words. But I cannot help wondering what all this says about his skills as an administrator.

Balco has been described as a `profitable' unit. These profits have been dropping dramatically. In 1996, it made a profit of Rs 163 crore; by the year 2000, profits were only Rs 25 crore. Now here comes the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh vowing to stop all mining operations. How much profit do you think there will be if all work halts? Or is it Jogi's case that a public sector undertaking cannot be sold unless it is buried under a mountain of debt?

I can appreciate, of course, that Ajit Jogi is suspicious when public sector undertakings are sold for a song. He probably remembers the scandalous manner in which a Congress ministry presented Suzuki with a lion's share of Maruti Udyog Limited. To refresh everyone's memory, on that occasion the Narasimha Rao regime sold shares at a price lower than Suzuki itself was willing to pay!

Happily, Atal Bihari Vajpayee is not a Narasimha Rao. Nor, may I add, is an Arun Shourie -- or an Arun Jaitley before him -- in the same league as a Krishna Sahi. Offered hard proof of bribery, I am sure that both the prime minister and his disinvestment minister will be happy to take action. In fact, I believe that they will be prepared to act even if Ajit Jogi provides nothing more than a name.

Or is the chief minister's triple-pronged attack of assess-accuse-threaten little more than part of his party's misinformation campaign? Some Congress leaders have implicitly equated `privatisation' with `liquidation'. They speak darkly of asset-stripping and of workers being laid off. The assets are mostly land which can't be sold off, and the workers' interests are best protected by ensuring that Balco doesn't slide into the red. But the Congress can't afford to admit these truths.

Some say that Ajit Jogi's claim to knowledge is at par with Sonia Gandhi's ignorance about Quattrocchi. I can understand the latter, but does that pardon the former?