I ^ / PROFILE The loan messiah Despite the barrage of criticism from within and without the party, Union minister of state for finance Janardhan Poojary's loan melas continue to win him immense popularity

charge Ramakrishna long hours and wearying days. Suddenly dais begin to squirm at the prospect of Hegde that he is mislead­ his voice drops low. “Since I became a doling out more unrecoverable money. ii ing the people of Karna­ minister, I have not even had the time to For Poojary it is time to move on to taka,” he thunders. “But watch a movie,” he says pathetically. another stage. he cannot fool all the Then he lets his voice rise again. “But Poojary executes loan melas in his people all the time.” So Janardhanthe ministersPooj- in Karnataka, they even garb of Union minister of state for ary, UnionI minister of state for finance, have time to act in one. ” His reference is finance. They are, however, more his launches a rhetorical tirade and sets the to the film Avasthe, which has a star cast contribution as a politician. It is Poojary tone for his double role as president of full of politicians including the ministers who is to blame for much of the criticism the KPCC(I). Poojary’s arrows find their for rural development and information. mark. The chief minister, beset with The reporters laugh problems of his own, goes on the and Poojary scores defensive. He is driven to calling the again. emaciated-looking Poojary a scarecrow, To watch Poojary at perhaps not realising how that reflects a loan mela is to see on himself. Poojary chuckles in magnani­ the actor merge with mous glee, refusing to retort. He pre­ the politician. Superb fers to remark on the fact that Hegde, at drawing on the after repeated barbs from the peripatetic. emotions of the mas­ Poojary, who toured 11 Karnataka dis­ ses, Poojary flaunts tricts in a few weeks, finally took a his own poverty, and belated tour of his own state. "We have crudely appeals to the made Hegde go to the people, it is a susceptible women in victory for the Congress(I), ” he says the audience. In India, piously. he says, poor women Poojary, now celebrating ten years in sometimes are left power (he rode to Parliament in a with little option other never-before hat-trick from Mangalore than selling them­ district in 77, ’80 and ’84) has spent a selves or killing them­ decade perfecting the art of piousness. selves. But now the He does not drink, does not attend fancy Congress(I) was offer­ luncheons, does not misuse his personal ing a third option. “We car, sends his children to municipal will give you a loan,” schools, and makes his family travel to he ends, the tears roll­ Agra by public bus. He has carefully ing down his face. The cultivated an image of personal probity, women in the audience of incorruptibility, and has almost a are moved, while the fetish for living up to that image. He bank officers on the works sometimes for 18 hoars a day. People have been given appointments to see him at 2.00 am and come in bleary- eyed to find Poojary poring over his papers. But he is a man caught up in a one-dimensional world of his own mak­ ing, if not like Narcissus, then at least like Mohandas Gandhi. Poojary, on his part, keeps playing the role. V.N. Subba Rao of the Indian Express, Bangalore, called him a “meg^omaniac”. Even friends concede that he is “theatrical”. But he continues unabashed. In fact, he is quite unable to change the pattern, even in front of a crowd of cynical reporters. To them, he brags about his Illustration: Subrolo Chowdbury

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that the loan melas have received. By man treats them in the same way he riding roughshod over bank officers, by treats bank clerks, ” complained a senior totally by-passing the bank administra­ party leader. Poojary set off on the tive infrastructure, by encouraging fiscal lOojaty has cleveriy used wrong foot in Karnataka. While touring irresponsibility and turning a blind eye to Bidar, he threatened to expel some the massive mismanagement of hinds, the me/asto glorify leaders for their anti-party activities, and issued stem notice to ^ party “dissi­ and the blatant pre-election politicisa­ ______himself as well as secure tion, he has personally reduced the P dents”. Hardly the best way to begin programme to a farce. Now, like the his position in the party. He______restmcturing the damaged Congress(I). Tripura government, the Janata govern­ “Poojary has been more vehement ment is belatedly planning its own de­ personally sees to it that thousands against the rank and file of the Congres- vious methods to thwart the melas. But of loan applications are distributed s(I) than against the Janata Party,” says Poojary is intellectually oblivious to the Veerappa Moily, mefully. ramifications of the loan disbursement prior to his mofussil tours, so that a Poojary is not unaware of his reputa­ scheme. “We are helping the poorest of mass audience is assured...But he tion. “If I kept quiet, I would be more the poor, who are illiterate, and unaware pxjpular, they would call me a good of financial procedures,” he says. insists, “We are helping the poorest man, ” he says. His survival instincts are Poojary has cleverly used the melas to of the poor, who are illiterate, and so strong, however, that he spent a glorify himself as well as secure his recent trip to Bangalore trying to make position in the party. He personally sees unaware of financial procedures” amends, closeted with his antagonists in to it that thousands of loan applications the party. After all, he is a man on a are distributed prior to his mofussil specific mission: to get the party back tours, so that a mass audience is subscribed to the diktat issued from into the Vidhana Soudha the next time assured. When Poojary made his trium­ Delhi. Poojary is a loner, not a groupie. round. To accomplish that, he must get phant, if stage-managed, return to Bang­ He belongs to no specific coterie, no the party camps to unite behind him. alore as KPCC(l) president in Septem­ inside lobby. He is of no particular Can Poojary pull it off? K.N. Nagegow- ber, truckloads of people were trans­ importance in the party hierarchy, and is da, MLC, seems to think so. “All these ported from South Canara and other often left out of important meetings of days, people have been sajfing there is districts to greet him. Some of the the Congress Working Committee. no leader for the Congress(I) in Karnata­ jubilation was genuine. "Paisa denewala Hctis simply not a politician’s politi­ ka. Now that gap has been filled.” aa gaya, ” was the cry that rent the air, cian. He has nothing in common with Nagegowda, who has seen eight as the “poor man’s politician” bobbed Rajiv’s boys. Yet, the Prime Minister KPCC(I) presidents come and go, com­ and waved to the crowds. chose to promote him as minister of pares Poojary to Devaraj Urs. “Just like Beyond his loan mela image, there is state when he came to power in ’84. And him, Poojary has the maximum support little to say about Poojary as minister of Poojary has served him well. He has a from the public and the maximum finance. He is not known to have contri­ near fanatical devotion to the young opposition from within the party,” he buted to any other matters of fiscal Rajiv, quite in keeping with his charac­ says. He thinks, however, that the party . policy, nor is he known for his intellec­ ter. ‘ will have no choice but to rally behind tual abilities, although he was a criminal Allegedly, it was Rajiv Gandhi himself the immensely popular Poojary. lawyer before Veerappa Moily organised who insisted on sending Poojary to Some party leaders are worried that a ticket for him in ’77. “We have never Karnataka with the special concession for all his bragging about his personal had such an unimaginative and unthink­ that he could retain his Union portfolio, probity, Poojary will bring in the chaku ing minister of state for finance,” says inspite of his reluctance to enter the choori Congress culture that was so MLC B. K. Chandrashekhar, one of the nitty gritty of Opposition state politics. inimical to Oscar Fernandes, Veerappa Janata’s counter-Poojary squadmen, un­ The announcement aroused mbced emo­ Moily and others. There are also mild kindly. tions in the warring camps of the faction- allegations that he has cultivated dubious ridden Congress(I) in the state. C.K. friends in the arrack trade. Other critic­ o what has made Poojary survive, Jaffer Sharief, the now derailed minister isms are that Poojary’s loan melas have by his own account, no less than 13 of state for railways, was first off the been nothing but a vehicle for diverting Sreshuffles since ’82, when Indira Gandhimark. He complained that Poojary has money into party coffers. But Poojary picked up the 45-year-old Mangalore been imposed without any consultation scoffs at all these aUegations. “Nobody MP as deputy minister for finance? with state leaders. Later, seven party- has even asked me to collect money for Poojary himself hints that it is because of men, including three MPs, met in a the party, ” he boasts, “and 1 will never his sincerity and hard work. He is proud closed door anti-Poojary session, plot­ compromise. ” of being a self-made man, inspired by the ting trips to Delhi to appeal against his Although he is certainly a rare bird in likes of Lai Bahadur Shastri. “The party presidentship. Poojary had spent the last the Congress(I), it is unclear whether he high command has always reposed its decade in Delhi, he knew little about the is the joker in the pack or a trump card faith in me, and I must live up to their party outfit, he had no mass base in the for the party. When he was surrounded expectations, ” he says. Others are state, they contended. by a cacophony of corruption charges, much less charitable about his long Like all morally self-righteous men, Rajiv Gandhi could have flushed out tenure in the finance ministry. They Poojary is an autocrat. He ruffles well- Poojary. But Poojary sadly lacks the think he has clung on because he is preened feathers without a qualm, finesse of V. P. Singh or even the appeal useful, both as a loan messiah and as a shouting at workers in public. Recently, of an N.D. Tiwari. So he may have to member of the backward class of toddy a DCC(I) president was in tears over the pocket his well-concealed ambitions a tappers, or Bhillavas. way Poojary had insulted him in front of while longer. But Poojary is a survivor, If people are unkind about him, his own constituents. “Our Congress(I) and he has learnt how to wait. however, it may be because he has not workers have their self-respect. But this Rohini Nilekani/Sansra/ore

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