History As Commerce

Out of power for long and short of cash, the Bihar Congress’s desperation has driven it to leasing out its headquarters

PICTURE SPEAK

COVETTED: Congress wants to acquire Dr Rajendra Prasad Museum and lease it out with the ashram Rs 50 cr is the value of the land that BPCC wants to lease out to private developers and builders.

Spread over 20 acres, the ashram complex is split into two parts—one owned by the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) while the other is in the possession of the Bihar Vidyapeeth. But now a part of that glorious history is up for sale and realtors are queuing up to buy. “We have high regards for history but what do we do with the vacant land? We need funds to run the party. We have to save the property from encroachers also. So, if the land is commercially utilised and the money is kept in fixed deposit in bank, both purposes will be served.” says BPCC chief Sadanand Singh.

“We have high regards for history but what do we do with the vacant land?" SADANAND SINGH BPCC CHIEF

Bihar Congress’s desperation for cash is understandable. Ever since it gave way to the Mandal forces in the 1990 assembly elections, the party has been in a decline (it touched a low of just nine seats in the 2005 assembly elections) and its membership has been drying up. Without requisite funds, BPCC is unable to even pay salaries to its 36 staffers at its headquarters. “Salaries and other establishment costs have become a burden,” says BPCC spokesperson Prem Chand Mishra. “Carrying out mass campaigns to revive the party also requires funds,” he adds.

Since the state unit gets a meagre Rs 2 lakh a month from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and the Muzaffarpur District Congress Committee (DCC) contributes Rs 25,000, which amounts to nothing, Singh had to think about leasing this two-acre land, valued at Rs 50 crore, for 100 years. This, he thought, would be the ideal way of making the unit financially fit. He got this idea from the party’s Muzaffarpur unit, which has been exploiting the historic Tilak Maidan commercially for long. Shops have been constructed around the maidan and leased out to several interested parties. DCC now earns Rs 1 lakh per month, one-fourth of which goes into the BPCC kitty.

In this pursuit, Singh found that the party had acquired a number of properties during the freedom movement, whose value is now estimated to be around Rs 400 crore. The land had, at that time, been registered in the name of several party leaders as the British government had been cracking down on the properties owned by the party. And now, the descendants of those leaders do not want to give up on that. For instance, the state party unit has been unable to regain the huge “Congress Maidan” in Patna. Singh, thus, has a tough battle ahead.

Fact is that BPCC has no record of its “glorious history” and of the properties it really owns. Sources say most of the records were destroyed by the British rulers who had captured the ashram in 1932 and 1942. However, the partymen have been able to piece some of the history from the autobiography of Dr Prasad and from the memoirs of Bihar’s first finance minister A.N. Sinha. It has been gauged that Maulana Haq, bar-at-law and an ardent follower of Gandhi, had established the Sadaqat Ashram to set up a school when most of the students boycotted the official universities during the Non-Cooperation Movement. To conduct examinations for these students, Gandhi established the Bihar Vidyapeeth. Later in 1925-26, the Congress shifted its office to the ashram as well, though later it was suggested that the office be shifted out of the Vidyapeeth. Therefore, the party office was established in the eastern part of the ashram.

In 1966, there began a legal struggle with the Congress trying to acquire the portion of land where the “defunct” Vidyapeeth, Dr Rajendra Prasad Museum and the Brajkishore Memorial now stand. The party asserts that since the Sadaqat Ashram was Gandhi’s karmabhoomi, it should not be allowed to fall in the hands of any “fake” organisation. But there are serious doubts over this claim since the party had lost the case in the Supreme Court in 2002.

This, it seems, is not the end of BPCCc’s troubles. Its decision to lease out a large part of land that it owns right now has created ripples among its cadres. Many of its leaders and workers have opposed this move. And not without reason since the world looks upon Sadaqat Ashram as a heritage site. Gajanand (Munna) Shahi, a youth leader, not only resigned from his post of the treasurer but has also demanded that if the party wants to lease out the land so badly, why does it not tie up with reputed groups like Apollo and Max to set up super-speciality hospitals instead of leasing it out to builders and contractors.

In response, Singh says, “Yes. Why not? We are open to all kinds of ideas but the bottom line is that the party needs funds.” He, however, hastens to add that only after the state unit secures permission from AICC would they float a global tender to secure the highest price as well as to ensure transparency in the deal.

It has been often said that the plight of the headquarters often mirrors the plight of the party in the state. The same holds true for the Congress headquarters in Uttar Pradesh. Despite the fact that the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee does not have to depend on the funds doled out by AICC since it gets an estimated Rs 2 crore every three years from its 64 lakh primary members and Rs 1 crore as share from different districts, the walls of Nehru Bhawan, its headquarters, badly need repairs and a whitewash.

The Congress has bitten the dust in both the states. And though the Uttar Pradesh Congress still has nothing to worry about except its political survival, the Bihar Congress has no other option but to sell history for its survival—both political and physical, the reason for which can be that the party high command seems to have more faith in Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav than its own party. At least this is what some leaders seem to think.

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