Nistula Hebbar: Can glib talk do the trick?

BACKSTAGE

Jaipal Reddy, Congress MP from Mariyalguda in Andhra Pradesh and minister for urban development, has variously been the spokesperson of the Janata Dal, the United Front and Third Front and the Congress party as well. What he had to hear on Wednesday (September 20) night from Congress MLAs from Delhi, however, left him short of words for once.

Reddy, known for convoluted sentences and introducing the word "humungous" into the parliamentary lexicon, has now come up against the intractable problem of Delhi's urban mess that even he can't talk himself out of. On one side were a group of citizens fighting a legal battle against encroachment of urban spaces and violations of by-laws, and on the other, scores of traders and shopkeepers who had violated these laws and were in danger of losing their livelihood.

Reddy had delegated the sealing and demolition issue to Ajay Maken, his junior colleague. Maken had, through two pieces of legislation, tried to get some order into the chaos. The Supreme Court however, insisted that sealing operations should continue while it would look into the merits of the notifications issued by the government.

Reddy, who had till now happily relied on Maken to apply his mind, also had to face irate Delhi MLAs, who saw their pockets of influence being eroded.

Reddy once again relied on his verbal skills to pacify his partymen. He announced that he was prepared to call a special session of the Union Parliament to clear yet another Bill on the sealing issue. What he had not bargained for, was that senior Congressmen and his own Cabinet colleagues were opposed to a special session of Parliament, and, were not keen to directly confront the Supreme Court.

It was finally left to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to announce the setting up of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the issue. Considering the fact that the urban development minister's job is primarily taking care of Delhi's urban spaces, it was not just a comment on the intractability of the problem but also on Reddy's competence in dealing with it.

The affidavit that the centre finally filed in the Supreme Court on Friday, defending its September 7 notification of changes in the master plan, reflected the PM's middle-of-the-road thinking as opposed to the promises that Reddy made to Delhi MLAs.

Delhi's urban chaos was not created by Reddy, but he has been given a chance to do something about it. The humiliation faced by the centre in each and every one of its legal battles on the issue, just points to the fact that in law, unlike in politics, the devil is in the details. It will take more than Reddy's verbal skills to get out of this one.