Vasundhara Raje: Woman in a hurry

Vasundhara Raje has been praised for reforms in labour laws and a new card to transfer benefit payments, but has her government taken on too much

The Indian state, when roused from its devotion to the trinity of form-filling, precedent and referrals to special committees, can be a force to behold. A few Saturdays ago, scores of policemen were amassed on the campus of the agricultural university in Udaipur. Every district magistrate and collector in the region appeared to have assembled inside the auditorium. A march past of ministers soon began. White SUVs, usually Tata Safaris, rolled up to the entrance and a minister stepped out. SUVs have replaced the Ambassador as the car of choice of provincial officialdom, complete with odd frilly white curtains. Nearby, a man was giving the boundary wall a fresh lick of red paint.

A little later, a cavalcade of SUVs signalled Vasundhara Raje, Rajasthan’s chief minister since last December, had  arrived. The bouquets of roses handed to her were passed on to her security who insouciantly tossed them onto the roof of an SUV. Raje, 61, briskly walked inside to begin a three-hour long meeting with ministers and officials to plan the ‘Sarkaar Aapke Dwar’ (the government at your doorstep) programme to listen to the concerns and complaints of villagers over the next ten days in the districts around Udaipur. It is the third such effort in the past few months, following similar initiatives in Bikaner, earlier this summer in 50-degree Celsius heat, and Bharatpur.

Vasundhara Raje has a meal at Gadariya Bas village

  A couple of days later, 7,000 villagers had congregated under a giant shamiana in Kherwara, more than 80 km from Udaipur, to meet Raje. Ahead of her arrival, the state’s Public Works Department Minister Yunus Khan was trying to bring order. Complaints were triaged: people were first directed to officials from relevant departments and if they were not satisfied, to Khan himself or the special secretary to the chief minister, K K Pathak.  If they were still not happy, they could speak to the chief minister. Using a microphone, a harassed Khan said, “Promise me you will not break the discipline and will not rise from your seats.”

Dressed in a green sari, Raje went straight to the stage. Annoyed after hearing repeated complaints about villagers not being able to obtain birth and death certificates, she launched into the local officials. “There have been instances where families have not been given death certificates for people who died in 1996. Why are such cases pending? Patwaris (village-level revenue officers) should go to the people and not vice versa,” Raje said angrily to loud cheers from the crowd.

Raje then met with scores of people, spending half a minute with each for the next two hours. Most spoke about the lack of usable roads leading to the villages, scarcity of water and persistent power cuts. The villagers had waited so long to be heard, they were both impassioned and patient. A woman who complained about the illicit liquor store in her village was asked by Raje to enroll in the government’s Bhamashah biometric card scheme, launched on August 15, to transfer benefits to the female head of the household, a bold gamble in a state known to be sexist. The state’s officials say the card trumps Aadhaar because it will come linked with a bank account; the card will be issued with participating banks on hand to enroll people.  “Now the men of the house will realise your importance,” Raje said.