Interview with Maneka Gandhi TOI 21.11.01

Gerlinde

Might be interesting for all who know India....


Culture Shock

Maneka Gandhi invites controversy. As culture minister she swore to sweep her ministry clean of ‘‘corruption and vested interests’’. However, this was easier said than done, especially since it brought the younger Gandhi bahu in direct confrontation with her elder counterpart, Sonia Gandhi. In the inevitable clash, Maneka Gandhi found herself divested of the culture portfolio and given charge of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation. She spoke to Rashme Sehgal on the reshuffle:

Why were you appointed minister for culture in the first place?

A cabinet reshuffle was taking place. I just got caught in the roll over. From the start, I think I took my job too seriously. That was a mistake. Look at Jagmohan. Ever since he became minister for tourism, he has spent most of his time travelling abroad. Maybe I should have done likewise. The problem is that when there is a great deal wrong with the ministry which one has inherited, I think it is one’s duty to ensure that the wrongdoings are set right. That is what I set out to do.

In the process, you would seem to have ruffled a lot of vested interests.

You could say that. This is an important ministry which projects the face of India around the world. On the third day after becoming minister, I realised that our earnings from tourism had declined by 30 per cent because of unfair ticketing practices. Germany had struck us off their list. Other countries were following suit. Payment in foreign currency by tourists at heritage sites and museums was simply not working because an enormous leakage of revenue was taking place.

I changed that immediately. I also made sure that tickets to important monuments were made interchangeable and could be sold at airports and in hotels. I also insisted that all important international monuments be closed on the same day, which was Monday.

You seem to have kicked up a controversy in the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). What was the problem there?


Misappropriation to the tune of Rs 600 crore has taken place in the IGNCA. The CAG report on this misappropriation has been glossed over for the last three years. I just handed the whole case over to the CBI. Let them do a thorough investigation on these goings on.

Books in their library have been bought but not listed. IGNCA had rented fifteen flats in Asiad. These were not being used by scholars and professors but were further sublet to politicians. I had these leases cancelled. A huge sum of money was spent on buying microfishes which remain unlisted.

From the staff of 300 people in IGNCA, 270 belong to the C and D category. There are only 30 professors. Over 87 per cent of the budget of the IGNCA was being spent on administration and four per cent on academia.
You are also unhappy with the functioning of the Nehru Memorial Library (NML).
The NML is a government-funded library. The Nehru Memorial Trust (NMT) which runs this library is however a private trust. The NMT executive with Sonia Gandhi as chairperson is running the library. The NML gets an annual grant of Rs 4.5 crore. The whole question of fund utilisation remains a grey area. I wouldn’t be surprised if money from here was being used to fund other Rajiv Gandhi Foundation projects.

Sonia Gandhi is the Congress party president. She is also leader of the opposition party in Parliament. She reportedly had a meeting with the prime minister recently where she discussed the entire issue.
I am not trying to make this into any kind of a personal vendetta. But I certainly believe that the leader of the opposition had a very strong hand in my transfer. I don’t know what the quid pro quo was with her and the prime minister. I just hope that it benefits India. If it does, then it is fine.

You also ordered an enquiry into the whole system of scholarships, didn’t you?

The ministry of culture has given scholarships to an eight-year-old. The moot question is, why? Another recipient of a scholarship was Harivansh Rai Bachchan. The ministry has been giving him Rs 7,500 per month for the last seven years.
I pointed out that instead of giving scholarships to individuals in their 70s and 80s, it made more sense to give them to people running gheranas like Kelucharan Mahapatra who has trained thousands of dancers. Give it to people or institutions who are spreading knowledge to hundreds of others. So, I had instituted a change in the scholarship scheme.
Or take the example of the Lalit Kala Akademi where an unprecedented Rs 41 lakh was being spent on holding their elections. That is ten times the amount that I spend on my own Lok Sabha election. I told them that I would make a proper roll call so that elections were above board.

What about the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) and the National Museum?

For the first time in 52 years, I had paintings purchased by the NGMA listed out. Needless to say, 141 paintings did not have the signature of the artist. Hundreds that were bought were works of bureaucrats. It was the same story all over again in the National Museum. There is no proper listing of items. It is taking scholars 2-5 years to get access to rare documents while relatives of people working in the library were being provided access for months and months. All kinds of bizarre books were being written by people working in the museum. They were charging the library lakhs of rupees for their efforts.

I had requested Dr B N Goswami, a respected museumologist, to head an advisory committee to look into the whole issue. In the same way, I had the amount for NGMA’s annual purchase of art increased from Rs 14 lakh to Rs 2 crore.

But didn’t you know you were going to rub the RSS the wrong way by giving the green signal for an exhibition of M F Husain’s works?

Husain had done a great deal of work on Kerala for Amitabh Kant. This work was seen by the president of India. We were only planning to showcase that work one week after the Picasso exhibition was kicked off in the National Museum. The Husain show was going to be held in the NGMA.

Did the French actually insist that no exhibition of Indian artists be held during the Picasso show?

Yes, they did. But I refused to agree to their terms. I asked, would they agree to similar terms, if we brought our masterpieces to their country?