Emergency Chronicles by Prakash Gyan;

Author:Prakash, Gyan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2018-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

The “People’s Car”

Affordable or not, the long discussed and delayed “people’s car” project finally began taking shape by the end of 1968. A week after Sanjay applied for an industrial license on December 11, 1968, things moved swiftly. The “License Raj” shook off its notoriously glacial pace and roared into action. The details are eye-opening. Bansi Lal, the Haryana strongman and wily politician, who saw a political opportunity in hitching his wagon to Sanjay, wrote a week later to Haryana’s minister of industry confirming the state government’s decision to allot land, electricity, and money for the project.53 In August 1970, a month before Sanjay was granted the letter of intent, Bansi Lal had directed his subordinates to show the aspiring automobile entrepreneur possible sites for his factory. Accordingly, senior Haryana civil servants drove to the prime minister’s residence at 1 Safdarjang Road and fetched Sanjay so that he could inspect various properties. This was on September 23, 1970, a week prior to the issuance of the letter of intent. In anticipation of his formal request for land, the Haryana Town and Country Planning officials had already begun rezoning lands previously classified as rural to industrial.

On November 14, Sanjay submitted a formal application for land. He requested three hundred acres for his factory on the Delhi-Gurgaon Road on a lease basis, proposing the payment in installments, with the first one due five years after acquisition of the land. Four days later, R. K. Dhawan called and asked the Haryana officials to dispatch the plan of allotted lands. The very next day, the plan was sent to the prime minister’s residence. A small hitch cropped up. The administrators found that Sanjay’s application for land was not sufficiently detailed and prepared a letter asking for a fully fleshed-out plan. But instead of sending a letter, an official called Dhawan, asking him to convey the objection to Sanjay. Meanwhile, the central government minister of industries Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed suddenly discovered his spine and objected to the lease terms proposed by Sanjay. But Bansi Lal intervened and directed his officials to send a reply to Sanjay, agreeing to his terms. No more details were needed. When Sanjay objected that the inclusion of a residential sector for workers in the demarcated area was a recipe for labor trouble, which would impede the smooth functioning of the factory, the officials complied and removed the offending housing plan.

The Haryana land acquisition officer initially objected that the proposed acquisition included fertile, agricultural lands. But senior officials brushed aside his objections. They were following orders from Bansi Lal, who told them that Sanjay had complained about the delay and that he wanted the lands handed over promptly. On July 3, 1971, Sanjay, Bansi Lal, and Haryana officials had a meeting to go over the details of the land acquisition. Sanjay, backed by Bansi Lal, dictated the terms. The land would be acquired and handed over to him a week later, the latest by July 10 or 11, 1971. The price of acquisition was to be recovered with a 10 percent down payment and eighteen installments.

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