Indore, an outsider perspective

Indore evokes a grudging admiration in rest of Madhya Pradesh. Its opulence makes people rate their own city (Jabalpur, Bhopal and Gwalior) as ‘different’ in comparison.
By ‘different’ they often mean inferior in most parameters of progress but would not admit so. Instead, they would indefensibly extol their respective city’s ‘virtue’ of ‘not running crazy after money’ unlike Indore. In the same
vein, however, they might blurt out praise for Indore’s historical advantages in promoting entrepreneurship in business, politics, media, etc vis-à-vis the city they belong.

I have come across very few people in Bhopal and Jabalpur (the cities where I spent most of my life so far) who don’t have an opinion about Indore. And most opinions betray a sense of personal misfortune for inability to partake a bit of Indore’s fabulous riche. Slightly jealous of Indore’s prosperity, they seem to wallow in the vicarious pleasure of denigrating the Indoreran.
The sneer manifests itself in countless jokes about Indore’s insatiable lust for money, ‘gluttony’ for Poha-Jalebi and the 56- shops, racketeering of media people and funny anecdotes about its politicians.
One 24-year-old hilarious incident has endured while a lot many are forgotten.
A student leader-turned- MLA from Indore led a delegation of nurses to then chief minister Motilal Vora in 1987.
“ Babuji, ( as Vora used to be reverentially addressed) these nurses have been running from pillar to post for years. Please pregnant them.” Vora, a humourless septuagenarian, was appalled. The MLA insisted that CM immediately make them pregnant. Others in the delegation were shocked.
After a many embarrassing moments, it dawned
on the chief minister that the MLA was, in fact, demanding that he order to make these temporary nurses permanent. These are other equally funny jokes about English of the politician.
When you mention Indore, a Jabalpurean would first curse Mahakoshal politicians from DP Mishra to Kamal Nath to his heart content for doing nothing for the region and add admiringly “Indore Ke Neta Aese
Nahi Hai.” By this, he means Indore politicians might be as venal (even more) as theirs, but, “Woh Apne Logon Aur Kshetra Ka Poora Khayal Rakhate Hain.”
Though without a demonstrable basis, the belief about Indore politicians being more caring for their people and region has made a deep impression on collective psyche of rest of Madhya Pradesh.
Anecdotes, often exaggerated and apocryphal, about ‘Indore-first’ politicians from PC Sethi to Kailash Vijayvargiya are animatedly mentioned to drive home the point why Indore has progressed so fast and other MP cities have lagged behind.
When you talk Indore with bureaucrats (IAS, IPS officers) in Bhopal, many would instantly feign disdain for a government servant’s political connection to stress why they won’t be posted in Indore.
Without needing a push, they would reel out names of successive collectors in Indore and ask, “Haven’t they all been there because of proximity to the chief minister of the day?”
To buttress this point they would mention four former Indore collectors whose next posting was commissioner, public relations, in Bhopal.
This post is considered not only an interlocutor between the
government and media but also of a ‘wise mole’ of the chief minister to keep the master updated about goings- on in the rival political camps within and outside the ruling party.
Former commissioner, public relations, Dr Bhagirath Prasad, SR Mohanti, Manoj Shrivastava and incumbent commissioner Rakesh Shrivastava have been Indore collector. Ajit Jogi’s long jump from Indore collector’s post to Rajya Sabha in 1986 was a trendsetter in bureaucrats joining politics.
No need to go that deep into history. Two predecessors of incumbent Indore collector – Vivek Aggrawal and Rakesh Shrivastava-- are among chief minister’s most trusted bureaucrats. The first is in the CM secretariat and the second commissioner, public relations.
No other collector is more in the media scan than Indore’s for good or bad reasons in Madhya Pradesh. It is a widely held assumption in the corridors of powers that Indore has an uncanny capacity to corrupt its collectors and SPs. Bhagirath Prasad was considered clean when he was
collector in Jabalpur in mid eighties. A couple of years after he was shifted to Indore, people’s perception about his incorruptibility changed. People in MP were awestruck by myriad stories of retired IPS officer Panna Lal’s honesty and terror. But a few years as SP in Indore and the ‘honest terror’ was seen as a “mellowed” man.
No SP or collector in MP’s remaining 49 districts makes as strong a wave in state powerhouse as Indore’s does. It is because the Indore collector’s actions are seen as an extension of the chief minister’s political strategies.
When Manoj Shrivastava ordered demolition of Raj
Towers during Digvijay Singh’s regime, the message implicit in it was that powerful Sanghvis, who had raised the illegal building, were no longer in the good books of the CM.
The recent drive against builders, most prominently Bobby Chhabra by the district administration, was, in fact, a political move of the chief minister to silence the opposition about his government’s alleged complicity with the builder mafia.
Two decades ago the then chief minister Sundar Lal Patwa had also sent across a strong political message by ordering annihilation of notorious don Bala Baig’s ‘evil empire’ in Indore’s Mambai Bazaar that housed all sorts of illegal activities from gambling to prostitution.
Indore has come handy for successive chief ministers to dip into its vast resources for furthering their political ambitions too.
In Bhopal’s political-bureaucratic-media circles, stories about Indore politicians’ inexhaustible resources for event managements are a legion. As chief minister, Digvijay Singh banked on his Indore connection, particularly his Man Friday Mahesh Joshi, to organize historic AICC convention in Pachmarhi in 1998.
Four-vehicles bearing MP- 09 of varying sizes and models lugged paraphernalia in astonishing number –from cooks and tents to fridges and ACs—to Pachmarhi.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi was pleased with Digvijay for successful conclave and Digvijay, in turn, smugly reassured himself that his political investment in Indore was worth it.
Likewise, when newly nominated BJP president Nitin Gadkari needed his formal coronation to be remembered for long, he chose Indore for that. The BJP national executive in April , 2010 was in the news less for
the deliberations held there and more for the ‘white tent city’ erected in the outskirt of Indore.
The delegates returned marveling at the vast array of workers thrown in to make the event a huge success
by industry minister Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Both Vijayvargiya and chief minister Shivraj Singh earned praise from the BJP high command. Indore provided a big boost to Chouhan’s ambition to emerge as a national leader, thanks to the conclave.
In fact, carting workers in thousands in long fleets of garish cutout-bedecked vehicles to parade individual strength is a long tradition in Indore. Other cities too have adopted this tradition but Indore remains unmatched in terms of razzmatazz and resources.
One remarkable aspect of political life of Indore is that moneybags generously finance politicians of all hues but don’t take a direct plunge in party politics. They stay away from being identified with one particular party for obvious reason.
Arjun Singh faced allegations of extending political patronage to Ruchi Soya’s Kailash Shahra. Digvijay Singh’s only brush with the law after he was ousted was due to his government’s alleged favour to industrialist Subhash Gupta and builder Manish Kalani of Treasure Island. The EOW, however, could not gather any substantial evidence to prosecute Digvijay Singh in the two
cases.
Remarkably, none of the big politicians from Indore is from rich and elite class. The Holkars and their descendants studiously remained apolitical, unlike Scindias, though the Indore rulers have been extremely popular as philanthropists.
The political arena is left for middle and lower middle class politicians to rule. Almost all Indore politicians hail from middle and lower middle class.
They are quintessential Hindi-speaking, down-to-earth men and women whose primary capital is workers’ support.
Early politicians too were either trade union leaders or freedom fighters. Most notable among them was comrade Homi Daji, who surprised the nation by entering Lok Sabha from this conservative city on CPI ticket in 1962 election. Later PC Sethi, a clerk-turned-politician dominated the Indore politics for well over three decades till he was
defeated in 1989 by the then homemaker from middle class Maharashtrian family Sumitra Mahajan in Lok Sabha election.
Suresh Seth, Chandra Prabhash Shekhar, Mahesh Joshi, Lalit Jain, Yagya Dutt Sharma were also Indore faces in Bhopal as powerful ministers.
Each had his own peculiar image. Seth was known as an outspoken leader whose ride on elephant to the state assembly during the Janata Party rule is a part of MP’s political folklore. He has bounced back in the
news after two decades for taking on Kailash Vijayvargiya in the Sugni Devi land scam.

Mahesh Joshi’s influence lasted longest among Indore’s politicians , primarily because this one-time Sanjay Gandhi acolyte had been afforded all the freedom to rule the city as an uncrowned king by Digvijay Singh in the latter’s 10 years as chief minister.
Joshi largely basked in Digvijay’s reflected glory even as the four-decade- old Congress citadel had begun to crack in 1989.
Journalists in Bhopal got to see a new crop of Indore politicians in the state assembly after the 1990 assembly elections. Like the previous ones, all these BJP politicians were from lower and middle classes.
They rode piggyback on the massive Ayodhya wave to the state assembly. They were street-smart and fiercely pro-Hindutva.
Kailash Vijayvargiya emerged as the most vocal and popular among them. He easily befriended journalists in Bhopal and made a splash in the house by his earthy humour-tinged oratorical skills. He sings well
too, particularly bhajans. The singing has also helped Kailash rise. Now he has filled the space which Mahesh Joshi occupied once.
Post Ayodhya and post-liberalisation, Indore has begun to resemble more and more like Mumbai. The co-existence of dormant virulence of communal politics with proliferating malls has redefined Indore. This undesirable wedding of the money and communalism has also given rest
of MP one more reason to crack crude jokes at Indore’s expense. But, again, like Mumbai, Indore’s resilience is phenomenal.
Despite communal divide, its entrepreneurship is redoubtable.
During childhood, we used to play an indoor game
‘Vyapar’ during summer vacations. The play had various big cities valued in terms of money. Premium on Indore used to be the lowest. But we, the children in Jabalpur, used to take pride in the fact that at least one city from Madhya Pradesh figures among top business cities of India.
It is only when I grew older that opinion about Indore changed. Now that I am working here, I hope to have my views changed by vibrant Indore about itself.