Political leader plans to aid India’s poor

Press, 2 July 1983, Page 6

Political leader plans to aid India’s poor

NZPA New Delhi The Opposition leader, Mr Chandra Shekhar, said he would set up centres throughout India to build up a grassroots organisation to help the poor. Mr Shekhar, who had completed a 4000 km walk across India, emulating the marathon marches of the independence leader, Mahatma Gandhi, in the 19405, is trying to pioneer a fundamental shift in Indian politics in favour of those living in the country’s dusty and poverty-stricken villages. Mr Shekhar, aged 56, president of the Janata (People’s) Party, which ruled India from 1977 to 1980, told a mass rally that he wanted implementation of a five-point programme to help the down-trodden. His plan includes providing drinking water to every Indian village within the next three years, basic health facilities especially for nursing and expectant mothers, encouraging child education, justice for oppressed minorities, and support for communal integration projects. Earlier, at the Delhi memorial to Gandhi, he urged supporters to “harness people’s power to bring about a just and humane social order.” He said at a press conference that he would recruit young people to man a series of centres across India to help the poor at village level. More than 200 million of India’s 700 million population live below the official poverty line. Mr Shekhar, looking weary after his six-month walk which began at Kanyakumari on the southern tip of India, was given a warm welcome when he entered Delhi. More than 40,000 people and several opposition leaders attended his rally. Political analysts said that a possible motive for

his marathon was to boost his popularity as an opposition figure. The Janata Party was formed by five parties to oppose Mrs Indira Gandhi’s Congress (I) Party shortly before the 1977 General Election which came after two years of emergency rule. The Janata swept to power, but collapsed in 1979, because of differences between leaders within the alliance. Non-Communist opposition groups have been trying recently to combine again, although personal and ideological differences among leaders continue to stand in the way. A conclave of opposition heads including several state chief Ministers in South India last month was seen as a step towards reunifying the anti-Gandhi opposition. Mr Shekhar has said that he will devote more time to running his centres throughout India than to being engaged in routine politics. He said that a change of government would not lead to social change. Wide news media coverage and public interest on his marathon walk have, however, focused attention on the soft-spoken bearded leader, who wears white homespun cotton clothes. It also won him the admiration of many for what the “Hindustan Times” described in an editorial as a commendable departure from the politician’s life oi luxury and comfort.