Tughlaq lives

Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the Turkic sultan who ruled Delhi in early 14th century, has gone down in history as a learned but foolish morch. A scholar of logic, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, physical sciences, medicine and calligraphy, he was also fluent in several languages including Sanskrit. Tughlaq’s failed attempt to set up a second capital in Devagiri (now Daulatabad) by transferring the entire population of Delhi over a distance of 1,500 km at huge cost, is a lesson in avoiding pitfalls in decision making. But in modern India, there still are administrators in the Tughlaq mould. In the latest such instance,  the Harya government has ‘realised’ that marketing agricultural produce through farmer-specific agro-malls, is not ‘practical’. After over Rs 200 crore was blown up on this hare-brained scheme, it turns out that the malls meant for rural folk were set up in urban areas; these attracted neither farmers nor city consumers. The present BJP government is blaming the earlier Congress government for this monumental dud, and getting ready to convert the agro-malls into general malls, ‘whose revenue would be utilized for the welfare of farmers’.