Monday, July 29, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Those NDA Days
THE BRILLIANCE OF
SMS AND GD
To start off with, we had with us Surendra Mohan Singh
Rathore of Sainik School Kunjpura, Karnal in India Squadron. The innate sense
of humour, its timing, sense of rhyme and poetry and a vast collection of comic
incidents involving his teachers, which he brought with him from school had in
it the makings of an accomplished stand up comedian; much before the hackneyed
artists in the dime a dozen shows, which one gets to see on the sponsored pay
channels of Indian TV. At a time when we as first termers were finding our
bearings and looking as lost as one can be, in the enormity of the NDA and its
labyrinthine corridors; SMS, as he had been christened by us all, was busy
studying the mannerisms and idiosyncrasies of seniors, appointments,
instructors, teachers and officers in an effort to imbibe their gait, speech,
accent, grammar, delivery, body language, expressions and humour in the officiousness
of authority, as was wont to be their charge. When, the spirits were low and
the body exhausted from physical extremes such as we had never experienced, and
the strains of ‘IF’ were our sole hope of “even this shall pass”, SMS used to
draw upon his huge talent and facility to make light of almost everything. The
drudgery and pain of the moment used to be trashed in the humour produced by
him. A hearty burst of laughter or else a quiet chortle on our lips when in the
presence of officialdom, was an ideal rejuvenator which restored sanity in our
beings amidst a barmy assortment of organizational hierarchy. Sandesh Kumar
Prashar, an alumnus of St George’s College Mussoorie, whose father Lt Col
Prithvi Chand, MVC is more popularly known in the annals of military history as
the saviour of Ladhak, was our course senior. He had the unique ability to
speak without opening his mouth and words slipped from between one side of his
lips, in a mystery of human architecture and wonder of bio mechanics. Sandy is
a dear friend and this is meant to be in the spirit of camaraderie, than fun at
his cost. No hard feelings, brother. SMS was always rubbing Sandy on his
uniqueness and caricaturing him in his actions and we all then being wet behind
the ears, made the former an object of our devious entertainment.
The NDA was then a destination of posting for one of its
most exciting and well remembered Deputy Commandant, Colonel Hari Kishan Kumar
Shukla of the Kumaon Regiment. He along with his wife were the most visible
faces to be seen snooping around Squadrons after lights out. For those cadets
who had something going on for them in the privacy of their cabins with the
venetian blinds pulled down and closed, the sudden appearance of HKK Shukla
would jolt them out of their skins and jump into spontaneous attention. In a
brief period of his having been around in the NDA, HKK had carved a reputation
for himself as a Mr ‘X’. A movie character played with great élan by the doyen
of Hindi cinema, Ashok Kumar Ganguly. One who could appear anytime in the most
improbable of places to pounce upon those who transgressed rules. HKK and his
wife were more of nocturnal people who roamed the avenues, boulevards and
esplanades of NDA in the olive green coloured Chevrolet Staff Car, which was
driven by an overtime paid civilian driver. Hailing from the ancient culture of
Awadhi lifestyle, HKK and his wife were very fond of chewing on tobacco
flavoured pan and betel nut, the juice from which often trickled down their
chin whenever they attempted to speak. Quite reminiscent of the manner in which
‘Lucknavi Nawabs’ of yester years looked and spoke when watching nautch girls
doing a seductive mujra. It was in those days of our stay here that another
blessing visited India Squadron, in the person of Gagan Deep Bakshi,who was
transferred from Charlie to India Squadron. GD as we all know him from those
days is another talented and gifted person, who complemented SMS in their joint
ability to mimic and caricature people.
SMS and GD had made it their one point agenda to lampoon
HKK, whenever an opportunity to do so presented itself. The campfires and end
of term socials were occasions when the two would combine their talents to have
fun at the Deputy Commandant’s cost. It was no surprise that the audience would
then be tickled and entertained as never before and the venue would often
witness a roar of laughter coming from the cadets, officers and their wives.
This phenomenon had become so commonplace that, the Academy authorities had to
resort to passing a gag order on SMS and GD from any further Lampooning of HKK.
But the two, incorrigible as they were then, continued to devise and
manufacture opportunities to take on HKK and publicly snicker at him, under the
subterfuge of entertainment. The famous parody of our times in the NDA, which
Chortled HKK was written and sung by this duo and it ran thus – “Koi Bhi D Day
Hota Nahin Hai Poora, Jab Tak Na Dekha Deputy Ka Chhera”.
It was during the time of Rear Admiral RK Batra as
Commandant, that the NDA Day was to be celebrated among other things, with a
fancy dress item presented by cadets in the main entrance to the revered SUDAN
BLOCK. No one knew what was to happen at the fateful evening and fancy dress
presentations were made in the alphabetical order of Squadrons. Mediocrity soon
gave way to brilliance when it was the turn of India Squadron, to hold centre
stage. Nothing happened for a while and the SCC and CSM anxiously looked around
for the dramatis personae to arrive. But still there was no sign of anyone in
the vicinity, till the lone yellow and black coloured taxi which used to be
parked in the GOLE market was spotted approaching the venue from the NTT short
cut road. It was driven by Pillai, its owner and making way for it to pull over
at the steps of the SUDAN BLOCK was a smartly dressed GD in Walking Out,
shouting aloud “Make Way”. None knew who was inside the car and what the matter
was. Then the door was opened by GD and SMS emerged from it dressed in a white
lungi, OG shirt with the badges of rank of a Colonel and full accoutrements
including the Sam Browne belt of those days and a Peaked Cap with the distinctive
red band around it. The feet were in slippers and a baton was tucked under his
left armpit. Over his shoulders was slung an NDA issue satchel and a barber’s
sling bag, with all its tools inside. The NDA satchel had a measuring tape and
a pair of tailors scissors inside. SMS’ hair, as was visible under the Cap was
suitably whitened to give him the resemblance of HKK and a trickle of pan juice
adorned his mouth and chin. The Academy broke out into a roar of laughter and
this became SMS’ cue to enact the character of HKK, complete with expletives,
bullshit, gesticulations and finger pointing. At some he would dig into his bag
to recover the barber’s scissors and chop a lock here and a curl there, while
at others he would open his measuring tape to measure the bottom width of their
mufti and walking out trousers. And doing so, he climbed up the stairs to confront
HKK. The piece de resistance of this play acting was when SMS bent down to
measure HKK’s trouser bottoms and said that since these were not regulation pattern
18” wide, these would have to be chopped off with the scissors that he was
wielding. The Academy was bursting at its seams, the ladies were falling over
each other in a hysteria of laughter and HKK though red faced with
embarrassment was shaking hands with SMS for his brilliant lampoon act. Mrs
Batra, the Commandant’s wife couldn’t help but hand over the best prize to SMS,
who had become the bête noire of HKK.
SMS and GD continued to shock and lampoon seniors and
officers even while they were in the IMA, Dehra Dun. GD, when he had just
joined the IMA as a fresher in the third term, impersonated the Duty Officer
and got the BCA of Charlie Battalion front rolling, in front of Imphal Company
barracks. These two did what most cannot even dream of, but survived owing to their daring and faith in their
expertise, which defies odds even when these were loaded against them. This is
what made them good and gifted officers who lived their careers with
forthrightness and gumption. When the history of India Squadron is written, the
names of SMS and GD will always have a place for themselves in its pages, adjacent
to NJC Nair; another hero who immortalised the credo of the NDA ‘SERVICE BEFORE
SELF’.
Brigadier Sarvesh
Dangwal
7554/ 39 / India Sqn
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
The Truth Catches Up
KALMADI SHOWN THE DOOR FOR
GOOD
While the supposed final nail in the coffin of the
credentials of Mr Suresh Kalmadi, as a sports aficionado and administrator has
been put, with his loss in the elections held to select the President of the
Amateur Athletics Association of Asia (AAA); it is a wonder when the
investigating and judicial authorities in the country will charge and prosecute
him for his intent to cheat and criminally profit from contracts, given to
suppliers during the 2010 Commonwealth Games. It is said of the law that it
moves like an ass, but the prolonged delay in framing a charge sheet to proceed
against Kalmadi for his acts of commission and omission is a tad too long and
inexplicable. The tragedy of the country is its recalcitrance and dithering to
act against venal and criminally culpable politicians, goons who help make the
fortunes of politicians, celebrities and those corporate houses, which curry
favour with the league of scoundrels.
The memory of Kalmadi, shown on television and
threatening the channel with a defamation suit in the courts of the Capital,
seems so ironical now, with his stature and power cut to size by his political
party and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which he headed for 15 years.
His, probably last attempt to resurrect himself as a sports administrator, by
seeking a fourth tenure as President of the AAA did not work out for him. Even
though he has the reputation of being able to pull the rabbit out of the hat,
his defeat must have surprised quite a many of those whom he had cultivated by
dispensing favours and offering freebies, while he was in power and wielded
authority. One wonders if providence intervened in the process of these
elections, wherein 7 votes were declared invalid in a close margin of 20 - 18, which
Brigadier Hamad won. The result of these elections was a great relief for the
sportspersons of India, who were saved their dignity and pride. Kalmadi, would
no more haunt and cast his pompous shadow over the firmament of athletics,
which had at one time propelled him to his grip over the coveted chair of
President IOA.
The fall of Kalmadi from grace was as meteoric as was his
rise, when he rose from the ranks of the Youth Congress into mainstream
politics and jettisoned his association with his mentor and Maratha strongman
Sharad Pawar, to create his own coterie and political following. His tenure as
a parliamentarian brought him into the corridors of power in Delhi and like
some others of his ilk, was sucked into the power game of sports
administration. His first port of entry was the Indian Amateur Athletics
Association (IAAF), from where he leap frogged into the domain of the IOA and
held sway till he was put into the Tihar Jail, in the wake of alleged
corruption charges slapped against him by the country’s top investigating
agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Kalmaid’s political fortunes were on the rise and he even
held the portfolio of a Railway Minister in Rajeev Gandhi’s government. He had
very assiduously cultivated his parliamentary constituency, Pune and continues
to represent it in the Lok Sabha. The Congress – NCP alliance government, which
is presently in Maharashtra, has in it Kalmadi loyalists from Pune. Therefore,
quite understandably, there was a mass demonstration and rallies were taken out
in support of Kalmadi, when he was released on bail from the Tihar Jail. To his
following, this man could do no wrong and had given to Pune its modern look and
infrastructure. One wonders, what will be the outcome, when he contests the
general elections, which are just around the corner in 2014. Given the standing
of the pathetic opposition to the Congress Party’s most likely candidate, which
most probably will be Kalmadi, it is unlikely that he could be defeated and
will yet again be elected to the Lok Sabha. It seems, corruption continues to
remain a non issue with the Indian electorate, which discounts this failing in our
polity as a minor lapse.
However, irrespective of what happens in the battle of
the ballot, as and when it takes place: the Indian sporting fraternity is happy
and pleased with the outcome of the result to the post of the President AAA. It
now seems that all routes for Kalmadi’s return into sports administration have
been effectively blocked. To me personally, this gives great joy because while
I was in service in the Army Sports Control Board (ASCB), he handed out very
shoddy treatment to those who stood up to his devious machinations and
realpolitik in Indian sports and indulged those who were willing to suck up to
his fiat, even when it was detrimental to the interests of the parent
organization they served in and sports. Kalmadi, had a knack of cultivating
those who were weak of spine and convictions and sucked up to him for
egotistical reasons. He used his protocol as a parliamentarian to exploit the
resources of the Army and the Services and gave scant respect to the
organizational hierarchy. Of course part of the blame rests with those who were
happy to ride his bandwagon, but that was how he practiced his expediency and
politics in sports management and administration.
It is a welcome
news for the country, that the heavyweight which Kalmadi had become in the
firmament of Indian Sports, has finally been shown the door.
Brigadier S D Dangwal
5339, W 64th Street
Ridgeview Drive
Edina
Minneapolis
Minneasota,
US of A
Saturday, June 29, 2013
The Ruin of Uttarakhand
THE HEDGE THAT EATS ITS OWN LAWN – THE UTTARAKHAND GOVERNMENT
We, Dangwals, who hail from the village of Khasetti in
the Bhilangana valley, in Ghansalli tehsil of Tehri Garhwal are like many
others from Uttarakhand, who have migrated from the hills to the plains, many
years back. Albeit, the migration still continues, only because the reason for
doing so continues to remain and torment the young and the old, alike.
Development, as one understands its apparent and implied meaning has not
touched the heartland of Uttarakhand, in the manner and content it should have,
since the inception of the State. The empty and hollow promises that were made
and given to the credulous people of the hills for carving out Uttarakhand from
Uttar Pradesh, were just but slogans, motivated by political expediency, than genuine concerns
which impacted life and living in the mountains.
A commission into
the Army and the Garhwal Rifles in 1971, just prior to the momentous war fought
in erstwhile East Pakistan and the Western Front, gave me an opportunity to
understand and serve with the ‘Bhullas’, who hail from the interiors and hill
regions of the State. These boys and men are tough, simple, docile, God
fearing, intelligent and morally righteous people, who pride their integrity
and honesty with an exceptional sense of propriety. My own roots and the
penchant to discover my background, enthused me to take as many opportunities
as I could to travel and live with the villagers in Garhwal. Moreover, my
father’s occupation as a forester in the Indian Forest Service and his many
postings in Pauri, Chakrata, Haldwani, Nainital, Utarkashi and Mussoorie had
already given me an exposure to living here, though in the comforts of
bungalows and rest houses and with the perks which attend upon a Forest
officer. Thus, I am privy to life and living in the higher reaches of Garhwal
and understand the trials and tribulations of its people.
It was while I was attending a mountaineering course in
the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, that I got a firsthand look
into the construction of the controversial Tehri Dam, which was conceived as
early as 1950 and was one in the series of Nehru’s ‘Temples of Modern India’.
Tehri township was to be submerged and obliterated from the landscape, in a
watery burial. The road from Rishikesh, Narendra Nagar, Agrakhal and Chamba was
a continuous flow of heavy trucks and material, descending upon the Dam site.
Excavation, blasting, digging, transportation and construction activity was happening on a
24 x 7 mode, to the extreme discomfiture of all those, who knew what a blunder
it was in the making and at the cost of the people, life and its habitat. The
run of the water dams which had been built and were operational upstream on the
Bhagirathi near Uttarkashi, had already disrupted the ecology of the region. But,
the government and its administration was too hardnosed about yielding to any
pressure from the environmentalists and giving a rethink to its flawed
understanding of making rock filled dams of such size and proportions as the
Tehri Dam, in a fragile eco system, such as obtains here. Notwithstanding the
makings of a future disaster in this region, what sunk into my psyche and
understanding was the manner in which the people of this region had been sucked
into the quagmire of insidious corruption, which was flourishing and prospering
under the guise of development. The local people, who were till now not
involved in the shenanigans of the woolly practice of the contractor – engineer
nexus, that prevailed and proliferated exponentially, were diabolically seduced
into the money game of ill gotten wealth. The local farmer, wet behind the ears
entrepreneur and small time shopkeeper gravitated into the whirlpool of easy
money, which was available for plunder and loot from the government’s kitty.
Most had been rubbed off by the unethical practices of cheating, corruption,
venality, lack of rectitude and probity in business dealings. The change was
happening and it was for the worse. The people of this region were reprehensibly
impaled by deviousness and their character took a beating from the happenings
which had engulfed the hills in the wake of the Hydro Electric Projects, that
were mushrooming all over the valleys of Bhagirathi, Bhilangana and the
Alaknanda . What took centuries to make and carve was now being destroyed by
the lure for lucre, irrespective of the means to it. Not only was the
topography of the region changing, but the character and moral uprightness of
its people, which stood out as its distinguished feature had been scarred and
dented in every which way. The generation which was witness to this rampant
change in the mind set of the hill people, became the custodians of the
government’s writ, which ran through its bureaucracy and officialdom in most
aspects of public institutions. This has made Uttarakhand a haven for
corruption, which works from the panchayat, tehsil, block and district level
upwards to subsume the pathetic vision and functioning of the State government.
Today, Uttarakhand has the disgusting and ignoble honour of being the second
most corrupt State, after Uttar Pradesh in the country.
The stink and nausea of brazen corruption in almost all
functions of the revenue, law enforcing and justice dispensing authorities in
the lower level bureaucracy, who provide interface to the people with the
government , is beyond cleansing. The situation has become quite hopeless and
there is despair in the people. Not only has the ecology of the Himalayas been
incontrovertibly fiddled with and destroyed, but the character of its people
been permanently assailed and manipulated to horrendous and pathetic levels of
acceptance. Greed when practiced as a State policy at the cost of symbiotic and
sustainable development, not only kills but it destroys the culture and
character of its people. What Uttar Pradesh could not do to the integrity of the
Garhwalis and the Kumaonis, the government of Uttarakhand has managed to do in
little less than 14 years of its existence. Like the ecology of Uttarakhand,
the character of its people has taken a severe beating at the hands of the Neta
– Babu – Contractor nexus, never to pride itself on its sterling quality of
strength of Character, its once embellishing trait. The manner in which the
huge aid and finances will get utilized in the rehabilitation and reconstruction
programmes, in the aftermath of the situation which prevails in Uttarakhand,
will be a telling testimony to my analysis. Utarakhand today requires President’s
Rule under an able administrator, who can reconstruct and resurrect it to its
glory.
Brigadier S D Dangwal
5339, W 64 Street
Ridgeway Drive
Edina
Minneapolis
Minnesota, 55439
U S A
Tele 612 -747 -5738
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
The Ruin of Uttarakhand
MY HEART CRIES FOR MY PEOPLE AND MY UTTARAKHAND
The humongous tragedy that has struck the affected
districts of Uttarakhand is the beginning of the end of the Congress party in
the State. While in the political system which obtains in the country, the
alternative to the Congress is a Hobson’s choice, and is the BJP. Not that it
is any better than the existing Party, which comprises the government of
Uttarakhand. But, in a morbid political system which abounds in the country and
the States, politics is no more a people’s thing, that provides good governance
and serves the needs and interests of the people. It is about power, arrogance,
venality, self and plunder of the country’s resources, behind the veil of a
republican democracy. This is the manner
in which the National and Regional political parties have interpreted the
meaning and purport of democracy, and have hoodwinked the rural and semi urban
masses by playing the card of religion, caste, creed and faith to ensnare them
into exercising their ballot in favour of one party or the other. Political
empowerment without social and economic empowerment has been the bane of this country.
The Congress which has been in power and has formed the government in the
Centre as also the States, for a greater part of the 65 years since we became
independent from British rule, is the main perpetrator of this imbalance and
has further exacerbated the situation by its flawed policies and a completely
subjective interpretation of secularism in a pluralistic polity. Politics in
India has not evolved but instead either remained stagnant or else deteriorated
to abysmal levels of muscle and money power, which gets factored into the
matrix of a populous vote bank strategy.
When Uttarakhand was given State hood in 1999 and Dehra Dun
became its interim Capital, there was a complete vacuum in political leadership. The able bodied or else those who were
capable and had found their various callings in the country’s mainstream activity in commerce, industry or
public and private service were pre occupied and far removed from the
opportunity that thus arose. Those who were left behind to dabble in kitchen,
local, panchayat and municipal level of politics were thrown up by a quirk of
fate to take centre stage and guide the destiny of Uttarakhand. Thus, the quality of the political leadership
which emerged was inadequate and challenged in its perception, about what
should be the centre of gravity for the inclusive and wholesome development of
Uttarakhand. The bureaucracy which side stepped from the Uttar Pradesh cadre
was average and unaware of the demands of a hill State. The mix of these two
categories of people who were responsible for and entrusted with the governance
of Uttarakhand, made a complete mess of their charge and planned for its
covert destruction.
Real estate and property which had by now established
itself as the main source of wealth elsewhere, in other developing and
progressive States of the country, became a catchment for wealth in Uttarakhand
too. And this is where the combined avarice and lust for lucre in the political
class and the bureaucracy manifested itself. The Neta, Secretary, Collector,
Developer and Builder nexus mushroomed and proliferated in an exponential
manner, virtually raping the natural resources and putting a mix of iron and
concrete where there was none earlier. Sustainable and symbiotic development in
an environmentally and ecologically sensitive zone/area should have been the
bottom line for all developmental work, but who cared? It was the money which
was pouring into the coffers of the government’s representatives, from the
spout of the land and construction mafia, which mattered. This is all that was
of concern to this category of public servants, who have today become the
merchants of death of the thousands who have lost their life in the present
deluge and catastrophe. The topography of the Bhagirathi, Bhilangana and
Alaknanda valleys has been permanently and irreversibly changed by the
construction activity, which has besieged these areas; and all this in the name
of generating hydro electric power from the river waters for the industrial
demands of India. Uttarakhand and its people are paying a huge price for this
demand; by their life and livelihood. How callous and hardnosed can the
government be to those very people whom it has vouched to serve and protect.
While it is not my brief to canvass for the political
fortunes of any political party, but the two governments which were headed by
Narain Dutt Tiwari and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, as also the present one of
Vijay Bahugana, are guilty of the crimes of culpable homicide and of destroying
the livelihood and culture of Garhwal, for which they should be proceeded
against in either the courts of the country or else the people’s court. My heart cries for my people and I appeal to
those who feel similarly, to strengthen social activism against corruption and
plunder of natural resources in Uttarakhand.
Brigadier S D Dangwal
5339,W 64th Street
Ridgeview Avenue
Edina
Minneapolis
Minnesota 55439
The Ruin of Uttarakhand
WILL THERE BE A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE
TUNNEL IN UTTARAKHAND?
While the most degenerating thing about time is its
capacity to destroy the moment, yet its most profound quality is to recreate
the past. It was during the hill people’s agitation to demand statehood for
itself, from the administratively unmanageable and geographically abundant
Uttar Pradesh, that the then Chief of Army Staff, late Gen Bipin Chandra Joshi
had brought the matter about the atrocities committed by the State
administration upon the agitationists, to the notice of the Raksha Mantri. The
reason for doing so was to urge the Minister to intervene and persuade the UP
Chief Minister to allay the fears and foreboding in the minds of the vast
numbers of soldiers who hail from the region, about the safety and security of
their kith, kin and brethren, who live in the villages of the hill districts of
Garhwal and Kumaon, to which they belong. It was the Chief’s view that, should
the situation not be handled in a politically correct and compassionate manner,
there was a very likely possibility of the troops from the hill districts
deserting their posts and units en masse, to be with their people in their time
of distress and need. While that did not happen and political sagacity
prevailed in the Centre and the State governments respectively, Uttarakhand was
carved out from the eight districts of Garhwal and Kumaon region of Uttar
Pradesh and Nitya Nand Swami became its first Chief Minister. There was a sense
of great joy and celebration among the people, who thought this to be the first
step towards the alleviation of their woes and miseries. The political decision
which was forced upon the people of the hills by making it a part of the State
of Uttar Pradesh had to an extent been redressed. There was new hope for these
people, which was rooted in their belief that the political leadership which
now emerged to fill the void, would be driven by a sense of service and empathy
towards those causes, which
midwifed the birth of
Uttarakhand. But that was not to be, as politics in India is driven more by
double speak, hypocrisy, corruption and a vote bank strategy, which subsumes
and destroys all ideology and waters down party manifestos. The politics which
emerged in Uttarakhand was no different and expediency rather than rectitude
and probity took centre stage, to further exacerbate the pitiful condition,
which continues to abound in the villages in the higher reaches of the State. Poor
infrastructure, scarcity of water and power, paucity of worthwhile schools and
colleges, absence of quality hospitals and medical facilities, a committed
bureaucracy, continuous migration of the youth from the villages in search of
employment, want of vision in the local civil authorities to regulate wanton
construction activity under the garb of development and failure on the part of
the government to promote sustainable growth and capitalise on the intrinsic
potential of the region for pilgrim, adventure, cultural and eco tourism, have been the bane of
Uttarakhand
It was social activism, which saved the forest cover of
the State that stands at 65% of the total land mass and gave to the country its
environment and ecology driven revolution, under the name of ‘Chipko Andolan’ .
In the ecologically sensitive and fragile Himalayan Region, deforestation can
bring about disaster of mammoth proportions. Had the ‘Chipko Andolan’ not
happened, one can well imagine the gravity of destruction that would have
visited the regions, which have been badly affected in the recent deluge. It is
an interesting observation, which one can make in Uttarakhand that in those
areas of economic/commercial activity where the government has no business to
be in, it is and where it should be effective and exercise regulation, it is
absent. The Garhwal and Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigams are a testimony to this and
have bulwarked quality development of tourism, in its many ramifications. There
is no regulatory authority in the State which oversees land use and
construction activity, which is the biggest money earner for the politicians
and the bureaucracy. The pressure of construction activity in the ecologically
fragile region of the hills has made these areas extremely vulnerable to any
weather or else seismic occurrences and the government is party to this chaos
which is unfolding itself in Uttarakhand. The politicians as also the
bureaucracy of the State are in cahoots to siphon as much money as they can
from the various mafias, who have transferred their many illicit operations
from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh into Uttarakhand. The bureaucracy, which is
largely imported from the parent State and is neither competent or else
passionate about the well being of Uttarakhand, is comfortable and secure with
the thought of making hay while the sun shines and then reverting back to their
places of domicile, on superannuation on retirement.
I can only think of the state of mind of the soldiers who
hail from the hill districts of Garhwal and Kumaon,in the wake of the disaster
that has visited Uttarakhand. Would it be any different from what General Joshi
had thought it to be then? The only difference being that it was Mulayam Singh
Yadav who was Chief Minister then and now it is Vijay Bahuguna, a son of the
soil and son of Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna. This is the Uttarakhand, which the
people thought then would be a panacea for most of their problems, but instead
has been worse than what it was. Will we see a light at the end of the tunnel
in Uttarakhand? I doubt.
Brigadier S D Dangwal
5339, W 64 Street
Ridgeview Drive
Edina
Minneapolis
Minnesota, 55439
United States of America
001-612-747-5738
The Ruin of Uttarahand
STAND UP FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE HILLS OF UTTARAKHAND
It’s an early morning here in Minneapolis and with the
time zone difference of 11 ½ hours between here and India, it would be sometime
in the evening there. We are in touch with the local news about happenings in
Dehra Dun and Uttarakhand, in particular. The early arrival of the monsoons in
North India and the fury with which it heralded its coming, lashing out with
unmitigated ferocity in the five districts of the State, causing great loss to
both life and property, is indeed unfortunate and a matter of serious concern
for its people. The unpreparedness of the State Administration and the much
talked about Disaster Management Organisation, to cope with the situation as
and when it occurs, is appalling, to say the least. The government and its
machinery is more than aware of the huge disarray rains cause to public life
during the pilgrim season, which loosely speaking coincides with the onset of
monsoons in North India. But, there is no dearth of excuses, which is belted
out by the elected representatives, who are given a mandate to govern and
administer as also to safeguard the interests of the masses. With more than
50,000 pilgrims stranded and caught up in traffic snarls and jams on the roads,
which service the four centres of Hindu pilgrimage viz Badrinath, Kedarnath,
Gangotri and Yamnotri located in the Garhwal Himalayas; is the worst publicity
for the fledgling State, which has fallen woefully short of realising the
purpose of its creation. And, this has more or less become a recurring feature
of the State Government’s failure to plan, prepare and engage with the
situation arising from a natural weather phenomenon. There seems to be no
political will to address the foremost responsibility of its leaders, which for
sure must and should be aligned to protect and promote the interests of its
indigenous population, which resides in the hills and villages of Uttarakhand. The
implosion which is round the corner in the few cities of the State, that have
been bequeathed by the State Government to real estate prospectors and land
sharks, is another testimony to the avarice of our politicians, cutting across
party lines and political ideologies. There seems to be a huge mental deficit
in the perception of the State’s Bureaucracy, to understand the manner and
design in which to bring about development, that lends itself to the geography,
ecology, topography and culture of
Garhwal and Kumaon. Things as they are today can only predict for itself a
disaster, which is waiting to happen in the higher reaches of Uttarakhand, where
the fundamental principle of symbiotic existence has been long discarded in the
subterfuge and stupidity of development practices; which better serve regions
as are distinct and different from what obtains and exists here.
The State of Minnesota and the twin cities of Minneapolis
and St Paul, in which we presently are to be with our son and family is a
verdant expanse that embraces both; concrete co located with gardens, parks,
open spaces, state highways, city roads, commercial centres, numerous water
bodies and well planned and laid out housing avenues, that enhance beauty and
celebrate nature in its abundant glory. This is what memory helps me to
recollect from within the deep recesses of my mind and draw a somewhat broad
comparison with the once upon a time Dehra Dun, with its forest cover, orchards,
streams and swathes of open spaces in which children played and gamboled towards adulthood. That has been ruined by those who wrested Statehood from
Uttar Pradesh for its people with the conviction of “Meeting the Aspirations of
the Hill Folks”. Fertile land with productive top soil has been sold out for
profit, only to create jungles of concrete instead. The avarice of the
political leadership in the State coupled with the crass hunger for money in
the ethically and morally challenged colonizers and developers, who have eked
out hugely profitable deals for themselves through the practice of crony
capitalism; has transformed the city’s landscape into a visual monstrosity and
a cesspool of corruption. The revenue officials, MDDA and Municipal
authorities, middle and lower rung bureaucracy, real estate agents and all
those who can manipulate and manoeuvre the system to accrue an advantage for
themselves, are laughing all the way to their banks and caches of slush money
at the expense of what is left of the natural beauty of Dehra Dun and other
cities, towns and villages which are its distinguishing feature. One truly
wonders where all this unabated construction activity, which is happening in
the absence of any committed and honest regulatory mechanism to oversee the
same and stall the plunder of nature and its many trappings, will lead the
State in the very near and immediate future.
The anger and despondency of the people, at the state of
affairs, which the State is besieged with, must come out with full force and
measure in every aspect of public life and demand their right to a secure and
dignified living. This is the time when the people of the economically vibrant
and developed cities must come together on a common platform with the people of
the hills, to give a voice which is in unison with that of the latter. When the
interests of the burgeoning middle class, which makes a life and living in
towns, cities and metropolises are affected, the streets, roads and plazas must
witness an ocean of human agitation. But, the same should also happen when
their own countrymen, women and children are marginalized by the callous
hearted political leadership and the cringing bureaucracy, that only knows how
to bulwark it’s own turf and interests. This should become an inclusive cause
of all people of Uttarakhand and not just those who are afflicted by the
indifference and misgovernance of the State Government. It is then and only
then that, there will be a hope to prevent the situation from becoming a human
tragedy of immense proportions, which will engulf all and without exceptions,
in the years to come.
Brigadier S D Dangwal
5339, 64th W Street, Ridgeview Drive
Edina, Minneapolis
Minnesota, 55439
USA
Telephone No 001 612-747-5738
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