THOUGHTS FOREVER...

Words without meaning

2019-02-23T17:41:00.000+05:30

Though general elections are a few months away, the BJP and the Congress are simply attacking each other. Will they pull out a rabbit from their hats and bring a fresh narrative?

Amitabh Shukla

After Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s entry into active politics, our grand old party, the Congress, looks energised, motivated and has the momentum on its side to face the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Of course, it has been helped in no small measure by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which now looks jaded, carries the disadvantage of anti-incumbency and is seemingly devoid of the same energy and enthusiasm that marked the party’s campaign throughout 2013 till the 2014 general election. Despite being on a roll — to an extent as Congress supporters would like to believe — after last year’s victories in the Assembly elections to Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, this would be the first battle in recent years where the grand old party, which by default is the main challenger to the BJP, is yet to come out with a positive poll narrative or sound implementable promises. It needs a pitch, now.

Rather than projecting any positive agenda for the creation of jobs, to boost the country’s economy or putting forth any dynamic agenda which it might have for foreign policy vis-à-vis our neighbouring countries, all it is dependent this time around is on the “failure” of the Modi regime to fulfill promises it made in 2014. As of now, Rafale seems to be the single most important agenda for the Opposition, even as the ruling party is spiritedly defending itself and has been denying any wrong doing. Attack, attack and attack…seems to be the Congress’ mantra as it enters the last phase before the elections are formally announced by the Election Commission of India. But Rafale doesn’t have the ability to wash with the electorate as an emotional issue. Can the Modi Government’s alleged failure, therefore, become the trump card for the Congress? If the party’s think-tank believes it can take the electoral plunge without any positive agenda, or without any performance-oriented narrative, it is, perhaps, going through a delusional phase. There will be near unanimity among non-BJP parties and also a large section of the academia and economists that demonetisation was a blunder and that the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) could have been done in a better way, and perhaps, in a phased manner. There can be no argument on this front. But can this failure of the ruling party become the main weapon of the Congress fightback?

At present, all that the Congress has offered include loan-waivers to farmers in States like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where the party won last year, triggering speculation that it would do well in the general elections too. But can loan-waiver alone be the panacea of all the ills that plague the farming community? No farmer, agriculturist or expert dealing with the farm economy and farm crisis thinks so. At best, it is a pill which can only remove the symptom but can never fight the cause of the disease.

So, what can the Congress offer to the farmers of the country? Farm distress is, perhaps, the single most reason to make the Modi Government unpopular among the rural votebase. Low farm prices have ensured that the farmers’ returns from investments in crop, seeds, fertilisers and land are reduced and have, in fact, come down significantly in recent years. But will the Congress implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission report, which advocates a new mechanism for fixing Minimum Support Price for their crops? We have not heard much from the party on this front except some vague promises.

In fact, even in Punjab, where the party has been in power for almost two years now, and which is plagued by farm distress and farmers’ suicides for long, we are yet to hear much except that provisions for cosmetic loan-waivers have been made. Farmers continue to be stressed in the State even though the Congress under Capt Amarinder Singh took over the reins of power almost two years ago.

If you do not have anything concrete on the farm front, that’s fine, you can take a call later. But what are your plans about job creation and giving impetus to the economy? There is no denying that demonetisation, which was followed by GST in quick succession, affected job growth. In fact, the combine triggered massive job losses. Has the Congress come up with a plan to infuse new life to the economy and create jobs? The answer obviously would be a big no.

In 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was bidding for power at the Centre, he, too, attacked the Congress left, right and centre, using every possible imagery to pin down the party and expose its inner contradictions. This was similar to what the Congress is doing right now. At that time, Modi found traction among voters with three crucial words — Modi, Modi, Modi — that echoed in almost all public meetings in the Hindi heartland throughout the campaign period. But at the same time, while tomtomming his personal charisma, he had also come out with slogans of creating two crore jobs every year and gifting 15 lakh in every bank account from the black money which was supposedly parked in foreign accounts. Of course, the promise of achhe din acted as the catalyst that instilled hope among a large section of the population, cutting across caste and religious lines.

Five years down the line, all of these largely remain a promise and the slogans raised then have been given a decent burial. Even the “Gujarat model of development”, which was supposed to be implemented at the national level, remains forgotten and no one hears anything about it anymore. What Modi and his party are doing this time around is what they did in 2014 — virulently attack the Congress. Dynasty and alleged acts of omission and commission are the top subjects on which the grand old party can be attacked. There is no attempt to even sell a rescue plan for stressed Indians.

So, there you are: Both the main contenders are calling each other names, they want the people to believe that the other is corrupt and are trying to attract the voters’ eyeballs with their colourful vocabulary, which they are using against each other. What catapulted the BJP under Modi in 2014 was complete disillusionment with 10 years of UPA regime, charges of big ticket corruption, perception of a remote-controlled Prime Minister and loss of hope among the electorate for the future. Modi brought in a wave of fresh air, positive change, political machismo and above all, hope for achhe din with some specific policy measures.

In the absence of a positive narrative among both contenders for power — BJP and Congress — electioneering so far has been reduced to charges and counter charges, attack and defence. Of course, real electioneering is yet to pick up and will be seen only after the nation gets over the Pulwama tragedy. But people are still wondering if elections this time round would be fought on negative agenda, making both sides look opportunist than committed visionaries who will see us through. (February 22, 2019)

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/columnists/words-without-meaning.html

Test of a United India

2019-01-22T17:12:00.000+05:30

The fissures in the mahagathbandhan are gradually becoming visible and its ability to maintain a united front till after the election results will be the decider

Amitabh Shukla

As the Lok Sabha election gets tantalisingly close, the season of mahagathbandhan or a grand alliance has started in right earnest. So has flexing of political muscles by what can loosely be called as the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (anti-BJP) — a conglomeration of diverse regional parties, united by a single agenda of removing the Modi-Shah duo from national politics in the Lok Sabha election. Of course, BJP rebel and now architect of the “Save Democracy” movement Yashwant Sinha adroitly reminded everybody that the Modi versus Rest narrative would only strengthen the former’s image and the Opposition needed to counter the BJP on ideological counts.

Raised hands and clenched fists of all leaders present in the Kolkata rally, organised by the Trinamool Congress (TMC), not only gave a perfect photo opportunity to Opposition leaders but somewhere down the line increased the frown lines of the defender — the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Many considered the rally largely as an exercise to project TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a possible prime ministerial candidate of the grand Opposition alliance for the Lok Sabha poll even though the stated objective was to bring all anti-BJP parties on the same platform. But that’s just one aspect of the burgeoning index of Opposition unity.

Of course, all the 20-plus parties that participated in the Kolkata rally on January 19 had different agenda on their minds. Most of them were looking for a better outing in the Assembly polls with their respective alliances, where the BJP has become a force to reckon with since 2014. But given that the TMC hosted the first successful Opposition rally and managed to get on board almost all leaders and parties opposed to the BJP, it can now safely claim to be the leader of this Third Front. Banerjee also pitched herself as a sort of an arbitrator for possible disputes, whenever and wherever they arise, among this Front. Her diplomatic handling of the stage and giving importance to all the leaders present amply suggested her ease of managing diverse interests, her acceptability and showed her national ambitions.

But the fissures in such a loose formation are still too wide and its ability to pose as a united front before the election is still a matter of speculation. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu, who was present in the Kolkata rally, has practically abandoned the Congress with which he had sewed an alliance for the Assembly polls of Telangana. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Naidu had become the poster boys of this mahagathbandhan then, beaming as they were with hands raised in solidarity.

As an afterthought, the TDP supremo perhaps realised that he cannot give much space to the Congress to grow in his home state of Andhra Pradesh. An alliance with the Congress in the State would limit his chances to have a go at the chair of Prime Minister. He might have perhaps looked at the prospects of him somehow becoming a possible compromise candidate in the event of this Opposition grand alliance getting close to government formation.

Besides, Mamata Banerjee and Chandrababu Naidu, who are possibly looking at a national role for themselves, this anti-BJP Opposition front also has Dalit leader and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati as the prime ministerial candidate. She has been endorsed strongly not only by her own party but also by her newly-found political partner and nephew Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP). The Bua-Bhatija alliance is the one which has set the tone and template for the general election and almost every political pundit now says that the road to New Delhi this time would go through the lanes and bylanes of Lucknow and Uttar Pradesh.

Days before the Kolkata rally of the Opposition, the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh triggered a wave of anticipation among the anti-BJP front and threw open a wide range of political possibilities at the cost of the saffron party in the largest State of the country. The TMC rally simply took the idea of unity ahead and sort of announced to the world that the neutral Third Front was alive and kicking and both the BJP and the Congress should consider it as a possible contender for the throne in Delhi provided it gets the numbers leaders are hoping for. And if all parties do well individually, then the Congress can provide outside support if the situation so warrants.

Coming back to the SP-BSP alliance, even the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar, which has a vote base similar to the SP’s in Uttar Pradesh, is excited about its prospects. This perhaps explains why Tejaswi Yadav, the de facto supremo of the party in the absence of the incarcerated Lalu Prasad Yadav, dashed to Lucknow to congratulate Mayawati on her birthday and tweeted pictures in which he touched her feet reverentially. It’s rare to see bonhomie between the parties representing the Dalits (BSP) and OBCs led by the Yadav community (SP and RJD), as they have not only been at political but also social loggerheads for decades.

Tejaswi knows for sure that keeping the BSP in good humour would only help consolidate and expand the vote base of the grand alliance in Bihar. Dalit leader and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan is firmly in the NDA fold, at least for the Lok Sabha election, and the RJD would be more than happy to get any incremental votes of Dalits in the State if Mayawati is on board even if the BSP does not contest a single seat as part of the grand alliance in Bihar. In fact, the RJD could go to the extent of offering a seat or two to the BSP even though the Mayawati-led party does not have any foothold in the neighbouring state.

In this season of anti-BJP posturing, photo ops and alliances ahead of the Lok Sabha poll, the only motive seems to be removal of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister by working out sound electoral mathematics and ensuring a higher seat turnout than the BJP did in the 2014 polls. The SP-BSP alliance is simply banking on the fact that if it gets a combined vote share, which is higher than the NDA’s in the state, it would be in the driver’s seat. Of course, chemistry and adjustment are equally important in alliances and it remains to be seen how firmly it is cemented at the grassroots and booth levels.

Left out of the alliance in Uttar Pradesh — a move on expected lines — the Congress is neither happy nor unhappy at this moment, contemplating the different possibilities along with permutations and combinations ahead. Optimists in the party believe that at the end of the day, the SP-BSP alliance could be a part of the UPA if the numbers so demand and they are at a striking distance of forming the next government. Of course, Mayawati would throw her hat in the ring for a possible go at the chair of Prime Minister if the situation so warrants and the mahagathbandhan gets a respectable number of seats. This situation would be conditional on the Congress not doing well and remaining well below 100 seats, regional parties dominating the results and the BSP itself performing well and getting a reasonable number of the 38 seats it would be contesting out of the 80 in Uttar Pradesh.

But there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. Post-verdict electoral understandings, support and alliances could be quite different from the ones cemented pre-poll. In a possible scenario where the NDA is a little short of majority, the BSP could always spring a surprise. It has a history of aligning with both SP and BJP, and there has been no shift in BSP’s ideology even as it goes to polls this time around as a formidable force in alliance with the SP in Uttar Pradesh.

Similarly, the TDP, too, could go anywhere — from the NDA to the UPA, or to Third Front — in the post-poll political calculations. In the last six months, we have seen the party travelling all platforms. So there we are. It all depends on numbers after the polling and till then, all political parties would be posturing and keeping their options open. Much water will flow till then. (January 22, 2019)

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/columnists/test-of-a-united-india.html

The Chameleon's game

2019-01-22T16:47:00.001+05:30

Regional parties have become experts in sensing the political climate by switching sides at the slightest possibility of a better electoral outing and negotiating a relevance for themselves

Amitabh Shukla

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) may be the latest ally to desert the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, introduced in the last session of the Lok Sabha recently, but by no stretch of the imagination can the party be termed as a “political weather scientist.” Similarly, the tag should also not be passed on to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which parted ways with the NDA last year. Compulsions of state politics and scouting for better opportunities at the national level forced these two regional parties to break away from the NDA rather than their potential to gauge trade winds.

In that sense, the bellwether status should go to Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. For long, he has been described as the ‘mausam vagyanik’, who can assess which way the political wind is blowing or which party would reap the electoral harvest and form the next Government.

Many have even appreciated his ability of being “accurate and correct” with his political moves over a period spanning three decades. Both his admirers and critics believe that he has got so much of expertise in reading “people’s mood and pulse” that he always supports the winning cause — the coalition which rules the country.

Paswan has been a part of all national coalitions. He was first elected as an MLA in Bihar way back in 1969, though he has always preferred to be in Central politics after the Emergency when he first won the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat by a record margin in 1977. Be it the Right (NDA led by the BJP) or the one in which the Left had a major role (Third Front led by VP Singh) or the Centrist party (Congress-led United Progressive Alliance), one factor which has always been common is the 75-year-old Paswan. No ideology is anathema to him as long as it takes him to the treasury benches.

He was first inducted in Union Cabinet by VP Singh in 1989 and since then the Dalit leader has never looked back. Of course, he lost one election in 2009 to an old rival in Bihar —Ram Sundar Das — from his stronghold of Hajipur and had to remain out of power for five years. His followers, however, term that period as an “accident” and an “aberration.”

When he decided to stick to the NDA in Bihar for the 2019 polls, successfully bargaining a healthy six seats for his Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and one Rajya Sabha seat for himself, many in his home state wondered if he had lost his ability to predict the political climate with the same perfection and astuteness.

Many in Paswan’s home state say that Upendra Kushwaha, the former junior HRD minister in Narendra Modi’s Government and the first one to jump ship in Bihar from NDA to UPA, has now developed the knack which Paswan possessed at one point of time. Kushwaha, as president of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and a Koeri himself, joined the grand alliance (mahagatbandhan) of the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in the Hindi heartland, hoping to have a role in the next Union Government.

Kushwaha knows for sure that his utility in NDA ended the moment Nitish Kumar and his Janata Dal United (JDU) joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to retain power in the State and oust the RJD with which JDU had fought the Assembly elections in the first place. Kushwaha and Kumar share a similar caste support base and he realised he would be more useful to the mahagathbandhan in Bihar than the NDA. So Kushwaha’s ouster was a foregone conclusion. In fact, it helped Paswan get a better deal with the NDA in seat-sharing as whatever incremental votes his party gets in Bihar helps the latter’s cause in its bid to do well in the State.

Bihar will be an important battlefield in the 2019 general election with 40 seats, a State where both the UPA and NDA are firmly entrenched. Hence, this is one State where the battle is largely between the two and not the constituent parties as such.

Besides RJD, the Congress and now the RLSP, the grand alliance in Bihar also has former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) founded by Sharad Yadav, who broke away from the JDU. Then there is Mukesh Sahni, who had floated his political outfit Vikasshil Insaan Party (VIP) and joined the grand alliance, aiming to get votes from his Nishad community spread across the State. In addition, there is a possibility of even the Left parties becoming a part of the grand alliance, which could leave a couple of seats for them to show it is an umbrella alliance of all castes, groups and ideology.

On paper, the alliance looks really ‘grand’ given the various caste combinations it carries with it, but on ground it is difficult to visualise how competing castes, parties and groups would jell, and whether one community would be able to transfer its vote to the other. Also, the sharing of seats is still a mystery and several conflicts, claims and counterclaims could emerge.

Ironically, it is in Bihar where the BJP had to concede to its allies in a big way, which many see as the end of the road for its expansion in the State. It won 22 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, and along with its allies LJP (6) and RLSP (3), the NDA won 32 seats even though the combined Opposition then on paper was quite strong — RJD and JDU. The BJP would be contesting only 17 seats, forcing it to part ways with five seats which it won last time, clearly a set-back for the party cadres who were hoping for expansion and some day form the State Government on the party’s own strength like it did in Maharashtra, breaking from the Shiv Sena and contesting Assembly polls alone.

As of now, Bihar is the only State where the battle lines have been drawn and demarcated firmly with alliances in place. Many see this as a microcosm of India — emergence of a two-alliance formation where the BJP would head one polarity and the Congress the other with regional parties siding with one or the other depending on their state politics, perceptions at a given point of time and crass opportunism, of course.

It is now gradually becoming clear that it will be the regional parties which would become the new weather scientist of the Indian politics —switching sides at the slightest possibility of better electoral outing and reviewing their decision every now and then according to their convenience and smell of opportunity. Bihar is a perfect example where you do not find any permanent political friend or enemy.

Every single regional party of the State has a history of deserting either the NDA or the UPA in the past several years ever since the days of Mandal and Mandir politics which peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Both Paswan and Nitish Kumar are sailing in the same boat — changing sides seamlessly, that too repeatedly, without the baggage of ideology or any other factor. Paswan may be the expert on this but others are quickly playing catch-up. Kumar has almost caught up with Paswan, changing from one extreme to the other — first NDA to UPA and then back to NDA — without batting an eyelid. (January 15, 2019)

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/columnists/the-chameleon---s-game.html

Takeaways for the big two

2019-01-03T19:14:00.000+05:30

Amitabh Shukla

With the Congress regaining control and the BJP having a brush with trouble, there are lessons for all national parties. It’s time to focus more on policies and less on hollow sloganeering

The Assembly election results of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have not only set the template for the Lok Sabha election, which is expected to be announced in the first week of March next year, but has also clearly drawn the battle lines for what is expected to be one of the fiercest elections ever. For the Congress, the biggest takeaway from the polls is, undoubtedly, the emergence of Rahul Gandhi as an unassuming leader who has shed his past baggage of indifference, political immaturity and dynasty to come on his own. For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the biggest setback has been the demolition of the myth and hype built around the invincibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah.

Till these elections took place, the BJP had become one big electoral juggernaut, very convincingly demolishing one political opponent after the other. The routine rout of the Opposition in the elections had built an aura of invincibility around the Modi-Shah duo — the mass connect of Modi and the Chanakya-like strategy of Shah had become a part of political punditry and was also instilled as an ideal combination in some of the BJP-RSS workers.

On the contrary, repeated defeats had affected even the body language of the Congress leaders, who went into a defeatist mode, occasionally without putting up any fight, like in Goa. Rahul Gandhi and pappu had almost become synonymous, popularised as it was by WhatsApp groups of the BJP’s IT cell. So much so that there was a time when even die-hard Congress workers started believing the falsehoods doing the rounds on how ineffective Rahul Gandhi was as a leader and how his stewardship was taking the party towards peril.

December 11, 2018, changed this political narrative for all time to come. Its developments have come barely three months before the announcement of the general election, triggering a political tsunami and throwing open all sorts of possibilities. All of a sudden, there is a spring in the steps of the Congress workers while in the BJP, an element of doubt has crept in.

This brings forth the most plausible question: Will the Modi magic work or not? Even though party spokespersons keep hammering the fact that the Prime Minister’s personal integrity is intact and that issues for Assembly and Lok Sabha polls are entirely different, this is hardly convincing for both sceptics and supporters. They know it well that victory in the Assembly elections in these very States five years ago, in 2013, had set the ball rolling for the saffron party and it built on the momentum of the wave in May 2014.

Five years down the line, that pace is now with the Congress and it will expectedly follow it till the 2019 Lok Sabha poll. In fact, the Grand Old Party was building a thrust ever since it made crucial headway in the Gujarat Assembly polls in December 2017, where for the first time, Modi had to campaign really hard and Shah had to use all his electoral arithmetic to romp home. A resurgent Congress had given the BJP a run for its money in a State which for long had been considered a laboratory for Hindutva politics.

There was more to follow. Karnataka was widely billed to go the BJP way. This is what the spin doctors of the party had projected — the sulking Yeddyurappa was back with the BJP, moneybags were with the party managers, the Congress Government was facing anti-incumbency and what not. Everything was supposedly going for the BJP and against the Congress. But that was not to be. The BJP failed to get a majority on its own. “Congress-mukt Bharat was too arrogant a slogan,” said a BJP leader on condition of anonymity, adding that this was a classic case of unrealistic politics, bereft of grassroots reality. He hoped that this slogan would never be raised now, and even if it did, it would instantly become a matter of ridicule.

Similarly, the systematic targeting of the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were in bad taste and the appropriation of other Congress stalwarts by extolling the virtues of the likes of Sardar Patel and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose did not quite have the intended effect. “Leave historical figures alone for history books and academic discussions, not for electoral rhetoric and as poll issue,” summed up the leader.

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha poll, obviously, the BJP will try to turn it into some sort of a presidential election, pitching Modi versus Rahul, and asking people if they would vote for an untested, unwilling and timid leader or go for the qualities of “a time-tested, strong face with muscular politics.”

The BJP’s second strategy would be to polarise the election with a strong pitch for building the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. But given the fact that the issue has already been milked to the hilt by the party for over the last quarter of a century and which yielded rich electoral dividends up to a point, this plank has reached a saturation level. The BJP can no longer hope for the same result and the law of diminishing returns will automatically apply. This is what happened in the three States.

So what’s the way forward for the BJP? First, it has to abandon the Congress-mukt Bharat pitch. Second, it must draw a list of achievements of its major decisions — demonetisation and GST — and keep hammering about their long-term benefits repeatedly and see how much traction it gets. Third, now that it has been cleared by the Supreme Court in the Rafale jet deal, it should keep the Opposition in the loop for future acquisitions rather than being defensive about them. Fourth, it would have to stop pitchforking the Modi-Shah axis and democratise its intra-party discourse. “At present, party MPs are treated more like booth-level workers to whom directions are hurled and there is no process of consultation or listening involved,” a BJP MP told this writer after the poll results.

Last but not the least, it would have to stop polarisation of votes through hawkish leaders like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He will hardly attract any new votes as the Assembly elections of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, where he campaigned extensively, have proved that there aren’t many takers for the religion card. At the same time, it would damage the body politic of India. Already, banners have come up in Lucknow extolling the hardliner Yogi as “Prime Minister material” and Modi has been painted as some sort of a liberal.

Similarly, what’s the way forward for the Congress? Right now it is the default Opposition party in several States and is expecting to get the anti-incumbency votes from those who expected too much from the first majority Government of the BJP in decades. This complacency has to end. First, it has to come out with an aggressive and workable solution to the problems it has been highlighting. It should spell out what it would do to solve farm distress beyond loan waivers. Second, if traders and small enterprises are distressed, what is the solution to the woes? Third, offending slogans like “chowkidar chor hai” should be banned; it is similar to “Congress-mukt Bharat” and even worse.

It should articulate what its policies would be at the Centre and how different they would be from the ones followed by the BJP Government? It also has to spell out its plan for job creation and how it proposes to go about it.

The days of sloganeering are over. The youth had a lot of expectations in 2014 and will have similar expectations in 2019 as well. Hollow and emotive slogans will no longer yield electoral dividends. Both parties should come with policies, which are implementable with details of how they intend to proceed. That would be the key to gaining the trust of our electorate. (December 17, 2018)

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2018/columnists/takeaways-for-the-big-two.html

KASAULI, DAGSHAI AND SUBATHU: The Quaint Cantonment Hill stations

2018-07-17T17:48:00.000+05:30

To escape the intense summer heat of the plains, the British planned, designed and created several hill stations for themselves in Himachal Pradesh in their 150 years of occupation. Their legacy thrives as these hill stations and Cantonments now attract travel enthusiasts from all parts of the country.

Amitabh Shukla

Branching off the main Delhi-Chandigarh-Shimla highway on National Highway 22, which some still call by its earlier name of Hindustan-Tibet Road, are three quaint hill stations—Kasauli, Dagshai and Subathu—all military cantonments, which you cannot miss if you are a travel enthusiast.

The charm of long leisurely walks, chirping of all varieties of colorful birds, smell of wild and exotic flowers, the fresh coat of green on leaves when it rains, the smell of fresh wood, a monkey watching your steps from a distance, a bird barely noticing your movements, a watchful and fierce looking crow shouting at the top of its voice…You have all this and much more here at the three hill stations. You can actually hear silence in all its manifestations without even closing your eyes and sitting in meditation.

The feel of silence and the sound of silence envelopes you, provided you know the right secluded place to feel it in all these three hill stations, originally conceptualized and developed by the British and now administered by Cantonment boards. Locals point out that British families still come to these hill stations in Himachal Pradesh to look for the place of work of their ancestors and also to pay homage to those whose mortal remains lie buried in the country which was a colony of the British Empire for over a century and half.

Kasauli may have a limited accommodation for tourists but undoubtedly it is the most popular of these and the footfall here is only increasing over the months and years. If you have not booked in advance, forget of getting any accommodation in the weekends as hordes of people from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi descend here on all sorts of transport. I once even saw a group of Sikh tourists on a tractor trolley from Punjab who had come prepared with gas cylinders, folding chairs and mattresses. Obviously, they cooked their food in the open, sat on the chairs and spread the mattresses for rest, oblivious of what the regular visitors thought of them. It’s the only place of the three where you can find a place to stay but demolitions of illegal hotel structures recently has further reduced the number of rooms in and around Kasauli. Being a frequent visitor, I qualify to give a simple advice to those who love solitude and want to be left alone—do not come here in the weekends. Take leave from your work and prefer working days from Mondays to Fridays to enjoy the salubrious weather and everything else which the place offers.

A Major District Road branches off just after the Dharampur Police Station on National Highway and 12 kilometers of uphill driving takes you to the scenic Kasauli via the busy and crowded streets of Garkhal. Set up by the British as soon as they strengthened themselves in the early decades of 1800, the buildings here were built on the style with which the colonial masters were familiar with back home in Britain. You can still see these buildings and bungalows all around the small town, giving it that old world charm which is so endearing.

The Christ Church, built in grey, is a fine example of the Gothic architecture which the British brought to India and used extensively in the construction of Churches. This Church, billed as the oldest in Himachal Pradesh, also acted as the clock tower for the town and its clock was repaired recently after lying in disuse for several years. Entire history of the town comes alive the moment you enter the Church complex, sit on the benches in the prayer hall or the ones placed outside in the open areas of the complex. While sitting in the complex, I recalled scenes from a movie, Madras Café of John Abraham in which the opening and closing shots of the film were shot here. The actor, who played an Intelligence Officer, confesses to a priest about his failure to prevent an assassination in this Church.

Introspect, pray, think; let your mind and imagination run wild in the Church complex or any other place of solitude you have discovered by now. Then when free from this wonderful exercise of self discovery, take a walk on the Mall Road to explore the little market which Kasauli offers. You will find a photo studio at the beginning of the Mall which has Black and White pictures of all film stars who visited the hill station and also those famous personalities who studied in the public schools around the town. Khushwant Singh’s photo, finds a place of pride here as the writer-journalist spent summer months in Kasauli writing his books and his son Rahul Singh brought the Khushwant Singh Literature festival to this hill station in his memory. I wondered about the fate of the photo studio as no one now steps inside except perhaps the locals for a passport size photo with the ever increasing Megapixels of Mobile phones fulfilling all the photography requirements of tourists.

If you are hungry, go for the hot and spicy Bun-Samosa combination washed down by a steaming cup of tea, barely 25 meters from the photo studio. The middle aged gentleman also sells hot spicy pakoras if you care for one and are not diet conscious. Be careful here as a horde of monkeys could be watching you and the moment they get an opportunity, they will snatch whatever you are eating. The monkeys target the children in particular if they eat in the open and snatch away their chocolates, pop corn or whatever eatable they find in their hands. There are several other eating joints too which offer anything from Momos to Indian-Chinese cuisine besides the staple diet of Punjabis—Tandoori chicken and tikka. Some Tibetans too have set up their shop here selling woolens as well as their signature dishes.

If you want a drink, purchase a bottle from the shop on Mall Road but do not drink it in the open as there are several boards warning of heavy monetary fines if caught drinking openly. The counter Manager will roll your bottle in an old newspaper and you can keep it in your bag for the evening when you pour a drink for yourself sitting in a balcony and looking at the flickering lights of vehicles on the serpentine roads or watch the stars and moon on a clear night.

Take a leisurely walk all across the small town in an hour or two. The Heritage Market is on a slightly lower elevation on the same road and goes down to the Post Office and then a Viewing Gallery from where you can see the valleys and plains of Punjab below if the weather gods oblige. Now, take a rest at one of the pavements, lie down if you wish, look straight into the clear skies and marvel at nature and the wonderful weather.

There are several private bungalows here which the rich and famous owned at one point of time during the British era. They still exist and are in use by the elite who are either retired or semi retired. Ross Common, the British era bungalow, has now been converted into a hotel by the Himachal Pradesh government but what strikes you is the fact that it does not resemble a commercial hotel. For all practical purposes, it looks like a grand bungalow, has a decent campus of its own, lounge chairs of iron and the rooms have the old heating system in which wood was burnt for warmth once upon a time. Staying here, gives you the feeling that you are putting up in a big colonial house and not a hotel. The restaurant, which also serves some Himachali delicacies if ordered in advance, too is in a small room with hardly a few tables, resembling a dining hall in a privately owned bungalow, rather than a commercial eating place.

For me, morning walk in Kasuali is perhaps the single most important reason why I keep frequenting the place whatever the season. Stunning silence and a little fog welcomes you as you move towards the sunset point, towards the Manki point or take a walk through the army settlement and the police station to the old Parwanoo Road—the choice is yours. You can also take a lot of other walkways, depending on your stamina…but what is common to all of them is the sheer magic woven in the woods, proliferation of small bamboo trees all around, flowers blooming in the wild and magnificent views of the valley and even Chandigarh on a clear day from one side of the cliff. Just sit on a bench erected by the Kasauli Cantonment Board and keep sitting there for hours after the morning walk. Your day is made as at several locations all you could hear was your heartbeat or the wind caressing the leaves and the trees and the birds trying to distract you with their antics.

Sunrise and also the sunset are always mesmerizing, a magical experience whatever the place. It’s life in a nutshell; for me symbolizing birth and death and everything in between. In a slow motion, the sun comes out from behind the mountains in the morning displaying a unique colour which keeps changing as the sun becomes bigger and bigger, giving you the view of a life time. The pale yellow light of the receding sun too is an experience to cherish as the provider of light and energy takes a break and rests for the next 12 hours.

While returning back from the morning walk and it was almost noon now, I found a person who was enjoying the solitude in his own way. The middle aged person had spread a towel and was lying down, looking at the trees and the hillocks and singing an old Bengali song, a tribute to the monsoon. His wife and two kids watched him. “This is life,” he told me as I stopped and watched him. I nodded in agreement and joined the chorus for a while.

I have not been able to find a mechanism to enter the famous Kasauli Club, again founded by the British in the 1880s. I am still trying to crack the code to a find a spot for myself in the evenings, which might happen soon. But having walked across the club, you can well imagine its history, the romance associated with it, how it has seen great moments and how the British colonial venture was discussed over drinks and ballet long time back.

Subathu, training centre of Gurkha regiment, known for their tales of bravery, is again a left turn from the NH 22 and is on an opposite hillock from Kasauli but at a much lower elevation. The drive from the crowded Dharampur to Subathu passes through scenic villages and valleys below and at several places I saw yellow mustard plants, creating an optical illusion of sorts, forcing me to see it from close what exactly was this beautiful spread of yellow. A couple of villages, like most in Himachal Pradesh, have a small board naming the village, size of its population and also its elevation from sea level. The neat and clean cantonment town has numerous photographs of the war heroes—winners of the highest gallantry award of Paramvir Chakra and Mahavir Chakra, donning the Cantonment with a brief description about their bravery which led to the awards.

You can find the Gurkhas undergoing training here with a big board saying “Veer Yodha Dwar” (Brave Warrior Gate) where the 14 Gorkha Training Centre is located. Take a walk, move around, merge yourself with the surroundings, park yourself on one of the benches placed by the Subathu Cantonment Board and you will enjoy the surroundings without fail. There is a park, a Palace fort, war museum, a temple—places from where you can enquire and learn about its history—how the British occupied Subathu from the Gurkha generals of Nepal who ruled the place in the early 1800s and how the brave Gurkhas became an essential part of the then British and now the Indian army.

The third Cantonment town or the “weekend wonder” of Dagshai is not far off. In fact all the three hill stations practically face each other and form a trinity, perched as they are on top of hills and cliffs in specially chosen locations amid thick trees. Perched on top of a sunny hill on the highway to Shimla just after you cross Dharampur, there is a detour on the right to Dagshai. A signage of the Cantonment Board welcomes you to Dagshai, set up by the East India Company of the British, to escape the intense summer hills of the plains, 30 kms away.

In fact, so conscious were the British about the weather that they set up three Cantonments nearby — Kasauli, Subathu and of course Dagshai in close proximity. Then, a little ahead is Shimla, the summer Capital of the British, which also has a significantly large military setting. Whenever I visit these areas, I wonder what the strategic importance of these Cantonments was in those days which prompted the British to set them up in the first place. The reason has to be only one — salubrious climate which reminded the British of their homes and the weather in England.

Of course, for travelers like me, Cantonment Boards like Dagshai, Subathu and Kasauli still are islands of cleanliness, devoid of commercialization which still preserves the old world charm. You can still find the romance and glory of a bygone era in these three Cantonments in close proximity. It looks as if some areas have been preserved for posterity and will look the same 200 years from now.

Back to Dagshai, what attracts a traveler like me is silence. When I was in Class I or II, the teachers used to shout “pin drop silence” whenever the naughty boys in the all boys school were at play in the classroom during the interregnum between two periods. I never understood the meaning of pin drop silence in school, despite the teachers berating us and forcing us to do so. But here, in Dagshai, just choose any place off the bitumen road, sit there and all you would hear is “pin drop silence”. Even if you drop a pin, you could hear it falling here, literally. Of course, chirping of birds, the melody of flowing breeze, dancing leaves on the numerous trees as the gentle wind caresses them…these cannot be considered sound. This is nature’s magic.

There are no hotels to stay here. Dagshai is not meant for commercial exploitation. But even for a routine tourist, the place has several sightseeing options. The most prominent is a British era Jail — a formidable structure, this is popularly called the Cellular Jail of north India with 54 high security cells. Maintained by the Engineering Wing of the Indian Army, you can see how tough a jail life was in the British era for the Indian freedom fighters.

Irish soldiers, who served in the British Army and revolted in 1920 as part of a freedom movement back home in Ireland, were kept here during their trial. The mutineers were shot dead in a Capital punishment and buried in a cemetery in Dagshai. One of the Irish heroes James Daly, who was buried here for 50 years after taking part in the mutiny and then being shot as a punishment, got a new resting place in his home country of Ireland in the 1970s. His mortal remains were taken to Ireland with military honours and he is still a celebrated hero back home.

Indian freedom fighters were also kept in the jail which has a wooden floor. This meant that even the slightest of sound was captured by the sentry who could raise an alarm. Four Indian freedom fighters of the famous Komagatamaru ship, all ex-servicemen, who were refused entry in Canada in 1914 had to return back where 20 of them were arrested on arrival and sent to the Dagshai jail. Four of them were hanged. The plaque in this jail lists the entire sequence of events.

When I reached this jail and a small museum on a Sunday, it was closed for the afternoon. But the immaculately dressed friendly army sentry promptly opened the doors, saying that very few visitors come here. He placed the visitor’s book for my comments. I simply wrote, “Had never seen a jail in my life before. I hope the world becomes crime free and jails become a thing of the past in the next century”. I could not even spend half an hour here and to imagine that freedom fighters spent years and were even awarded Capital punishment, was indeed a nightmarish experience.

The museum in the jail compound houses old photographs which recreates the history of the place and some memorabilia from the British period. The architecture of both the jail and the museum are typical British in green color which not only jell with the woody surroundings but also the entire material used has been procured locally.

Over to the cemetery, not used now but well known for several spooky stories built around it. The spooky stories started when the Irish soldiers were executed and buried here, triggering local rumours about their ghosts moving around. There are also local stories of unrequited love and untimely deaths which gave birth to a different genre of ghost stories. Old timers swear that they used to hear unfamiliar sounds.

During my brief visits to the cemetery twice in the recent past, all I could hear on the road above the cemetery was extreme silence—Nothing else. This was the final resting place for several army British officers and soldiers, forcing me to think how they could not even go to their birthplace for their final rest. Born in United Kingdom, died in India…that is what it should have been written on the epitaph. As the cemetery was neglected for years, stones and the written words are missing in most of them. I took a walk and only found squirrels surprise me with their deft and swift movement, colorful birds finding a perfect mating place, a hairy street dog watching me carefully from a distance. There was no ghost to encounter.

There are boarding schools here, one for the army and at the other a public school and as part of learning nature, treks by school students in uniform are common, including in the cemetery area. I envied these kids. What a wonderful place to be in a boarding school—amid hills, nature, birds and clear blue sky devoid of smog and fog in the winters and intense heat and humidity of the summers.

The St Patrick’s Church, now hardly used, came up with the small Cantonment town itself and is a typical colonial architecture, now attracting curious visitors, keen to know their history and heritage. Thick pine and oak trees ass to the charm of the place as you decide to take a walk all around the place and stare at the architectural marvel of a bygone era.

After spending the day roaming around all over the quite Cantonment cum hill station, sipping tea at a couple of tea stalls, munching some snacks and also closing your eyes for a quick nap on one of the numerous benches and shades, overlooking wonderful valleys, drive down to Kumarhatti on the other side of the hillock where Dagshai is located. The stiff down hill drive will take you to the crowded market and all of a sudden you will realise how important is solitude to a human life. How important it is to spend time in nature's company...How important it is to realise the value of silence and nothingness which envelops you in these marvels of nature. (July 16, 2018)

https://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/kasauli-dagshai-and-subathu-the-quaint-cantonment-hill-stations.html

KASOL-MANIKARAN: River, Valley, mountains and the hot springs

2018-07-09T17:45:00.000+05:30

Parvati Valley is endowed with the best which nature can offer. Nestled in Kullu district amid gushing river and towering mountains, the valley is the last word for those who want to explore themselves and their surroundings

Amitabh Shukla

River meandering through the mountains at a rapid pace, green and wooded valley, snow-peaked mountains in the horizon, an area full of fun making youngsters from all nationalities, Gurudwara and temples, hot water springs—that is in short Kasol and Manikaran for you.

One fine summer morning, I decided to drive down to Kasol, of which I had heard a lot but never visited earlier. Of course, Manikaran, 4 kms from Kasol was in the mind for a long time as I had heard about the place for the first time a quarter of a century ago from friends who had visited it then when I was in Delhi University.

So there it was—driving through Punjab’s Mohali, Kurali, Rupnagar and Kiratpur Sahib, it was a right turn towards Himachal Pradesh and the first halt was Swarghat, just as the climb began in the hill state. Whenever, I pass through this belt and it has already been at least four occasions, I stop at the state owned Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation’s restaurant cum hotel here, named “The Hill Top” for breakfast. Not that they have some great chefs who serve excellent breakfast but for the simple fact that it has a parking lot and there are no decent restaurants for the next 2 hours of drive.

In this belt, it was a tough drive on the road at this time of the year simply because of numerous overloaded trucks which were moving at a snail’s pace uphill and occasionally downhill. If you overtook one, there were two and three ahead to overtake. Forced to follow them at a slow pace, the situation improved slightly only after Bilaspur where a cement factory is located and several tucks were either going there or coming from the place. Then, there were loaded oil tankers going uphill and spewing black smoke in the serene surroundings.

It was Sundernagar, Ner Chowk and then Mandi, the town on both sides of the river Beas. All of a sudden, a newly constructed stretch of a four-lane road appeared and the driving pace improved significantly. After crossing Mandi, the topography changes even as the Beas river is on your left first and then on your right when you cross a Bridge near the Pandoh Dam. Climbing uphill once again, we reach a place from where the Pandoh dam is visible in all its magnificence and you could make out even the small contours of the dam spreading in different directions in the month of summer.

A tunnel measuring almost 3 km in Aut was almost dark with traffic moving at a dangerously high speed. With no dividers or lights inside the dark tunnel, it was scary for a moment before I exited it at the other end, focusing on the traffic ahead and the road. The temple of Hanogi Mata was next and we paid our obeisance even though going inside the temple was not an option at this point given the rush of vehicles and a mini traffic jam on the road here.

Soon, we were in Bhuntar, known for its small airport besides the River Beas, which has facility for the operation of small commercial aircrafts and this is the gateway for Manali, one of the most popular tourist destinations of the state. I crossed the Beas River once again on the busy and crowded Iron Bridge and it was here that for the first time I saw River Parvati which merges with Beas and creates a Sangam. Both the rivers—Beas and Parvati—have entirely different colour, one was brownish with plenty of mud, the other was blue with a hint of green. In Bhuntar, they become one after traversing a lot of distance through the mountains.

After leaving Bhuntar, you only have an uphill drive with the River Parvati on your left side throughout the journey. The width of the road is narrower and also it is in bad shape at several stretches, making driving a bit difficult. At some stretches, you have to put the vehicle in back gear to allow the incoming vehicle enough space for crossing. But the more you drive uphill the landscape becomes all the more serene and beautiful with the wonderful valley welcoming you with all its sincerity. Now the river is visible at some spots even though a thick growth of deodar trees blocks its sight at other places.

Reaching Kasol after a drive of nine hours in the afternoon when the sun was still shining bright, the first task was to find a hotel in the small but overgrown village, teeming with tourists from far off places in the peak summer month. I got into the first hotel and asked the booking clerk for a room. “All booked,” was his two word reply, as he did not bother to look at me. Then it was another hotel. “Sorry Sir,” was his brief reply.

Now, I was alarmed. “Will I get a room or not?” the thought came even as I pondered on other options, including a drive downhill to the highway hotels on the way to Kasol. I never book hotels in the hills while driving, even in the peak tourist season, simply because I know that if I have a vehicle, I can drive at least 100 kilometers looking for a place to stay and I have never met disappointment. Then the third hotel too did not have a room. But when I finally reached a hotel called “Sun and Wind”, the booking clerk nodded when I asked for a room and I settled the deal, making an advance payment for a day. Not a great place to stay but it had a clean wash room and at least I had a roof on my head for the night. In any case, my prime motive always has been to explore the place where I visit, to enjoy the surroundings and nature which the place offered, not staying in luxury places.

The backpacker hub of Kasol has a busy market catering to the culinary and aesthetic taste of the young tourists from the country and abroad. Use of Hebrew signboards by several shops, restaurants and hotels clearly suggested that a lot of Israelis visited the place and they were there all over the place, soaking in the atmosphere which the valley around Kasol provided. It is also supposed to be a hub of narcotics trade as the plant grows in the wild and villagers around several inaccessible areas around the place even cultivate it. Many Indians and foreigners come here for what is known as the Malana cream, the narcotic which is named after Malana Village, which is supposed to be inhabited by the Greek soldiers who were left behind when Alexander the Great came to conquer India in the years before Christ. I did not trek to Malana or Kheer Ganga, the popular trekking destinations this time, leaving it for my next visit.

Visiting a new place brings the overenthusiastic kid inside me to the fore. Slipping into one lane and then the other, watching a tributary of the Parvati heading to merge with the main river, massive stone boulders on the banks of the Parvati tributary, the fast flowing cold water, a fish making its way through the boulders, perhaps Trout. You got everything you asked for in a perfect weather. The market was full of local handicrafts, loose clothes which the foreigners and increasingly Indians on holidays like to wear. It had bags of all hues, caps, hats, walking and trekking sticks, camping equipment, souvenirs…were there for sale. One shop in particular was quite popular and a small crowd of young men and women, girls and boys had gathered around it. Not surprising, it was a shop selling Beer, Wine and Liquor.

Then I moved towards the Parvati through an under construction nature park. Sitting on a huge boulder, next to the swift flowing current, you could hear the river speak to you in its own unique language. It was intense …Was it a brilliant Ravi Shankar playing the Sitar or was it Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia on the flute or the brilliance of Lata Mangeshkar singing a song from the 1950s. Well, it was a combination of all those and much more. Sitting besides the river makes you talk to her and she too engages in a conversation with you. The only condition is that you have to hear her in silence and then speak to her even more silently.

Crossing the Parvati on a small iron Bridge was exhilarating. Strong winds caressed my face while the smell of wood from the Deodar trees was all pervasive as I stood in the middle of the Bridge, sometime looking to one bank, then to the other and also at the incoming river with all its might from a distance. I was transfixed as I kept standing right in the middle of the rickety Bridge which was also being used by the mules to transport goods to far flung villages of the region. My concentration ended after a while as I moved to the other side of the river, took a stroll around the banks and then returned back as the sun decided to take a well deserved rest for the day.

As evening set in, it was now time to explore the culinary delights of Kasol. While walking the streets, I had located a particular kiosk on wheels, on the side of the road, which boldly proclaimed “Trout is available here” and had made a mental note of it. There was no looking back as I went to the kiosk and asked the cook- cum-owner whether Trout was available. “Yes Sir,” he said, as he brought out a Trout from the container below and showed it to me. It indeed was Trout fish, available mainly in the fast flowing rivers of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir valley in India. “It is fresh, caught today in the morning,” said Rakesh, the owner cum-cook who identified himself when I asked his name. “Go ahead and prepare it,” I told him, as Rakesh showed me the plastic chair and table which he had put up in the vacant land behind his kiosk.

Rakesh was not more than 25 years of age but made a good businessman, as he took orders from other guests. He marinated the Trout in a coating of spices and lemon, kept it for a few minutes on the table and then inserted it in the Tandoor. I sat on the chair, watching the moon break through the clouds. Then I saw the stars though the clear sky—small shining stars, thousands and millions of kilometers away. Some were big, others small. The dialogue of a film came to my mind. “When the ancestors die, they become stars…”

Star and moon gazing, concentration and chain of thoughts came to an end as Rakesh brought in the Trout with freshly cut raw onions and chutney. It was as good as it could possibly be, perhaps better than the one I had in Manali a couple of years ago. A street dog was roaming around the kiosk, waiting for the fish bones. I fed the bones to the hungry dog and ordered another Trout. Time was no constraint, I could wait endlessly, gazing the moon and stars which were much brighter now. The next Trout came in half an hour and my evening meal was complete. “You really cook Trout well and it was indeed fresh,” I told Rakesh. He smiled, “two months of summer are very good for business,” he said, as I waived at him and headed for the “Sun and Wind”.

Getting early in the morning has become a habit of late, irrespective of the time I go to bed. Slipping into a walking shoe, track pant and a warm half sleeve jacket, I head to Manikaran, 4 kms away for my morning walk, sharp at six AM. There was no one on the road at that time. I walked alone for a km when I saw an ascetic, clad in saffron clothes at a distance ahead of me. He stopped for a while and I caught up with him. Rama Shankar as he identified himself was from a village in Punjab and a vagabond Sadhu. He was walking for the last two days, on his way to live for at least two months in a temple in Manikaran. He was no philosopher and could not offer any insights about life or spirituality to me despite repeated prodding. “Life is a long walk,” was all Rama Shankar could offer as his philosophy in Hindi, heavily loaded in his Punjabi accent. I nodded in agreement, as the popular Gurudwara of Manikaran Sahib was visible now.

Getting down from the road through the steep steps, passing through a parking lot built by the Gurudwara management, I entered the Gurudwara and saw dozens of people taking bath in the hot water pool inside the complex. The water was warm as it was mixed with the natural boiling water of the springs of Manikaran. Hundreds of devotees were already there to pay their obeisance. While driving to this place, I had seen several groups of Sikh youth on their motorcycles with saffron headgear and a flag tied to their two-wheeler on the way to this popular shrine. Covering my head with handkerchief, I went inside to pay my obeisance.

Wandering around, I saw the plaque about the historicity of the shrine. Guru Nanak came here along with his disciples Bala and Mardana in 1574. Guru Gobind Singh too came here with the Panj Pyaras while residing in Mandi. The Gurudwara was built when Saint Narayan Hari reached here in 1940 looking for historic places associated with Guru Nanak. The plaque says that while undertaking cleaning work, he had a vision of the Guru and he received directions to start langar (community kitchen) and construction. As the terrain in those days was extremely difficult, Baba Narayan Hari brought construction material from Bhuntar and his effort of 50 years is now reflected in a seven story Gurudwara building.

After my obeisance, I went to the other side through something resembling a sub-way or a small tunnel. Next to the Gurudwara was a Shiva temple located in the midst of boiling water from the sulphur springs which abound in this area. While those offering their services in the Gurudwara were cooking rice in big utensils in the natural boiling water, the devotees were dipping small packets of rice and gram in the water to have it as Prasad. It wasn’t tourism here or sightseeing, it was purely a divine connect which had brought hundreds of people to the Gurudwara and the temple.

Returning back to the concrete structure of “Sun and Wind”, I thought it was time to move to eco-friendly tent camps located next to the Parvati which I had spotted earlier. It was called “Saanjh Camping” and had around 15 separate tents, each having a double bed room and an attached washroom, next to the swift flowing Parvati. You could hear the loud thud of the water falling on the boulders at the sharp incline, near the camp.

Throughout the day, it was roaming in Kasol and then coming back to the camp late in the afternoon to sit besides the river and simply look at the marvel of nature. “It is melting glaciers and snow which forms a river in the mountains,” my geography books had told me in the high school. The water was ice cold as I looked at the snow peaked mountains in the distance from where the glaciers had apparently melted to form water streams and then a river. There was complete silence, except for the chirping of a variety of birds. But, they were not disturbing me rather they were a part of the entire natural set-up. I inhaled the fresh air, there was a smell of fresh wood may be some wild flowers too were around which I could not see. I kept sitting and sitting on the boulder till sunset and till mild darkness enveloped the area. A camp fire was lit now, guests were playing guitar and singing while another group of guests were dancing to the tunes of latest Bollywood numbers. Dinner was included in the camp package and then the adventure of sleeping in a tent was something to cherish even as light showers and a mild thunderstorm swayed it mildly.

Next morning walk again had to be to Manikaran. A chilly wind was blowing and a little mist had enveloped the area. Walking uphill, a flock of sheep and goats practically greeted me and blocked my way. They were enjoying, playing with each other, even fighting each other and were going uphill to spend the summers in the meadows around Kheer Ganga and beyond it. To discipline the flock, the shepherd was repeatedly banging his wooden stick on the iron crash barrier on the sides of the road.

The shepherd was dressed in a Himachali cap, jacket, cargo pants and shoes. He was Dharam Singh, 32 years of age, commanding a flock of 145 sheep and hill goats along with his brother Sumer Singh. “We are coming from the lower areas of Mandi district and will be in our village uphill till snow falls in October,” Dharam Singh said in his Himachali accented Hindi. He sells sheep hair which is used in making wool and also the goats and sheep for meat. “See this, it is six months old and commands a price of Rs 4000,” he indicated towards a small sheep. “When I come back in October, its size would be almost double and I would get around Rs 7000,” he continued.

Dharam Singh talked about his encounters with leopards and wild Bear, terming both as dangers for his flock. “I have this…” he showed a thick wooden stick. “But more than that, you need a brave heart to fight the wild animals and frighten them,” he bragged, indicating towards his chest which clearly wasn’t 56 inches broad. “Only once was my sheep taken away by a leopard in 15 years of sheep grazing and that too when I was sleeping at night,” he continued. As he moved uphill towards Barasini, I bid a goodbye, thanking him for sharing his tales.

It was again a walk through the entire length and breadth of Manikaran. At several places, I saw hot water springs, oozing from the mountains. I touched the water at one of the temples and it was boiling and could have burnt the fingers. The entire area seemed warmer than Kasol due to the hot water springs. I saw the river and the hot water was mixing with the cold Parvati River and there was water vapour emerging at the meeting place. At some distance, I again saw hot water entering the river from a spring, creating an illusion of sorts.

The trip could not have been complete without having the langar at the Gurudwara. Squatting on the floor, rice and dal with Kadhi was served to us, cooked in the hot water springs. Nothing could have been tastier as I finished it and then poured a glass of hot tea from the container. “Blessed,” was the only word which I thought at this point.

After the journey came to an end, I went through the Bucket List which has been etched in my mind for long. I simply put an imaginary tick mark on Kasol-Manikaran. But it doesn’t mean, I won’t come back to the place again. I will, for sure, as I have added two trekking destinations to the Bucket List. (July 9, 2018)

Modernity with tradition in the city of Nawabs and pehle aap

2018-06-04T16:17:00.000+05:30

Amitabh Shukla

Lucknow has changed and keeps changing like all other cities but the basic character, linguistic uniqueness and cuisine along with its famous tehjeeb remains an integral part of the Uttar Pradesh Capital

Travelling by train invariably has a charm and attraction associated with it, the larger picture being a laidback journey and the beginning of an unwinding exercise. I always look forward to a leisurely train journey in which you can slip into slippers and shorts, pull out the snacks or home cooked food from the upper layer of the backpack, put your phone in the charging sockets, drink the occasional khaki water which often passes off as tea, put one foot over the other and relax looking outside the sealed window.

This train journey was necessitated due to a cousin’s wedding in Lucknow, the city of the Nawabas and where the “pehle aap” (you first) culture is the legend of folklore, instead of “me first” as is believed to be the norm everywhere. I got a hint of this later while de-boarding the train at Lucknow station where my co-passenger, insisted that I get down first and I insisted he gets down first. He prevailed and I got down.

Anyway, boarding a night train from Chandigarh to the Capital of Uttar Pradesh was eventless and so was easing into the AC compartment and catching a sleep, hoping to be in Lucknow by the time I woke up in the morning. That was not to be. The train was late by 3 hours as I checked the mobile app for updates early in the morning. “You are spending an extra three hours in the comfort of AC in the same price of the ticket,” a fellow passenger, who appeared to be a marketing professional as his phone conversations suggested, told me, when I informed him about the status of the train. “Was I amused?” No, for sure.

Just before Lucknow, the Capital of erstwhile royalty of Awadh, the train made an unscheduled stoppage at Kakori, a small station which is a part of the legend of revolutionaries who fought for the freedom of the country. As I came near the coach door, I could see a red signal at some distance and got down at the station, hoping to run and catch the train again when the signal turned green. It was here at this station that one evening on August 9, 1925, the revolutionaries led by Ramprasad Bismil stopped a local train and looted the money which the guard was carrying to finance their struggle against colonialism in the country. The plaque which has been put up at the station says that revolutionaries boarded the Saharanpur passenger from this station. The moment, the train started from Kakori, Bismil pulled the chain which stopped it a little ahead of the station. Chandra Shekhar Azad, Asfaqullah Khan, Rajendra Nath were in this train, besides others. One person was inadvertently killed in the incident. “They took the government money in their custody and challenged the British empire by this act,” the plaque at the station said.

History books have it that in the Kakori trial, which assumed nationwide importance and caught the attention of the entire country, Ram Prasad Bismil, Thakur Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqullah Khan were sentenced to death and later hanged. Some of them were sent to Cellular Jail in Port Blair in punishment then called Kala Paani. Chandra Shekhar Azad, who was never caught, shot himself dead in Alfred Park Allahabad, now known after his name when he was cornered by the British a few years later. “Kakori was a landmark in Indian freedom struggle as it catapulted national consciousness and gave a definite direction to the movement for overthrow of the British regime,” historians have a consensus on this.

After a stoppage of half an hour or so, the signal turned green and the train started moving again and I caught it after surveying the station, people and the disinterested railway officials, who were hardly aware of the event. The Kakori memorial, in memory of the revolutionaries, has been built close to the station and you can see it from the train window if it is moving at a slow pace.

Soon, the train entered the outskirts of Lucknow and then the crowded station itself. I could see a big crowd at the platform through the window. As co passengers collected their luggage and moved towards the exit doors, I waited for a while before exiting where I came face to face with the tehjeeb (cultural and behavioral norms) of the city where a co-passenger, the marketing professional who had asked me about the train timing earlier, asked me to get down first. We couldn’t get introduced to each other but smiled as we headed for the exit.

This was my second visit to the city, the first being almost a decade and a half back and that too only for an evening. So practically, it was my first visit as I had seen nothing then, except the airport, transfer to a hotel and then catching a morning flight back to Delhi.

Courtesy a friend placed in a high position in Uttar Pradesh government, a vehicle was sent to fetch me from the station to the government guest house where my lodging arrangements had been made. “I have been waiting for the last four hours, train services are so unreliable these days,” said driver Sarfaraj Ahmed, who had been sent to receive me at the station. “Yes,” I nodded in agreement, as the government driver from the Rajya Sampati Vibhag (government property department) of Uttar Pradesh helped me with the backpack. The number plate of the vehicle in Hindi script too had the name of the department engrossed boldly in Hindi so that the cops do not stop a government vehicle even if it violates traffic rules.

Strangely, it was named VVIP guest house and was indeed located in an area close to the place where who and who of UP resided—Governor, chief minister, former chief ministers, present ministers and Judges. For the first time I realized the limitations of the bureaucracy and the netas as they had failed to name a guest house properly. They could have named it after one of the greats from the state which has given most of the Prime Ministers to the country. Curious about the name, I enquired about it from the reception and was told that it was actually called Ati Vishist Athithi Griha and nothing else and its English translation Board too was put up proclaiming it to be a “VVIP Guest House”. Anyways, it was a two room well maintained and comfortable suite with a drawing room, bed room and it also had a small office table with chairs separately in a corner.

Getting to the wedding venue of my cousin Aditya in the evening was easy as it was in a five-star hotel and the driver knew the entire city like the back of his hand. Now, there is a striking similarity in weddings all over north India, be it Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Delhi, UP, MP or Bihar. There are hardly any regional differences when it comes to playing the DJ, hiring a band, lighting arrangements, dancing to the same tunes time and again and then the food which is becoming common in all weddings despite geographical differences.

Here also, the baraat or the groom’s wedding party came from their home in vehicles and stopped 50 meters from the wedding venue, the lawns of the hotel. Heavily dressed men and women assembled, some of them poured perfumes on themselves, saw one last time in the mirror which they had brought in from their homes and then the moving DJ started playing the typical wedding songs. And it was dance all the way for the 50 metres to the venue of the wedding. No one for sure had danced anywhere except in weddings of relatives. But here, they were up to it—freestyle dancing, no rhythm or synchronized movements but hands and feet were moving in all directions.

Usual video making exercise and still photo shoots, ritually going up the stage and pose for the photo, waiters forcing snacks and drinks at you—all the rituals you associate with an Indian wedding was there. You could simply sit there and close your eyes. If you have been to one north Indian wedding, you need not go to any other. It has become so standardized that it is the same everywhere, right from clothes, food, dance, rituals and what not. Only the faces change, nothing else. But I still remember the stuffed Tikki and the Chaat, exceptionally well made, the only items I had for the wedding dinner, besides some fruits.

I always prefer morning walks in a new place to explore the area, feel its pulse and vibration, talk to the people to understand and assimilate the accent and their thought process and also to rejuvenate myself for the day. So, there I was, at 6 am sharp, clad in sneakers T-shirt and track pant, I was on the deserted street. I passed through the road in front of the massive Raj Bhawan where the Governor lives and was in a park near the colonial building of the General Post Office. The architecture of GPO, an imposing colonial structure in White colour is indeed impressive. It was built in the 1920s and used for various forms of entertainment by the British even as entry of Indians was banned here in those days. Now, the residents of Lucknow use it for postal services. The outer façade had been well maintained and prima facie suggested of a glorious heritage. The trial of the famous Kakori conspiracy case, which I mentioned earlier, took place here apparently due to security reasons. I took a round in the park near it, had a look at the GPO Clock Tower located here and recreate the past in my mind.

Then, I moved towards the Christ Church, the gates of which were closed at this time of the morning. Initially built in 1810 with additions later on, in the Gothic style of architecture, the style used in most of the European churches, it has a great history of its own and has braved many a storm in the last two centuries of its existence. It houses so many things now—cemetery, educational institution and also a Church and is witness to the evolution of the British empire in Awadh, ruled by the Nawabs before the colonial power came to the region and annexed it in 1856.

Next door is Hazratganj, the market initially built by the Nawabs of Awadh and later by the British in their own style and taste. Now, construction of a Metro is on and it has disrupted the normal movement of traffic and business, but still the signage having the same black and white pattern, the rejuvenated colonial style street furniture and railings, added an old world charm to the place.

I got into a by-lane of Hazratganj and found a tea stall which seemed to be popular given the number of people wanting to have their morning sip here. I looked for its name but it did not have any but was frequented by the proletariat—from rickshaw pullers to sadhus to small shopkeepers of the area as it still sells good tea for only Rs 7 a glass.

“Once the Metro is built, business for all would increase,” said Raju, the teenager with the hint of a beard and moustache, who was collecting cash. A middle aged man, perhaps his father, was boiling tea in a big vessel and continuously kept it on the boil in a low flame. Whenever, a customer ordered tea, he simply dipped his small steel container with a long handle, brought out the required quantity, poured it in a glass and passed it over. He did not reveal his business details and turnover when I asked how many glasses of tea he sold in a day. “Bas, guzara ho jaata hai” (somehow I manage), he said, and got busy in his work. There was a certain pattern in which he carried out his work, you could see a rhythm and he seemed to be enjoying what he was doing. Decent taste of the tea with the right amount of tea-leaves, sugar, milk and perfect boil coupled with flavor of cardamom, suggested that he indeed was doing a good job.

Summer afternoons in Lucknow could be hot, forcing you either indoors or in one of the malls which now form an integral part of the city skyline. Being outdoors even though it’s a mall, is better any day than staring at the TV screen in your guest house room. So, there I was, at one of the malls of the city. Malls are gradually become one place in the country where everything looks similar whether you are in Delhi, Lucknow, Kochi, Kolkata or Mumbai. The outer facade of the malls could be different, but from inside, they are all more or less similar. They could be bigger or smaller in size, but you will find the same brand shops everywhere, same pattern of interior design, escalators, elevators, multiplexes and of course the food court. And yes, the only place which differentiates one mall from the other is the food court to some extent. Here, if you are lucky, you may find some local cuisine, different from the fast food outlets of the multinationals which have cropped up everywhere.

I found myself drawn towards the food court and there I saw the outlet of famous Tunday Kababi of Lucknow. Every foodie must have heard of the kababs of the outlet which claims to have served the Nawabs of Awadh for generations. I checked the menu, boldly painted inside the outlet as aroma of the Kababs being grilled and prepared invaded my nostrils. The signature mutton snack of the franchise—Galawati Kabab—was there, boldly painted on the menu list besides a lot of other typical food from Lucknow. “Start with Galawati Kabab, this is a bestseller,” the counter in-charge advised me, when I took a little longer to settle in with the dishes which I wanted. “How is Shammi Kabab?” I asked. “Of course, it is good but we use a lot of pulses to mix it with minced mutton so try it only after Galawati,” he advised again.

I ordered Galawati Kabab, which simply melted in the mouth leaving a strong flavor and taste. One after the other, I kept having that till I had a fill and my stomach had no space for any more. There were four in a plate and I had ordered two plates. “How was that?” the middle aged counter manager with gutka stained teeth, asked me after I had finished. “Why don’t you open an outlet in Chandigarh,” I questioned back, even offering to help him find a rented space. He smiled, showing his gutka stained teeth again and said, “I will talk to the owners”.

I didn’t have any space left to try any other dish, promising myself that I will be back again next day before catching my evening train back to Chandigarh. As the legend goes, Galawati Kabab was invented by Tunday Kababi after the then Nawab almost two centuries ago lost his teeth in old age and could no longer chew and eat traditional mutton dishes. The Nawab could simply slip in the Galawati Kabab which melts in the mouth and you do not require any chewing and teeth for it.

Stomach filed with Galawati, I moved towards the customary visit to the places for which the city is known—Imambara, Bhul Bhulaiyya and Chhota Imambara—all imposing architectural structures, having a glorious history and they were full of tourists as well as locals. The setting sun in the backdrop of the minarets gave a perfect adieu to the evening and I captured that in my lens.

The last tourist itinerary of the day was the modern day architectural marvel—Ambedkar Park, built by Bahujan Samaj Party when Mayawati was the chief minister. All the icons who, have worked and fought for Social Justice, have been represented here in a beautifully landscaped and crafted stone structures in the heart of the city, Gomti Nagar. Long time residents told me that it has become a must in the itinerary of those visiting the city now. I also visited the Gomti riverfront, inspired by several other riverfronts of the world, including the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad. It is a poor replica of those and there were hardly any visitors. What made matters worse was the neglect of the project, even if it’s a good one, of one government by the succeeding one. “The state has seen governments change every election on the last three occasions and what is dear to one is clearly an anathema to the other,” said, driver Sarfaraj.

My bureaucrat friend, who had facilitated my stay with the guest house booking and a car, came in the evening to pick me up for dinner in a five-star hotel. We had a great time discussing the good old days in Delhi and Chandigarh. Food in five-star hotels, particularly the Buffet variety is always welcome as you can taste an item, discard it and move to the next one. Invariably you do find one or two items which are nicely prepared and then concentrate on it. I found prawns and Awadhi Biriyani exceptionally well made and that was what I concentrated on after trial and error—tasting and discarding half a dozen other items.

Next day, I was in the local markets again. In a lighter vein, I was told by locals that Lucknow is famous for two items—Chikan and Chicken—one for fashion and the other for culinary delight. But gradually, in a globalised world, it seems people are looking for uniformity in fashion which the multinational and the Indian brands offer. I didn’t find anyone wearing Chikan kurtas or salwar suits in the malls I visited. “Have the youngsters abandoned Chikan?”.

“No Sir, Chikan clothes are a rage all over the world. Our orders come not only from abroad but all over India. We sell online too through the popular shopping apps,” said Sameer Khan, a seller in the popular Chowk area of the city. The price varied as per the work done on the apparel. “These days, you even get fake Chikan in which the work is done by machines and not supple hands,” Sameer informed, handing out the real Chikan apparel.

Chowk is a crowded area of the city, part of its heritage and culture, dating back to centuries. Here, you could find the tahjeeb of the city—at least I din’t find anyone quarreling during my short stay in which I bought the customary souvenir from the city—Chikan Kurta—which I will wear in the next wedding where I am invited. Chowk is full of whatever you need but hot weather and little place to move in the market on foot forces you on the back foot within an hour. But it was a pleasure just window shopping and soaking in the atmosphere. The city has a typical language and sophistication and the accent of speaking Hindi was entirely different from eastern part of the state or its western part.

Evening was again reserved for exploring the culinary delight of the city and the driver guided me to the Tunday Kababi in Aminabad, old city. The outlet is quite popular despite the number of outlets they have opened in other parts of the city now. There could be nothing but another round of Galawati Kabab and some Biriyani, topped with freshly cut onion and chutney. It was as good as it possibly could be. Creamy Awadhi kheer was ordered for dessert and there it was—my culinary expedition to the city was complete so was my trip. I soon headed to the station, shook hands with driver Sarfaraj, thanked him for being a good host and boarded my train back to Chandigarh. (June 4, 2018)

AT HOME’ AT ‘THE RETREAT’ IN SHIMLA

2018-05-30T16:12:00.002+05:30

The Summer Capital of the British and now all weather Capital of Himachal Pradesh has myriad charm—history, nature, hills, forests, weather…it has everything you look for when in leisure

Amitabh Shukla

I have been visiting Shimla for a long time, the first being more than a quarter of a century ago, in January 1991 and every visit since then has a vivid memory associated with it. Whenever I see old photographs of the place which I clicked over the years, I easily recall the places I visited, the eateries I went to and what all I did there.

When I decided to go there again this time in the fourth week of May, I immediately recalled the first visit when I was a student of Delhi University. I had run away to Shimla one fine evening without any train reservation by Kalka Mail to the last broad gauze railhead of Kalka and taking the early morning toy train to the Queen of Hills. What a memorable journey it was as I remember every tunnel the train passed through and actually every hour of what I did there over 25 years ago. I had stayed at the retiring room at Shimla Railway Station, all for Rs 50 a day for two days, was the only guest staying there overnight and thought I owned the entire property for the duration of my stay. I had befriended the Railway canteen cook who only specialised in making fried Aloo Paratha, before returning back to Delhi by the same route.

I really cannot count how many times I have either visited the Capital of Himachal Pradesh or passed through the streets on way to the upper hills of Kufri, Fagu, Narkanda, Rampur and beyond. It could easily be over two dozen times in the last seven years alone. The natural beauty of the hills and the weather has always been an attraction and so has been driving on the circuitous, uphill and downhill roads. In winters, driving on the roads above Shimla with layers of snow has only sharpened my skills over a period of time.

I have been to what has been the summer Capital of the British for work, for leisure, for vacations, for weekend tourism and also for nothing in particular, just to roam around the Mall Road and the Ridge, go down the hillock through the Upper and Lower Bazaar and climb up through the lift or on foot. I have occupied the iron benches on the Mall Road for hours, watched well dressed tourists and locals go through their routine and have also stared at the clear skies full of stars in the evenings. Over the years, I have encountered numerous monkeys on the way when walking late in the evening and also stray dogs when walking early in the morning or in the late hours. I have seen monkeys and dogs fight for leftovers of the tourists and watched their antics, making a mental note of their behavior.

This time round, it was an invitation from the President of the country which took me to the pleasant Shimla when the temperature in the plains was in the mid 40s. It was “At Home”, being organised at “The Retreat”, the summer abode of the President at Mashobra hills, around 2400 metres from sea level in the middle of tall deodar trees and lush greenery all around.

Instead of driving the 130 km distance alone to the Kufri Hotel where my lodging arrangements had been made by the state government, I preferred to hire a Cab so that I could attend to my phone calls and spend time with myself instead of watching the roads and other vehicles which I do when driving. So, there I was on way to Shimla once again.

The Himalayan Expressway till the bypass of the first town of Himachal Pradesh—Parwanoo—is a breeze, hills loom in the horizon but the sharp turns and curves are yet to begin. Here, you have the only traffic light in this part of the hill state which stops you for not more than 50 seconds before turning green. You do not have any traffic signal for the next almost 90 kms till the tunnel where the road bifurcates for two different directions of Shimla.

But just after the popular resort of Timber Trail, massive construction work was going on to construct a four-lane expressway instead of the two-lane which we have at present. Hills have been sliced open in the name of development and thousands of trees cut to make way for the road. Of course, this looks quite ugly and like a war ravaged zone with huge earth and rock digging machines and boulders all around. As construction in the hills is tough and so are the difficulties associated with land acquisition, the work has been delayed and you have the spectacle of sliding hills and the occasional boulder falling on vehicles. The new four-lane road is supposed to by-pass Shimla and end at the Kufri-Mashobra junction, reducing the travel time and distance from the plains to the Himachal Capital.

As I have been a regular on this road, I have seen the landscape change drastically over the months with mountains being excavated and cutting of trees on familiar roads. The dhabas and eateries which I had been frequenting during my earlier trips are no longer there. The iconic Giani da dhaba at Dharampur, mid way between Chandigarh and Shimla no longer exists. The construction of a new road has taken a toll and the eatery in which a generation of students of popular public schools nearby, like Sanawar Public School, relished the Punjabi cuisine, no longer exists. Every time I passed the area in the last one year since it was demolished, I missed the chicken items which the dhaba used to prepare and moved on.

After negotiating the dust and numerous diversions, we cross the crowded Solan and soon after, the construction work stops and greenery starts once again and there is a marked change in topography and climate now. This was the real hills. As we enter Kandaghat and move uphill, the weather becomes all the more pleasant and a cool wind is now blowing. I wanted the smell of the woods in my nostrils and asked the driver to switch off the AC and enjoy the weather. The only stop was at Kiarighat which has a small hotel cum restaurant run by the government owned HPTDC called Apple Cart Inn. Over a period of time, I have developed a preference for the government owned outlets of Himachal Pradesh as they usually have a small lawn, ample parking space and a subtle laziness which I prefer as compared to the professional restaurants which want the guests to leave as soon as you finish what you have ordered.

Here, the waiter is no hurry to deliver what you have ordered and takes his own time following the instructions. “But who is bothered, I have plenty of time,” I thought, looking at the waiter who had only one of the item which I ordered at that time of the morning. The cheese cutlet which I had ordered was indeed very well made and so was the tea and it was refreshing after negotiating almost three hours of the hill drive amid road expansion and diversion.

Soon we were in Shoghi and then the outskirts of Shimla, facing a minor traffic jam here and there in the peak tourist season of May. The driver Jasbir Singh, a Sikh gentleman from Mohali, was an expert in hill driving, having been to Shimla and all over Himachal Pradesh dozens of time. I reminded him twice that if he felt tired, he could hand over the steering wheel to me and enjoy the backseat ride. “Sir, I never get tired while driving,” he told me on both occasions. We reached the resort where the Himachal officials had made the booking for me and intimated me that it was Room number 201. After checking in what looked like a luxurious hotel, I checked its price on the online booking sites. It was expensive, close to Rs 5000 for a day’s stay. The state government official who greeted me at the hotel told me that he had got me a room with a balcony and a view of the hills and valleys and it was quite spacious.

I sat in the balcony of the hotel which had wooden tiles and a well designed table and chair and saw the National Highway No 22 also called the Hindustan-Tibet Road passing 50 feet below. This road ends at a village, close to the border of China and passes through the apple belt of the state, the crop which is crucial for the economy of the state. I have driven on the road on several occasions in the past and instantly remembered my last visit in February this year, a day after it had snowed and the road was quite slippery. It was freezing cold with white all around and even the trees wore a thick blanket of White then.

Well, this time it was cool as I could feel a pleasant breeze making me feel cold in the half sleeve T Shirt in which I had arrived. I soaked in the beauty of the valley below and the massive Kinner Kailash range of mountains at the distance and sipped a cup of tea, enjoying every sip.

Soon, it was time to go for “At Home” of the President Ram Nath Kovind who was on a visit to Himachal Pradesh and was staying at “The Retreat”. The numbered invitation card had mentioned “formal dress” for the occasion. I had packed a suit and also a tie but accidentally forgotten to carry black leather formal shoes. I cursed myself for making a lousy travel preparation but what could you do now. In fact, I had realised my mistake soon after I had crossed Solan and thought if I come across a shoe shop on the way, I would buy one. I looked all around, hoping against hope to find a shoe shop on the highway but didn’t find any.

So there I was, stranded in the hotel with a proper formal suit but no shoes to go with it. I thought of calling the hotel reception to arrange for a black leather shoe having a size of 7. But then I thought how would the hotel manage it? “The hotel looks decent, they will simply ask its employees to hand over their shoe size No 7 to me,” the thought came to my mind. Moments later, I discarded the thought. “They will simply laugh at me for the strange and unusual request,” this thought convinced me not to call the hotel reception. How odd the situation was. I once again blamed my memory, my habit of packing before travel and also the formal occasion where I would clearly be a misfit.

Anyway, there was no way I could back now and refuse to attend the “At Home”. That would have been too embarrassing for my hosts—officials in the Himachal government—and also would reflect poorly on me. So I decided to discard the suit, wear a formal white shirt and Blue trousers and then the sports shoe I was wearing with Jeans earlier during the journey. I looked at myself in the mirror and instantly realized that it was a fashion faux pas, similar to a wardrobe malfunction in the case of a fashion show.

“Let it be,” I told myself, “who recognizes me here?” I tried to convince myself. Then I proceeded to “The Retreat” in a place called Chharabra, on top of the Mashobra hills. Officials greeted me at the security barrier and from here I was escorted in another vehicle to the venue. “I am really sorry, I forgot to carry my black formal shoes,” I told the Himachal official, who accompanied me to the gates of the presidential retreat. He looked at me and then my shoes. “Oh…never mind…such things do happen”, words came out. Clearly, he did not have any answers and must have laughed at my plight. He himself was wearing a nice coat, floral tie and a black pair of shining shoes with a good perfume for the occasion. For the first time, I envied all those who were wearing black shining shoes and this included numerous police men and women who had been put on the VVIP duty.

After passing through the security gate and entering the complex, I was only watching the shoes of the guests. As far as my eyes could see, I did not find anyone wearing casual shoes even the waiters and bearers were smartly dressed. “Well, well, well….enough of shoes…focus your mind on something else, not the shoes,” I told myself. It was indeed a difficult task. As the timing of the arrival of the President was 4.30 and it was still 40 minutes away, guests were asked to sit in a shamiana for a while. We got introduced to each other and I kept watching the shoes of others. Still no sign of any casual sports shoe to give me company.

While sitting on the chair, I deliberately put my feet behind so that people do not watch me wearing the Blue and White running shoes, which also doubles as my travel shoes for the sheer comfort it provides to the feet. Then we moved towards the lawns where the President was supposed to meet all the guests. Police and army officers in shining uniforms, top bureaucrats in their suits, lady officers in their finest saris and suits, spouses of top bureaucrats in their designer clothes and bags were all present. Even though it was outdoors, the perfumes which were liberally applied by the invitees could easily be smelled even by those who had blocked nostrils due to cold. Then there were some politicians—ministers and senior MLAs—who too had come there and here I found at least half a dozen people, either in sandals or casual shoes. “I have company now,” I told myself, promising not to look at the feet of anyone from now on.

A gentle music was being played by the Army band present there. It was a familiar old Hindi film song. Ladies present there got together and pulled out their cell phones for that perfect photo. “Please put this on the WhatsApp group,” I heard someone’s voice after the photo session. The gentlemen too were not far behind, they too got together and smiled for the pictures being shot from phones and still cameras. A few minutes later, there was commotion and it was time for the President to make an entry. The National Anthem was played and everyone was in an attentive mood. The protocol officers with the President now asked the guests too stand in a circle so that it would be easier for everyone. The President came and shook hands with all the guests, some of them introduced themselves with their designation. I simply shook hands with him, with a two-second eye contact, simply saying “Journalist from Chandigarh”.

“Welcome to Himachal Pradesh Sir, said a lady officer,” introducing herself to the President. “You are my guest here,” the President told her, holding an important position in the state government, before moving to shake hands and greet other guests with folded hands. The first lady too was with the President and they met everyone—around 150 people—present in the lawns of “The Retreat” in perfect surroundings with the shadow of the tall Deodar trees falling in the lawns.

The Retreat is a historic building and was used by the British Viceroys and Governor Generals in the then Summer Capital till the country became Independent. The President stays here whenever he is in Shimla and this is a property of the Rashtrapati Bhawan. It is a double storey building with archways, typically British. The lawn was extremely well manicured and flowers looked not only looked beautiful but were quite exotic.

There was a soft signal from a protocol officer to start serving snacks and the counters were opened for the guests. The sweet apple pie was delicious and so was another snack made of mashed paneer. The President was seated with the chief minister and the Governor of the state on a sofa while his family members too were present and enjoying the moment. I took a small walk, near the edges of the lawns to have a feel of the area—acres and acres of forest on two sides of “The Retreat” was a treat to the eyes and no construction was visible from here. On one side, there was a small concrete walkway for morning or evening walks of the host and his family members.

Then, it was time for the function to end. National anthem was played again, guests stood in attention and the President went inside “The Retreat”. It was time again to watch my feet and the sports shoe which I was wearing. “I carried it through. I managed,” I congratulated myself as I called the cab driver and went back to the hotel I was putting up. (May 28, 2018)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/at-home-at-the-retreat-in-shimla.html

God's own country; A microcosm of India

2018-05-07T17:32:00.002+05:30

Amitabh Shukla

Kerala is truly a microcosm of India and has everything which a person in leisure is looking for—beaches, backwaters, cuisine, culture, forests, hills and wildlife, waterfalls…the best which nature has to offer.

Known for its cultural traditions dating back to centuries, you can find almost everything you asked for, here in this state—coconut trees lined up for miles, banana plantations till your eyes can see, plantations of spices of all hues, tea gardens looking like carpets on the hills, beautiful hill stations, the dance form of Kathakali, Ayurveda treatment and massage, the famous boat race, martial art of Kalaripayattu, backwaters which criss cross through the entire state, golden beaches which line up the coastal state, magnificent temples of Sri Padmanabhaswamy, Guruvayoor and others.

A leisurely break in God’s own country was on agenda for long. Finally it fructified as I flew into the Thiruvananthapuram airport which locals continue to call by its earlier name of Trivandrum one fine day with the evening temperature on the mobile app showing a comfortable 26 degrees.

My former colleague Shaji Joseph, now a resident of Trivandrum, had sent his newly acquired Blue car with a driver to the airport to receive us. It wasn’t difficult to locate Ayyappan, the driver, as the Blue color of the car was quite distinct and he ushered us in the car, which had the smell of newness all pervasive inside it.

Within half an hour, we arrived at Shaji’s well kept house in a slightly hilly part of the city and a smiling family welcomed us. Shaji had been a colleague when I was working in Ranchi and he had been a veteran journalist in both Bihar and Jharkhand for a decade and half before shifting base to his home state of Kerala.

Now he is an expert of North Indian politics for several Malayalam TV channels and is happy in his new role.

After being treated to a sumptuous Kerala cuisine, which seemed heavenly after the industrial aircraft and airport food, we remembered old colleagues, our rendezvous in the past, particularly on one Holi when he had consumed Bhang at my place in Ranchi and roamed around the colony for hours, we left for our service apartment which I had booked online. It was a decent apartment with a small kitchenette and all amenities for a comfortable stay.

After waking up early next morning, I chalked out the itinerary of the day, called up a taxi driver and gave details of the places to be visited. Identifying himself as George, the taxi driver quoted his rate and it was agreed on.

As we left Trivandrum city, Sivagiri Mutt was the first destination of the day, close to the popular Varkala beach. The tomb of social reformer Sri Narayana Guru, who propagated the philosophy of a casteless society in the early parts of the last century, is located here and the devotees were chanting in unison from a booklet. It’s a huge Ashram where devotees can stay and the sea is just across a cliff and the cool sea breeze blows round the clock.

Now George had assumed the role of a guide. He had an impeccable Hindi, having worked in places like Meerut for 10 years and in Delhi for another decade before returning to Kerala to start driving the cab of an online aggregator. “I am still trying to settle down in life at the age of 56,” George said, handing out his visiting card, which showed him as a LIC agent. “Sir, why don’t you get an insurance for your kids?” he said, doling out the benefits of the scheme. “I will take a call,” I assured him, just to change the course of conversation.

Within no time after Sivagiri, we were on Varkala beach. It was hot at this time of the morning even as the clock read only 11. A few foreigners were enjoying themselves on the beach, a lone fisherman was trying his luck, a few local children roaming aimlessly and plenty of clueless beach dogs were trying to hide below the beach recliners to save themselves from the scorching heat.

I headed for a beach recliner with attached umbrella and just spread on it, watching the waves hit the shore repeatedly. There was a certain pattern in the waves crashing the shore, a musical sound was there for a connoisseur, there was poetry involved and so was a dance form. Closing the eyes for a moment, I could visualize how this has been happening from time immemorial and will keep happening for hundreds, thousand and millions of years. “This is immortality…the sea is immortal…so is the sky, nature. Human beings are such a small part of this giant scheme of things,” the thought came to my mind.

As I opened my eyes, the waves were still hitting the shore and I thought that this pattern will be repeated for billions of years to come—all times to come. I focused on the distance where a ship was sailing, a fisherman’s boat seemed standing still, and nearer a group of water birds circled and were looking for an unsuspecting prey. Behind the beach was a cliff which enhanced beauty of the area, on the beach a couple of sadhus had perched themselves with umbrellas on, perhaps to feed the curiosity of the foreigners and get some alms.

It was time to move on for a lunch and then to a ferry ride in the Poovar backwaters and Poovar Island cum beach. The slow moving motorboat crisscrossed beautiful natural canals as it made its way ahead. The flora and fauna—mangrove belt besides the waterway and a variety of water birds was mesmerizing indeed. We waived at other tourists on a boat ride and they waived us back; our eyes were witnessing the same magic which nature has to offer. The boatman was now giving a running commentary in his broken English heavily mixed with Malayalam. But I was engrossed in watching the beauty of nature, the moving boat, the water crow, the meditative posture of a crane waiting for his time to strike at a fish and get his meal.

The destination—an island – came and the boat was parked and we made our way to the beach through knee deep water with small fish poking at the feet, giving it a tinkling sensation. The sea here looked dangerous and deep and that prevented us from going any further. But the setting sun in Poovar was magical, the unique colour of sunset on the golden beach, miles of backwaters and mangrove forests and coconut trees lined on the side, made it a special evening. And then, it was time to return back to the service apartment after bidding adieu to George. In between the drive, I knew almost everything about him—his three children, wife working in a private company, mother and his struggle to buy a house and pay the EMIs.

Ayyappan, the driver who picked us from Trivandrum airport, was scheduled to come early next morning with his SUV and was to be with us throughout the trip. He was on time and we had packed our bags. He placed the bags at the back of the SUV and we settled down and went to the famous Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple, the presiding deity of which is Lord Vishnu and it is considered to one of the wealthiest temples of the country with several vaults which has offerings in gold and precious metals from centuries. The temple dress is dhoti and that is what I wore as I queued up along with other devotees for a darshan.

Then we headed to Kanyakumari in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu, a little over 3 hours of drive from Trivandrum. Ayyappan was extremely talkative and gave a good account of his exploits as a driver. He was a VIP of sorts, a former Border Security Force employee, who was deputed to the Special Protection Group (SPG) which guards the Prime Minister, former Prime Ministers and their immediate family members. He described how he had driven former PM, I K Gujral and was posted with Sonia Gandhi and her family for 3 years and has experience of driving all types of vehicles, specializing in armored ones, can make 180 degrees turn, smell danger etc. “I am privileged, I told him…”. He smiled back, “Sir, I was born to drive and took to wheels at 14 years when I did not even have a license,” he answered.

The drive from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari is practically through cities, one town after the other on the highway and vast expanse of urban areas. That is typical Kerala—the highways are the principal abode of the people in the densely populated state. Ayyappan, however, realized that the route had become too boring and he took a diversion and this time it was besides the villages and the sea where he drove. We could see the vast expanse of the Arabian sea, fishing villages, small temples, churches and mosques and of course the signature coconut trees.

We arrived at Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu when the sun was high in the afternoon and settled in the hotel. When I saw Ayyappan now, his thick hair was gone…instead a bald man was smiling at me. “Sir, I use a wig and it is hot here…my children have forced me to wear a wig. I bought it for Rs 12,000. There are four clips and two stickers to fix it,” he quickly gave me all the details of his wig.

Ferry ride to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Thiruvalluvar statue is on the itinerary of everyone and I was not an exception. The sunset from the Kanyakumari temple was beautiful but it was crowded. Next day was for temple visit and then for witnessing sunrise for which thousands of people had gathered in the temple complex when it was still dark. First there was dawn, birds started chirping and soon the brightness increased. The sun gradually rose in all its glory from behind the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, presenting a sight which would remain etched in memory for a lifetime.

Having quality tea—milk and tea leaves are boiled separately and sugar added to taste, made the morning special. Packing, loading luggage in the vehicle and then having Idli-Vada and Coffee at a roadside eatery was the last of Kanyakumari. Now, we were headed for Rameswaram—Lord Rama’s own territory where the exploits of the Ayodhya king and his victory over the demon king Ravana are narrated by everyone.

Ayyappan was born in Tamil Nadu and married to a Malayali. He was a multi lingual and his skills were very useful while talking to people in Tamil Nadu. Now he had kept his wig in his bag and was all shining. He uses it only when he enters the municipal limits of Trivandrum, he told us.

Even before checking into a hotel, a priest Raja Swami had been informed and he advised us what to do and what not to do for the morning prayers next day at the famous Ramanathaswamy Temple. The spacious hotel was 100 metres from the main gate of the temple and an easy walk. But now, it was time to go to Dhanushkodi—the abandoned town on the tip of the Rameswaram Island from where it is said, Lord Rama and his army went to Lanka for that victory of good over evil. What a drive it was—sea on both sides of the road and newly laid two-lane bitumen shining and leading to the edge of the country. And there it was—the last point—an expanse of sand, small islands in the vicinity and all the characters of the serial Ramayana came live. I could hear the loud voice of Ravana, ridiculing all his rivals, the gentle smile of Lord Rama, the anger on the face of Laxman and Sita being held captive in Lanka. I remembered the childhood stories which my grandmother told me when she visited this place and Rameswaram way back in the 1970s.

The sun was setting and now, I had no option but to leave this magical surrounding. The Dhanushkodi town was there on both sides of the road—abandoned railway station, church, temple, houses, water tank…still more remnants of the town are emerging from the sea. There was a massive cyclone over 50 years ago which had destroyed it and the town was declared abandoned. A fishing hamlet has come up over a period of time now and the male folk venture into the sea for their livelihood while the women, children and the elders either sell fried fish, cold drinks or necklaces made of sea shells.

It was time to catch sleep for early morning, 5 am visit to the Ramanathaswamy temple, as directed by Raja Swami. The majestic temple has huge columns, massive corridors and the architecture is something to marvel at. “Elephants can walk in these corridors,” Swami, the 40 year old priest told us.

From one well to the other—there are 22 wells in all—the morning bath was something to remember. A small bucket went inside each of the well, a temple attendant poured water and we moved on to the next wall. “All sins have now been washed,” announced Swami, after we completed the ritual and went for the darshan of Lord Shiva, one of the 12 Jyotirlinga.

“See, nothing grows in Rameswaram. No food item can ever grow here. Temple visitors should donate grains for the custodians of the temple,” Swami announced, after all the ritual were over. Obviously, he was looking for a decent donation, which he actually got due to his services offered.

Bidding adieu to Rameswaram again after Idli-Vada-pongal and Coffee, we head towards Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, almost four hour drive. After a quick darshan, just before the doors close in the afternoon, we head again towards Kerala now.

This time, it was the hill station of Munnar which was on our itinerary. The driver said it will take almost five hours as the road was under repair in some sections of the Munnar hills. “Fine, we will have one last lunch in Tamil Nadu in this trip,” I told him. After looking at several roadside eateries, we finally checked into one—this did not have a name, nor was there anything written in English. Our driver- cum- interpreter Ayyappan helped us choose the menu of the joint, just outside the town of Theni. We were floored by the hospitality of the eatery—they offered us to taste various kinds of rice they had cooked so that we could make an informed choice. Lemon rice, coconut rice, curd rice, tomato rice…all was brought out by the cooks and the staff. We tasted all of them and it was simply amazing. This was followed by a very well made glass of tea. It was incredible eating here, as the staff and the owner made us feel that we were their guests in their home. The bill was too small, the taste still lingers and the hospitality was simply amazing. The owners waived us off as we got into the cars, we waived back at them.

On the 2-lane National Highway 85 now, we came to an abrupt halt soon after the lunch as a group of men stopped the vehicle. A groom and his bride were crossing the road and going to their village. Their convoy of vehicles had stopped and all those in the wedding party were proceeding to the village.

A big goat was in front of the procession, being held to the rope by a man. The rest of the men were carrying wedding gifts on their heads—shining utensils of all varieties, furniture, etc. “The goat is a gift from the bride’s family for the party tonight at the groom’s house,” said Ayyappan. Pointing at the rest of the items, he said this was dowry. “This is very common in this part of the country. I am also saving for my daughters,” he said.

Small hills were now all over the place along the National Highway and soon we started the climb. The landscape kept changing every 100 metres until we were in the territory known for its spices and tea gardens. Entering a garden of cardamom for the first time was an experience to cherish and so was plucking a fruit eating it and getting that wonderful flavor. On the way, Ayyappan, stopped at several places to show us the tress and plantation of spices of all varieties, rubber plants and what not. Truly, this was god’s own country.

Arriving at Munnar soon after sunset and opening the car doors made us feel cold. We weren’t prepared as the outside temperature was around 18 degrees, cold as per Kerala standards. We settled at a suit of Kannan Devan Guest House, the company which runs several tea plantations in the Munnar region and was previously owned by the Tata Group.

The evening was spent strolling in the busy part of the small town, now overgrown with plenty of tourists, hotels, guest houses and vehicles. “Tea and tourism is the main source of survival of the region,” explained Satheesh, who owns a gift shop selling local souvenir, particularly plenty of homemade chocolates.

Early morning, it was time for me to explore the place on foot. The weather was cold, cloudy and wonderful with some sign of fog. I wore two T shirts to beat the cold and explored all parts of the small town, chasing away a couple of stray dogs who found it strange that a tourist was on a morning walk at 6 am in the morning and welcomed me with incessant bark. Armed with a selfie stick to scare away the stray dogs, I was confident and saw shopkeepers cleaning their shops, newspaper vendors distributing the dailies published from Kochi, the drivers of tourist vehicles, lazily getting out and cleaning their cars. Soon, it was time for the well dressed school kids to come out to board the school buses. That’s normal life in any part of the country…despite the diverse languages, dress and cuisine all of us are the same in all parts of the country.

Munnar sightseeing was for next day. Visit to the tea leaves processing factory, tea gardens, spice gardens, Mattupetty Dam, ferry ride, Echo point, Top Station, waterfalls…the list is endless. Description would not do justice to some of them nor would any picture. It has to be seen so that it becomes a part of your visual eco system.

After two memorable nights in Munnar, it was time to head back to the commercial capital of Kerala, Kochi or Ernakulam. Fort Kochi, Chinese nets, a sumptuous fish meal at the Marine Drive, visit to the oldest church of the region and back to the Hotel, walking distance from the airport… the trip was now coming to an end. I made the payment to Ayyappan, hugged him and bid adieu, promising to visit Kerala again.

As we headed for the airport early in the morning by the drop van of the hotel, the memories of the trip were vividly etched, more so, when waiting for the announcement to proceed to the boarding gate.

It was at the boarding gate that I spotted Zareena Wahab, just behind me in the queue. We got talking. She had no airs about herself despite being a star in the Hindi movies of the 1070s. “I still keep listening to Gori tera gaon bara pyara, main to gaya mara……Jab deep jale aana…O Goriya re O Goriya re…” I narrated the songs which I could remember of the films in which she had starred then when I was a child and films the only form of visual entertainment. She smiled. “Those were the days of music and simplicity,” she said, having played the role of village belle for long, she was the perfect person to say that. She was in Kochi to shoot for a Malayalam commercial. “Some Malayalam films and commercials keep me busy and I keep coming to Kerala,” she said, asking is the places we visited and offering here opinion about those places. We boarded the bus to the aircraft together but had separate seats for the Hyderabad bound flight. That was the end of an excellent but brief conversation and also the trip to God’s Own Country. (May 7, 2018)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/gods-own-country-a-microcosm-of-india.html

Sun, Sand, Sea, Shopping, and the Desert

2018-05-07T17:23:00.000+05:30

Amitabh Shukla

Visiting Dubai for the second time in seven months, partly for work and mainly for fun, got me the sobriquet of a “Sheikh” by family members. Unmindful, I proceeded to the IGI Airport in New Delhi from Chandigarh to catch a Spicejet flight and jokingly told them, “I was going to sign a contract for an oil field”.

I could have boarded a flight from Chandigarh itself as there is one direct flight between the City Beautiful and Dubai. But the timing of the flight was a little odd—it would have reached Dubai late in the evening and the return flight was early in the morning. That was the reason of preferring Delhi as I could have lost precious time which I could have used roaming around the city.

After an overnight journey by Haryana Roadways Volvo straight to the airport, it was time to enter the majestic premises of the IGI Airport. Entering the airport itself or rather watching any flight overhead, makes the adrenaline go high for a travel enthusiast like me. Had it not been for work to get some stability and earning, I would have been either on road or air—in snow and mountains, beaches and coastal areas, sand and deserts, forests or rivers…wherever nature takes me or cajoles me to go.

My senior friend and publisher, Rajen Kumar was in the same flight. He met me soon after and we proceeded for the hassle free check in. The Immigration Officer however, was a little inquisitive, after he learnt that I was a journalist. He was a reader of The Pioneer and asked me: How is the editor in chief, Chandan Mitra? “Great, I said…busy editing the newspaper”. Then he told me, “his comments and analysis of current affairs on TV is so apt and accurate”. I replied, “of course”. Then after talking about current affairs and seeking my opinion, he fiddled with his desktop and stamped my passport and let me in.

Window shopping through the duty free shops, selling Scotch and other items, I had some Idli and Coffee in the food court before proceeding to the boarding gate. Tourists, blue collar workers, professionals—I could easily classify the people standing in the queue in my mind, according to their appearance, language and dressing style. I could also gather whether one was a first time flier or a frequent one according to their demeanour. I guess many in the queue must have also judged me or tried to do so. Isn’t this what most of the common mortals like me or you do?

It was time to settle down on the window seat with Rajen Kumar in the middle seat. Soon a tall and heavily built man, clearly a Muslim by his bearded looks, arrived and adjusted himself in the aisle seat. He had a tall frame—well over six feet, wearing a jeans and a shirt and I guessed his weight must be close to 120 kgs. He had friendly eyes and smiled at us as he settled in his seat with some difficulty.

Soon we got talking. His name was Assad and he was a Dutch national—from Netherlands. He was flying back to his home country with a stopover in Dubai from India. His great grandfather had migrated to Europe from Gorakhpur in India way back around the First World War. He himself was born and brought up in Netherlands and a practicing Advocate there and in love with the country of his origins—India. “Madre watan ki khushboo yahan kheench ke le aati hai” (The charm of the motherland brings me here time and again”) he said, in a Hindi which was typically spoken in European accent. He was 35 years of age and this was his seventh visit to the country, the second in a year. Assad only spoke in his typical Hindi accent, refusing the speak in English with us, often the gender was missing or wrong for a purist of the language, but the spirit was intact.

I thought Assad’s sasural (in-laws house) was in India and that’s why he was such a frequent visitor to the country. “Meri Begum gori hai" (my wife is White) he said, while showing the photograph of his 2-year old daughter Jannat. His wife’s name was Samantha. “I call her Sammy,” he said, smiling and she had been rechristened as Fauzia after wedding. “I have made friends in India, have dug out my old relatives, visit all parts of the country when free and return back,” said Assad, the true global Indian.

It was time for the pilot to announce the descent after around 3 hours and 15 minutes of flying. I could see virgin beaches without any signs of population below, triggering a chain of thoughts and desires—“Could I ever live in a beach all alone with only fishes for company?”, “Could anyone offer me the ownership of a small island where I could build a cottage and count the stars at night?” “Will there be a time when there are no boundaries and a person is free to move wherever he wants to without restrictions?”

The aircraft landed with a thud, breaking the chain of thoughts and desires. A points person from the hotel, who identified himself as Subbu, originally from Tamil Nadu, was there waiting with a placard. Along with Rajen Kumar, I slipped inside his car and he told us in chaste Hindi how he had worked in countries like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and for the last 8 years in Dubai. He ushered us into the Crowne Plaza in Deira area of Dubai with the clock in the phone reading 11 am. It was a plush room with a view of the swimming pool where sun starved white foreigners had spread themselves, some in water and others on the poolside recliner chair. I made a cup of tea with Dilmah tea bag with the equipment in the hotel, had a quick bath with warm water, dressed up and was raring to explore the city. We called Kapil, a permanent resident of the city, a creative filmmaker, whom I had befriended during my last visit in September 2017. He was free only after 8 pm and advised us to visit the City Centre in Deira for shopping and recreation.

With Rajen Kumar by side, I hired a taxi, driven by a Pakistani driver (there are a lot of Pakistanis as taxi and bus drivers in Dubai) for the City Centre and the fair was only 15 Dirhams (one dirham is approx Rs 18). The taxi driver was from Lahore and told us that the authorities are very strict. “One complaint by a tourist against a driver and he is deported back to his country of origin,” said the Lahori driver, dropping us at the City Centre.

Malls the world over are the same, showrooms of many brands too are the same and so is the food court. Only the shoppers and shopkeepers are different. We entered Carrefour, the big retail store which sells anything and everything and has a chain of outlets in Dubai. All I purchased was chocolates and dates to see smile on the faces of kids back home. In a globalised world, you don’t have anything which you could lust after in a foreign land as everything is available in our country.

After returning to the hotel room, it was time for the evening function in the Ballroom of the hotel where guests from various nationalities were present. Kapil had arrived by that time and we were treated to some exquisite belly dance from two supple dancers. I could not talk to them to find about their nationalities but was told that many of such belly dancers are either from European countries or from the countries comprising the erstwhile USSR. Indian food dominated the dinner and soon it was time to sleep.

The function for which I had come was next day at Hotel Burj-al-Arab, built in the shape of a ship with a hanging restaurant, perhaps one of the costliest in the world where the minimum rate of one day stay was around Rs one lakh in Indian rupees. The hotel is actually in the sea with a bridge connecting it from the land and the area near entrance had luxury vehicles like Ferrari and Rolls Royce parked to impress casual visitors like me. The view of the Dubai skyline from the 22nd floor was amazing—sea on one side, buildings and landscape on the other. Inside, it was luxury all the way with furniture and chandeliers oozing out the different colors and shades of money. I may not have been impressed much but a lot of people indeed were; relentless clicking of selfies and pictures suggested so.

Next day was for Mall of Emirates and Dubai Mall. Besides showrooms,the first one had a ski and ropeway on snow with supposedly a penguin and other snow sports in a temperature which was minus 10 degree Celsius with ice all around even as the outside temperature was a hot 33 degrees. The Dubai Mall had a huge aquarium in which variety of sea fish were staring at the humans around them. Otherwise, there is little to distinguish one Mall from the other in all parts of the world, including India.

Of course, Burj Khalifa—the tallest structure of the world was unique. It is visible from everywhere in Dubai and towers all buildings even when seen from the tiny windows of the aircraft. The dancing light show near the Burj Khalifa, in the courtyard of Dubai Mall was indeed mesmerizing in the backdrop of soothing Arabian music being played amid a clapping and cheering crowd.

It was time to shift to another hotel—Ambassador in Bur Dubai for the next two days. It is 15 minutes drive from Crowne Plaza in Deira and is located in one of the oldest and busiest part of the city. There, we were greeted by Poonam Chand, an employee of the hotel who had come to the airport to receive us in the previous visit. He was warm and ushered us in one of the better and bigger rooms of the hotel. He booked us for desert safari the next day.

Breakfast was at Shravana Bhawan, a chain popular all over India, having half a dozen branches in Dubai as well. Steaming hot Idlis, Vada and pongal made the day. Filter Coffee added to the satisfaction and the Bill for two persons was 44 Dirham or around Rs 792, something which would have been the bill in India as well. All cooks and waiters had come from south India and their place of origin was virtually written in their mannerism, language and appearance.

For the desert Safari, driver Rashid came in the afternoon with his Toyota Land Cruiser and was himself dressed in Arabic gown without the headgear. A couple was already sitting in the vehicle. Soon, we got talking and he introduced himself as Bikash Khatiwada from Kathmandu in Nepal—a former model and now a photographer and owner of an Event Management company, his wife Aayushi and their 30 month old daughter Yuvna, who has been a child model for several Nepal commercials. After sometime, the driver picked up a young Chinese couple on the way and now we were six people from three different countries on the vehicle bound for dune bashing.

Just before the desert came, the tyre pressure was reduced to half to make it fit for grip in the sand and two vehicles started in tandem. The drivers were attired in the dress of a Sheikh. One was Lateef from Multan in Pakistan, besides Rashid. When prodded about his dress, Lateef admitted, “Main Nakli Sheikh hai” (I am a false Sheikh). When Rashid revealed that he has been driving desert safari vehicles for the last 10 years, I felt it was safe to take the ride.

And then the roller coaster ride across the sand dunes in the desert began. It was frightening first when the Land Cruiser went deep into the sand and then climbed the dune and dangerously two of its wheels hung in the air. But then walking out was not an option at this juncture, particularly when Yuvna and her Nepalese parents were shouting in joy and making a film. After the photo op in the middle of desert, we were again given the same roller coaster ride back to the base station and heaved a sigh of relief.

Next itinerary of desert safari was a big camp, again in the middle of a desert but thankfully without the intimidating sand dunes. There was a stage in the middle and sitting arrangements all around it with plenty of people from all nationalities—mainly Chinese and Indians—enjoying themselves with the eateries provided in the package. As the sun retired for the day, a dervish started his dance and moved around in various forms of circle. This was followed by a belly dancer who performed her signature steps and then finally a young person who was an expert in fire play. The enclosure resembled an Arabian rest place where traders on camels take rest for the day. For special effect, there were camels around for a ride, falcons tied to their respective handlers for photos and hukkas placed for those who wanted a puff.

Lot of other things happened in between, visit to the Dubai creek, morning walks in the heritage village, “Disco chai” in an Indian “Chai Ghar” at 2 am sharp and then back to the duty free shops of Dubai International airport and then catching a late night flight to IGIA.

At Delhi, just before the Immigration counters, there was another encounter with a handsome Sikh gentleman, his White wife wearing the headgear of a religious Sikh lady was in tow along with their White daughter. I smiled at them, they smiled at me. We did not talk, only exchanged smiles but immediately I recalled the Dutch national Assad, his wife Sammy and their daughter Jannat. Wasn't this familiar and similar? Only the persons had changed. This is life…in all its myriad mysteries and openness, in all its splendor…this is human being—the same everywhere in this tiny globe. (April 23, 2018)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/sun-sand-sea-shopping-and-the-desert.html

Day in, Day out, it is BSF on the borders

2018-01-12T17:25:00.000+05:30

Amitabh Shukla | Hussainiwala (Ferozepur)

It’s freezing temperature on the international border and fog has made life tough for those guarding it. There is wild growth on the other side of the fence and the Sutlej River crosses over to Pakistan here, making the area sandy and difficult to walk.

But if you ask B Mallikarjuna, from distant Karnataka, if life is tough. His immediate response would be—“No sir. The sanctity of the borders of the country is so important. It is sacred to us, more important than anything else”. The colleagues of Mallikarjuna are quick to add as they pose a counter question, “How can life be tough and boring when there are so many challenges to overcome?”

That is the Indo-Pak International border in the Ferozepur sector for you and the spirit of the jawans and officers of Border Security Force (BSF) which guards the nation’s frontiers for us.

Just as we are talking, three wild boars dash towards the fence to get over to the other side. They have made small openings in the fence itself and its surprising how they come to Indian side during the day time and spend the night in the wild growth on the other side of the fence, a part of it in India and then in the neighboring country.

Some of these boars are trapped in the fence and electrocuted in the evenings as electric wires are switched on and criss cross on the fence in a pattern which makes it practically impossible for any intruder or smuggler to take this route to India.

Jaswinder Kumar Birdi, Commandant, 105 Battalion of BSF, says smuggling of narcotics is of prime concern and the entire energy and focus is on checking the trade from the other side. He cites figures for the seizures and said, “We have ensured that their nefarious designs never succeed”.

Birdi along with another Commandant who is on a visit from Mohali inspected the modern and newly constructed three storied Border Out Post and issued instructions to those on guard duty. From here, the jawans with position on the top floor can observe any suspicious movement for miles and take appropriate action. The officer says that all of them are trained to observe any movement, particularly during the night time and fog when the smugglers might think that they can take advantage of the conditions.

On some stretches where there are rivers, rivulets or drains crossing the fence, the BSF has come out with a mechanism wherein lasers are deployed to check any infiltration attempt. “If the circuit of the laser breaks, which is if any object comes between the laser, there is loud beep beep and the jawans immediately take positions,” Birdi explained. One of his jawans put his hand in front of the laser and there is a sound immediately, indicating that the system was fool proof.

Officials explained that the little smuggling which takes place is through those farmers who cross the barbed fence for agricultural purposes. “These farmers are thoroughly checked before the gates of the barbed fence are opened and also after they come back in the evening. But smugglers try to be innovative and occasionally hide narcotics in hollow space in agriculture equipment and joints of tractor trolleys and similar methods,” said an official. Some of the earlier methods like using a plastic pipe to smuggle in the narcotics or simply throwing it from across the border for another courier this side has huge risk and propensity to get caught is high, officials said, suggesting that this has come down significantly in recent months.

After the vigorous work at the border, there is another grueling task for selected jawans to perform—this is the retreat ceremony at the time of lowering of flags for both India and Pakistan at the Hussainiwala Border every evening. This is the public face of the BSF which the entire world sees and admires. In perfect coordination, the BSF Jawans and the Pakistani Rangers rupture the silence in the evening at the International Border by the clattering of heavy boots. The well dressed BSF men in Khaki with impressive read head gear amid slogans of Bharat Mata ki Jai and Hindustan Zindabad march in perfect coordination for half an hour.

Satyapal Singh who is one of the six men in the impressive retreat ceremony is in the BSF for 22 years and is doing the retreat parade for the last 8 months. Hailing from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan, the six and a half feet Jawan leads the team at the parade and inspires other members. Dileep Kumar from Koderma in Jharkhand has been doing the parade for the last 18 months and is energized when the Indian crowd eggs him on and urge him to show aggressive gestures.

Constable Manohar Lal from Pali district in Rajasthan is quite impressive. He shows amazing flexibility while lifting his legs which extend beyond his soldiers—a feat which is extremely difficult. “I practice for it and keep the body fit” says the Jawan, who is into this parade for the last three years and has been in BSF service for the last 6 years.

Asked what motivates them every day, the jawans say, “enthusiasm of the public, adulation, selfies with the visitors as they feel so important and love for the country”. The performing Jawans add, the more the adulation, the more they put in their effort to impress the country men and also the Pakistani visitors about the Indian might.

Manohar Lal adds, “The more public chants, the greater motivation we get”. Despite the aggressive gestures both by the BSF Jawans and the Pakistani Rangers, the entire parade is held is very cordial, said the Jawans. “We also have joint practice when there is a change in Jawans from either side for perfect coordination,” said the Inspector in-charge of the post.

With officers and Jawans from all over the country, nothing could be more symbolic of national integration than BSF. It is here that caste, colour, State and language gets blurred and what one gets is a common love for the country and disdain for those who violate the borders. Life on the border is tough. But the Jawans are tougher. January 11, 2018)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/day-in-day-out-it-is-bsf-on-the-borders.html

http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/a-peek-into-bsf-jawans-daily-grind.html

BJP picks Jairam as HP CM

2017-12-25T17:33:00.001+05:30

Amitabh Shukla | Shimla

After an internal power struggle in the Himachal BJP for five days, the party announced the name of soft-spoken Jairam Thakur, having strong roots in the RSS, as the new Chief Minister.

With the party doing exceedingly well in the Mandi region in the Assembly polls, winning nine of the 10 seats, the Rajput leader got the nod ahead of other contenders and will be the first leader from this region who will get the coveted post.

All other Chief Ministers of the State so far have been from Kangra, Shimla and the lower hills. Soon after his name was announced, the tense political atmosphere in Shimla, decked in festive spirit ahead of Christmas and New Year, turned boisterous with his supporters bursting into impromptu celebrations.

Thakur, the 52-year-old five-time MLA from Seraj in Mandi was chosen after the BJP chief ministerial face Prem Kumar Dhumal faced a shock defeat from Sujanpur constituency, the result of which was announced on December 18.

After the BJP won two thirds majority, Dhumal’s supporters pitched in for his name despite his defeat, crediting him with the impressive performance of the party in the polls. He was one of the top contenders for the post despite his defeat but at the last moment, the Central leadership of the party convinced him and his supporters that this would not send good signal to the rest of the country as the countdown for the general elections of 2019 has already begun.

Another serious contender for the top job was Union Health Minister JP Nadda. But party sources maintained that sending him to the hill State would have ensured a vacancy in the Union Council of Ministers and also the BJP Parliamentary Board which would have led to some difficulties for the Centre. Also, he would have had to contest an Assembly bypoll in six months and given the defeat of Dhumal in the Assembly polls, it was not easy in the current political situation.

Though a low-profile politician, Thakur cut his teeth as a pracharak of the RSS in the Jammu region before shifting to electoral politics. He has been a State party chief and has a good experience in Government as Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister in the BJP Government headed by Dhumal. Though the party leaders on record did not give importance to the caste factor, it is a well-known fact that Himachal politics is driven around the Thakur (Rajput) axis and this perhaps contributed to a consensus on his name. “One Thakur (Dhumal) makes way for another Thakur,” summed up a party functionary in the State capital, suggesting that any other caste for the top job would have led to apprehensions.

Thakur was elected leader of the BJP Legislature Party after the Central leadership convinced the State leaders on Saturday itself that the observers — Nirmala Sitharaman and Narendra Tomar — had found a consensus. The observers had submitted their report to party president Amit Shah and a consensus was built around Thakur’s name in consultation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi even before the meeting of the Legislature Party, sources indicated.

In the BJP Legislature Party meeting on Sunday, Thakur’s name was proposed by Suresh Bhardwaj, himself a contender for the top job, two-time former Chief Minister Dhumal and seconded by Nadda and another two-time Chief Minister Shanta Kumar. Tomar later told the waiting mediapersons that there was no other name in contention and Thakur was chosen unanimously as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party.

The Central observers Sitharaman and Tomar were present along with Nadda and State party in-charge Mangal Pandey in the meeting of the MLAs. It is understood that all the pros and cons were worked out in advance and a decision on Thakur’s name was taken before the meeting of the Legislature Party and the announcement was a mere formality.

Soon after the Legislature Party meeting, the Chief Minister-elect met Governor Acharya Devvrat at Raj Bhavan to formally stake claim to form the new Government in the State. Party top brass was present at the meeting, including Dhumal, indicating that there was complete unanimity after his election for the top job. Thakur is likely to take oath of office and secrecy soon after Christmas.

Thanking all party leaders, including Prime Minister Modi, party chief Amit Shah, Nadda, Dhumal and Shanta Kumar, Thakur said his Government will try to meet the expectations of the people of Himachal Pradesh. “Our dream of a Congress-free Himachal Pradesh has been realised,” an enthusiastic Thakur told a huge media gathering.

After his stint in the RSS, Thakur contested for the first time on a BJP ticket in the 1993 Assembly polls but lost. He won for the first time in 1998 and has won five elections so far, including this one and has considerable legislative experience and also sway amongst the newly elected MLAs.

Riding on a strong anti-incumbency wave, the BJP had ousted the Congress from power by winning 44 out of the 68 seats in the Assembly polls. Thakur will be the sixth leader of the State to occupy the Chief Minister’s Office and the 14th Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. (December 25, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/todays-newspaper/bjp-picks-jairam-as-hp-cm.html

BJP's landslide in HP, but CM face bites dust

2017-12-20T17:05:00.003+05:30

Amitabh Shukla | Shimla

Riding a strong anti-incumbency wave and a positive vote for change, the BJP on Monday wrested the hill State of Himachal Pradesh from the Congress and will form the next Government.

Though Himachal affirmed its faith in the policies of the NDA Government and gave thumbs up to the intensive campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the electoral strategy of BJP chief Amit Shah, it, however, gave some jitters to the party. BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal bit the dust. He was defeated in Sujanpur from where he was contesting for the first time and not from his traditional stronghold of Hamirpur by protégé-turned rival Rajinder Rana.

After Dhumal’s defeat, some of his camp followers among the newly elected MLAs, offered to vacate their seats for him. BJP’s victorious candidate from Kutlehar Kunwar Vikram Singh offered to vacate his seat for bringing in Dhumal to the State Assembly. A section of his supporters floated conspiracy theories as he was allotted a constituency, which was altogether new for him.

A Dhumal supporter said being a disciplined soldier of the party, he accepted to contest elections from any seat given. He said late announcement of Dhumal’s name as CM candidate has cost him personally as he could not focus on his own constituency but in the entire State where he ensured the success of BJP.

Dhumal, who contributed significantly in the overall success of the party along with his son and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur, accepted his defeat and said that the result was unexpected and the party would do introspection. He congratulated the winners and party workers for the spectacular victory.

The defeat diluted the sweet taste of victory as the party will have to look for someone else, most probably, Union Minister JP Nadda, the choice of the central leadership, as the next head of the Government. The loss of state BJP president Satpal Singh Satti also was not music to the ears of BJP supporters.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and party leader Narendra Tomar will visit Shimla to get the opinion of the newly elected legislators in a day or two to decide on the new name.

Interestingly, the State continued with the three-decade-old tradition of voting out the incumbent Government even as Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh continuously maintained in the campaign that anti-incumbency was not an issue.

What has come as a personal silver lining for the septuagenarian six-time Chief Minister is the victorious electoral debut of his son Vikramaditya Singh from Shimla Rural constituency. His own victory from Arki constituency was hardly a surprise even though he never went there to campaign after filing his nomination papers.

Singh accepted the defeat. “I own responsibility for the defeat…,” he said in the state Capital, adding that he respects the mandate of the people as it was their prerogative of making a party victorious. Singh, who single handedly, campaigned in the State, however, indicated that he got little support from the central leadership of the party.

Congress cabinet Ministers GS Bali, Kaul Singh Thakur, Prakash Chaudhary and Thakur Singh Bharmouri faced defeat in the polls.

Another surprise was the victory of CPI(M) after two and a half decades in the State from Theog, a seat which was represented by Vidya Stokes in the last Assembly. The area made headlines after a schoolgirl from the area was gangraped and the issue turned into anger against the Virbhadra Singh Government and the opposition successful cornered him for deteriorating law and order situation.

The tally of 44 for the BJP and 21 for the Congress in the 68 member House, almost two thirds majority in the State, suggested strong grip of BJP following its sweep in the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 where it had won all the four seats. In the outgoing House, the Congress and the BJP had 36 and 26 seats respectively. (December 19, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/todays-newspaper/bjps-landslide-in-hp-but-cm-face-bites-dust.html

Eyes on the road and hands upon the wheel

2017-12-18T16:27:00.001+05:30

Amitabh Shukla

You cannot have a decent quality life anywhere in the country without quality roads: Whether you go to school or cycle to work, whether your trip is on the tractor to the local mandi or a long drive in a sleek car...

For a lot of fellow citizens, the vast expanse of black bitumen on roads, unbroken and serpentine stretches, with wide expanses of the countryside and the hills unfolding, sends the adrenaline pumping. Ask those who travel on many bitumen wonders or highways of the country and they will swear by the excitement driving on them has to offer.

Driving is not only a stress buster but also a learning experience. Nature, people, aspirations, food, culture, society, the economy… you name it. Being based in Chandigarh is of great help when planning a long drive due to its geographical advantage — it lies in the foothills of the Shivalik range and the great Indian plain ends here. The joint capital of Punjab and Haryana is perched on the edge of the vast expanse of the Indo-Gangetic belt, the mainstay of Indian agriculture since the Indus Valley Civilization. So, one has the best of both geographical worlds, the hills and the plains, in front of one, a diversity which is rare in any part of the world.

I may be a travel junkie and love driving for the fun of it plus I can select very good highways in the vicinity to hit the road, but for a majority of the people in the country the use of roads is an everyday necessity. You cannot have a decent quality life anywhere in the country without quality roads. Whether you go to school or cycle to work, whether you go to the local mandi on your tractor to offload your produce in a bullock cart or whether you are on a road trip in a sleek car. In many ways, the first contact of a citizen with the effectiveness or lack thereof of a Government is the road s/he uses to get from Point A to Point B.

The National Highway I, for example, which connects Delhi to the two prosperous States of Punjab and Haryana, takes you to Himachal Pradesh on the one hand and Jammu & Kashmir on the other. There would hardly be any decision-maker in the Capital or in the four northern States who must not be using this road for travel purposes. The stretch between Panipat and Jalandhar should have been converted into six-lane in 2011 but it was left to the Supreme Court to issue directions to the concessionaire which ensured the completion of the project only recently.

This project should now be used as a case study in school management how not to build new road projects. It should also be used as a case study to give contracts for other road projects so that they do not get into legal wrangles and cost over runs. Drive ahead to Jalandhar in Punjab and one would find a major flyover stuck in legal mess for years together on the national highway. Every motorist, who use the highway, curse the authorities as it spoils the pleasure of their journey.

Further, there’s yet another expressway which should have been built years ago — the much awaited Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway — which is expected to reduce vehicular congestion and as a result, pollution in the Capital but has perpetually been under construction with one legal issue or the other cropping up every time. This can be yet another case study of a project in the management of schools with the chapter saying: How not to build a road; KMP case study!

What perplexes me the most is that most national highways have perpetually been under construction since years. Most of them are being six-laned. Two decades back, the National Highways Authority of India was under the process of converting the highways into four-lanes. I wonder whether construction and widening would be a permanent feature of the roads. Half a decade from now, the need will be of eight-lane roads and maybe 15-20 years down, the volume of traffic may force the authorities to have 20-lane roads.

One fails to understand what prevents the authorities from constructing 12-lane roads straight away in important stretches, keeping in view the traffic scenario of 2040? It does not require rocket science to know that the number of vehicles on roads keep increasing everyday and vehicles need space to move. I am sure after the six-laning of NH-8, which goes to Jaipur and Mumbai, the need will again be to make eight-laned roads in the next five years and then 10-laned roads in another 15 years from now. Why not build it today itself? If it’s not planned today, construction activities will continue all the time and one will hardly find a 200-250 km of expressway free from construction or broadening activities.

The Ambala-Zirakpur (Chandigarh) stretch was four-laned only six years ago and already the need is being felt to widen it to six-lane with multi-storied housing complexes coming in vicinity of Chandigarh and accompanying vehicles clogging the road. What worsens the situation is the fact that whenever a new stretch of road comes up, there is heightened economic activity around it. Housing colonies are built, shops, eateries and small scale establishments come up and even rural population shifts towards the road to take benefit of the new economic activity.

In the last few years, there has been hectic construction activity on NH from Delhi to Amritsar, Delhi to Jaipur and Delhi to Lucknow via Moradabad and Bareilly. Shifting of economic activity in and around the roads will lead to a situation where only a few stretches alongside the highway will be left for paddy or mustard fields as the remaining space will be gobbled up by commercial activities.

Coming back to the joy of travelling on the road, nothing can beat the hilarious shop sign — ‘child bear’ sold here. It’s only when you take the kids to see the baby bear and are confronted by a liquor shop selling ‘chilled beer’ that the truth dawns.

Trucks, however, rule the roost when it comes to innovative slogans. Most slogans appeared like works of fledgling litterateurs, who could not get their work published and, had rather taken to writing slogans on trucks as a career! Himmat hai to aage nikal, warna bardasht kar (If you are brave enough, overtake me, otherwise tolerate me), warned one frightening slogan. I was brave enough and overtook the truck without any fuss. The driver merely brought out an extended palm from the window of his huge vehicle and facilitated the overtake without taking the slogan written on his truck seriously.

Imagination ran wild in the case of some slogans. Recently, on a trip to Shimla, I thought the owner of one of the trucks or its driver was using abusive language when the slogan at the back said, Teri Ma ki. However, in equally bold letters followed Jai Ho. So, the entire slogan read: Teri Ma ki jai ho. I never came across such a slogan anywhere!

Another slogan said, Amiro ki zindagi biscuit aur cake par, driver ki zindagi clutch aur brake par. There were hundreds more. Tata phir milenge and buri nazar wale tera muh kala seemed to be written on maximum number of trucks and read like a national slogan of the big Indian beast that were the trucks with number plates identifying vehicles from far and wide including Orissa, West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala.

One fuel station on NH 1 was giving a bathing soap free for every 100 litres of diesel and the limit was 400 litres. Half a dozen of trucks and their drivers were lazing around early morning in the vicinity of the fuel station, giving an indication that marketing strategy indeed worked.

At another, if a driver had to use a clean toilet, he had to fill in fuel first. Fill the tank, get a slip and then show it to the guard in front of the toilet to ease yourself. Another private fuel station had kept a log book of the diesel filled in by a particular vehicle in a month. The prizes were good-set of steel glasses for 1,000 litres, briefcase for 2,000 litres, branded shirt so on and so forth. Business on roads has become quite innovative over the months and years. Knowing about it is the perk of road travel. (17 Dec, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/sunday-edition/agenda/opinion/eyes-on-the-road-and-hands-upon-the-wheel.html

Gujarat model and after: Need for a long-term policy

2017-12-11T17:09:00.002+05:30

The long wait may be over but many questions remain

2017-11-27T18:54:00.005+05:30

That Rahul Gandhi is finally being elevated to lead the Congress is not surprising at all. Nevertheless, the million dollar question is: Has the Congress scion developed the political acumen to take on the BJP?

Amitabh Shukla

It was one of the worst kept or rather the most publicized secret of Indian politics — Rahul Gandhi becoming the president of the Congress. Ever since he came into politics and contested the Amethi Lok Sabha seat 13 years ago in 2004, there was not even an iota of doubt that he would be the top boss of the party one day.

The reason is simple: ‘Dynasty’ is the keyword for the Congress and a leader, whose mother, father, grandmother and great grandfather have been Congress presidents, would naturally take over the mantle some day. There is no rocket science involved here and everyone, even in the remotest part of the country, perhaps, knew it. It was simply a matter of time as the question merely was ‘when’ and not ‘who’.

No wonder, soon after he became an MP, there had been a consistent clamour by an overwhelming section of the younger generation of Congress leaders, primarily the dynasts and speculation in the middle and upper echelons of the deeply entrenched party men and women, as to when and how will Rahul Gandhi take over from his mother, Sonia Gandhi.

Now that the decks have been cleared and the heir-apparent for a long time would finally take over as Congress president in the first week of December, speculations will finally end. In fact, after having occupied the post of the party president for the highest number of years in the entire 132-year-old history of the Congress, speculation would now be on the role of party chief Sonia Gandhi in the grand old party. Also, what will now be the role of the old guard of the Congress, which has been consistently loyal to Sonia Gandhi and who managed to read her mind over the years as also influenced her directly or indirectly, occasionally in conflict with the stated desires of the younger Gandhi.

Perhaps what prompted the Congress to anoint Rahul Gandhi as the new party chief at this juncture in the month, when the Congress was founded in 1885, was the perpetual indisposition of 70-year-old Sonia Gandhi. In the high decibel, Himachal Pradesh Assembly election, she did not campaign at all. Even in the ongoing campaign in Gujarat, she is conspicuous by her absence. She was vacationing in Himachal Pradesh when a small bout of illness again forced her to go back to Delhi. She has been in and out of India for treatment for a while now.

In fact, it was the 47-year-old Rahul Gandhi, who was made the party vice president in 2013, who was the de facto party president for the last four years after officially becoming the Number Two in the party hierarchy at the Jaipur convention. It is a different matter that now, this official No. 2 position is being sought to be elevated to Number 1, even though the entire brass of the party knows that the actual decision-making since 2013 was being done by Rahul Gandhi himself.

The million dollar or rather the billion rupee question is: Has Rahul Gandhi re-invented himself to take on the mantle of not only the Congress but also the electoral charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi?

As we can see in the electoral polity, it is increasingly becoming a clash of towering personalities, something similar to the presidential form of contest and electioneering in the United States. Rahul Gandhi proved himself to be incapable of taking on Prime Minister Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, followed by several Assembly elections, the most important of which was the Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll.

In his home State, Rahul Gandhi himself selected the candidates, and decided to go for an electoral alliance with the Samajwadi Party and then faced one of the most crushing defeats of his lifetime, the second time in a row. When he took the mantle in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh poll, taking all decisions, the party just managed a little over five per cent of the seats. Both in 2012 and 2017, the entire political strategy in the largest State of the country of the soon-to-become Congress president collapsed like a house of cards, exposing him to several uncomfortable and probing questions.

Of course, what saved Rahul Gandhi from a complete political humiliation in March this year was the redemption in Punjab to a great extent. Here again, in the clash of two personalities — Capt Amarinder Singh on one side and the Badal duo on the other (Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal), the former won. Even though Rahul Gandhi’s political strategy was limited to non-interference in Punjab affairs and leaving almost everything to Capt Amarinder, no one would really call it a sign of a maturing Rahul Gandhi. Punjab cannot really be termed as a victory for Rahul Gandhi’s political acumen. Not even the staunchest Congress supporter would buy that argument.

So, what has changed between the disaster of Uttar Pradesh in March and certain ascension of Rahul Gandhi in December? Politically, nothing but perception wise, the Congress is thinking that the tide is somewhat turning against the BJP at the Centre and it is the right time for Rahul Gandhi to take over so that he can be projected as a leader of stature against Modi in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha poll. The party, perhaps, thinks that by projecting a prime ministerial candidate, they would be able to stitch up an anti-Modi alliance in the remaining months.

There is also a belief amongst Congress strategists that an element of voter fatigue with the BJP has crept in after being in power for three and a half years at the Centre and they are increasingly finding traction once again amongst the electorate.

In the last six months or so, speeches of Rahul Gandhi in foreign countries and during election campaigns in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, is being cited as signs of the maturing of a leader. Of course, Rahul Gandhi does not sound immature now the way he did all through his tenure as a politician, it remains to be seen how it translates into votes in the near future. In fact, trust deficit of the electorate with the Congress has only widened over the years and months since the summer of 2014, when the grand old party of the country was reduced to its lowest figure in its entire electoral history of independent India.

Instead of reinventing itself in any big way and offering a new narrative to counter the electoral juggernaut of the BJP, the Congress is more or less counting on anti-incumbency, if any, against the Modi Government and is hoping that the alleged negative impact of demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax on the economy would help it overcome the political odds stacked against it. Being the principal opposition party at the Centre and most States, it is hoping that it would come to power by default rather than by a concrete design and roadmap. Is it a mere wishful thinking or is there any concrete electoral traction on the ground, only the results of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat on December 18 would show.

Rahul Gandhi would become the party president in the middle of the Gujarat election campaign — a State where the party is hoping to make a comeback bid. Not that the Congress hopefuls are hoping to return to power in a State where they have been out of the equation for decades. All they are thinking at this moment is a good show to use it as a launch pad for the next 16 months when the rival political parties would try to match each other in high decibel in the run up to the general election of 2019. (Nov 26, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/sunday-edition/agenda/opinion/the-long-wait-may-be-over-but-many-questions-remain.html

DAGSHAI, The Weekend Wonder

2017-11-20T16:43:00.000+05:30

Amitabh Shukla

Dagshai in Himachal Pradesh may only be a small hill station or rather a small Cantonment town, perched on top of a sunny hill on the highway to Shimla, but when you decide to take a detour and come here and spend a few hours, you are bound to enjoy the bounty which nature has to offer.

While going to Shimla from Delhi or Chandigarh, you cross Dharampur, a small Himachal town on the highway known for its eating joints, the most popular of which is undoubtedly the time tested Giani Da Dhaba. It may have been demolished now due to widening of the road and a new structure coming up in place of the old but not long ago it was difficult to find a seat here on the weekends. Ask the old students of numerous public schools around these hills and they will swear by its food. Now, a lot of other eateries have sprung up here, including those of popular food chains, and doing decent business but the work on four-laning of the road has ensured that this lively place now looks more like a dusty, war torn zone.

Anyway, just after you cross the main crowded market of Dharampur which also has a heritage railway station, there is a detour on the right to Dagshai. A signage of the Cantonment Board welcomes you to Dagshai, set up by the East India Company of the British, to escape the intense summer hills of the plains, 30 kms away.

In fact, so conscious were the British about their comfort that they set up three Cantonments nearby — Kasauli, Subathu (the birthplace of Gorkha regiment) and of course Dagshai in close proximity. Then, a little ahead is Shimla, the summer Capital of the British, which also has a significantly large military setting. Whenever I visit these areas, I wonder what the strategic importance of these Cantonments was in those days which prompted the British to set them up in the first place. The reason has to be only one — salubrious climate which reminded the British of their homes and the weather in England.

Of course, for travelers like me, Cantonment Boards like Dagshai, Subathu and Kasauli still are islands of cleanliness, devoid of commercialization which still preserves the old world charm. You can still find and romance with the glory of a bygone era in these three Cantonments in close proximity.

Back to Daghshai, what attracts a traveler like me is silence. This is what brings me back to this place every now and then. When I was in Class I or II, the teachers used to shout “pin drop silence” whenever the naughty boys were at play in the classroom. I never understood the meaning of pin drop silence in school, despite the teachers berating us and forcing us to do so. But here, in Dagshai, just choose any place off the stiff climb, sit there and all you would hear is “pin drop silence”. Even if you drop a pin, you could hear it falling here, literally. Of course, chirping of birds, the melody of flowing breeze, dancing leaves on the numerous trees as the gentle wind caresses them…these cannot be considered sound. This is nature’s magic.

There are no hotels to stay here. Dagshai is not meant for that. But even for a routine tourist, the place has several sightseeing options. The most prominent is a British era Jail — a formidable structure, this is popularly called the Cellular Jail of north India with 54 high security cells. Maintained by the Engineering Wing of the Indian Army, you can see how tough a jail life was in the British era for the Indian freedom fighters.

The St Patrick’s Church, now hardly used came up with the small Cantonment town itself and is a typical colonial architecture, now attracting curious visitors, keen to know their history and heritage. Thick pine and oak trees ass to the charm of the place as you decide to take a walk all around the place and stare at the architectural marvel of a bygone era.

After spending the day roaming around all over the quite Catonment cum hill station, sipping tea at a couple of tea stalls, munching some snacks and also closing your eyes for a quick nap on one of the numerous benches and shades, overlooking wonderful valleys, drive down to Kumarhatti on the other side of the hillock where Dagshai is located. The stiff down hill drive will take you to the crowded market and all of a sudden you will realise how important is solitude to a human life. How important it is to spend time in nature's company...How important it is to realise the value of silence and nothingness which envelops you in these marvels of nature. (November 20, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/dagshai-the-weekend-wonder.html

Bitter battle in the Queen of Hills

2017-11-17T19:46:00.002+05:30

Anti incumbency may sway Himachal poll results

2017-11-13T17:39:00.000+05:30

Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh

One of the most fiercely contested elections recently, Himachal Pradesh is one classic case of democracy where anti incumbency seems to be sole determining factor in the November 9 assembly polls.

If Virbhadra Singh Government is voted out of power forty days later on December 18 when the results are to be announced, it would be largely due to anti-incumbency as the State has been voting out the incumbent Government for the last over three decades without fail.

Not that the six-time Chief Minister has done a lot of development work in the last five years and he needs another term to complete his work. That’s not the case. Himachal is one State where successive Government — BJP and Congress — both have done remarkably well and touched the developmental chord and consistently strived to improve the social and economic indices of the State.

So much so that whoever has been in power, they have focused on core areas like roads, schools, health, transport, women empowerment, horticulture, agriculture tourism etc. Of course, a lot of work still needs to be done as development is an ongoing phenomenon, but it is pleasant to find that there is no politicisation of development in the hill State unlike its neighbours. Ask the villagers and they will tell you that the BJP started that work and Congress completed it or Congress Government started a particular work and the next BJP Government ensured that it was complete as per the time schedule.

Many villagers do not even associate any work with any political party, simply saying that the government did it. “As long as we get our old age pension on time and other schemes, we are not even bothered to find out who funds the scheme-Centre or the state,” said, Daulat Ram, a village head in Una constituency. Rani, who goes by the first name, and who runs a shop on the highway from Hamirpur to Una, is satisfied with governance as her expectations have been met broadly. “Whatever scheme is announced, either by the Centre or the State, comes here and the villagers get benefit. There is so much awareness now that whoever is in power in Shimla ensures that we are not left out,” she added.

The general refrain in Himachal is that “it’s a well administered State” and whoever has been in power, has more or less continued the work done by the previous regime, except a few exceptions here and there. Comparison with other states like neighbouring Punjab would be apt as polity here, is completely divided by two adversarial political power structure of Akali Dal and Congress where one upmanship is the norm and verbally tearing each other apart is practiced without fail. Not in Himachal, where good work by the other party keeps on going and the political rival too has little or no issues with it. Even when the local but rival Himachal leaders attack each other, it has little to do with conviction and more to do with political expediency and demands of their respective high command.

Travelling in the hill State during the elections was an eye opener. The bitter acrimony which the rival political parties — BJP and Congress — engage in at the macro level, is absent at the micro level. The high decibel campaign doesn’t really affect the voters living in areas outside the urban habitats and largely they get influenced and go by door to door canvassing and personal touch of candidates. The simple Himachalis in the hinterland are convinced more by their friendly neighborhood candidate and their accessibility than the helicopter flying tall leaders making tall promises or leveling all sorts of accusations against their rivals.

During my travel during elections, I came across numerous tea stall owners, cloth shops, dhaba owners, daily need shops, heads of gram panchayats etc, where the local MLA comes in the evening either for a drink, tea or a simple chat all throughout his or her tenure of five years. Most of the people I interacted with in the villages and the hamlets adjoin the State highways and Major District Roads, personally knew their MLA, had met them and interacted with them on numerous occasions.

“That’s a way of political life her. This is how you conduct your politics here,” said Ramesh Singh, a dhaba owner in Arki constituency. He is a school friend of the sitting MLA Govind Sharma of the BJP and has been voting for the Lotus for the last two terms of Govind Sharma. As his friend Sharma is not contesting this time, he would rather go with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who is contesting from Arki for the first time after leaving his Shimla Rural seat for his son Vikramaditya Singh. “I am what you can say, a floating voter. I take a call at the appropriate time. Had Govind Sharma been contesting, it would have been extremely difficult for me but I would have gone with my friend,” he added. Sharma is a regular at the Dhaba.

There were few takers for the allegations of corruption leveled by top BJP leaders against chief minister Virbhadra Singh. “Corruption is a non issue in Himachal Pradesh. Who would believe that Raja (as Virbhadra Singh is known) who has ancestral wealth running into multiples of crores, would indulge in corruption amounting to `5 crore or something,” said a Professor in Himachal Pradesh University who did not want to be named.

Another Congress leader added, that the problem was in the “unprofessional accountants of Singh who did a shoddy work” while filing his tax returns. They are not willing to buy the charge of BJP leaders that a Raja would indulge in such a small corruption. “People simply laugh it away,” said the Congress leader, when asked about the main election plank of BJP.

The Professor, who is a fence sitter in the politically surcharged State in the run up to elections, does not have a grudge against the BJP either. “See, Congress raised the issues of demonetisation and GST in the elections. These issues are of no consequence to the people of the State,” he said, adding that “the biggest failure of Congress remained finding issues which could find traction with the people”. The Professor said that in a relatively prosperous state, the level of expectations keeps increasing. “People keep voting out the incumbent Government as the expectations are not met. In fact, no government can ever meet all expectations and that is where they vote out one Government and bring out the other,” he added.

The Congress leaders, who claimed to have toured the State and who were managing the polls from the State party headquarters on Cart Road, said it was a “normal election” unlike the “wave election” of 2014 where BJP resoundingly won all the four parliamentary seats in the state. They kept on insisting that Modi is no longer a strong factor in Himachal Pradesh.

BJP leaders disagree. “There is no proof so far to suggest that the Modi wave is on decline. We just won a landslide in UP earlier this year and that was entirely due to Modi magic,” said a BJP leader in Hotel Combermere, the headquarters of the party during the assembly polls. “We have a triple advantage in Himachal this time-charisma of Modi, chief ministerial face of Prem Kumar Dhumal and anti incumbency,” summed up the BJP greenhorn, who claims to be well acquainted with the broader socio-political current of the state.

So, there you have it. The political trend in Himachal is slightly different and it would be difficult to see it from the prism of macro factors that determine the trend in the rest of the northern state. Local factors, local leaders and localized issues seem to dominate the broader contours and that makes the elections all the more exciting. November 13, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/anti-incumbency-may-sway-himachal-poll-results.html

Change dominant political theme this November

2017-11-09T16:36:00.003+05:30

Amitabh Shukla / Shimla

As Himachal Pradesh goes to polls on Thursday to elect its government for the next five years, the battle is clearly between change offered by the BJP and status quo offered by ruling Congress. Not surprisingly, change is the dominant political theme this November in the hill state where both the two main parties have shared power one after the other for the last over three decades.

Even as anti incumbency against ruling Congress is visible on the ground, chief minister Virbhadra Singh has not lost his popularity despite being repeatedly attacked for corruption and promotion of dynastic politics. In the upper hills, there is still reverence for royalty to some extent, particularly in the elderly men and women and also because Singh has been one of the stalwarts of the state, being a six time chief minister and being in politics since making his parliamentary debut in 1962.

Singh says the party is fighting the polls on the government’s all round achievements in all fields be it education, health, providing water and road network and other indices of development. Singh readily cites statistics to bolster his claims and how the state has developed in successive Congress regimes. He tells his audience in his meetings how the BJP government is targeting him on small matters of income tax with multiple agencies hounding him, how vindictive the Centre is and how all his bank accounts have been sealed. “Is this the way of governance?” he asks.

His rival, Prem Kumar Dhumal enjoys similar popularity in the lower hills. Being a two-time chief minister having mass connect and popular support, the announcement of his name as the chief ministerial face of the party, triggered enthusiasm amongst the BJP cadres and even the fence sitters. The announcement by party chief Amit Shah, BJP cadres say, clinched the deal for the Lotus as it was a last minute “master stroke”. “Had the BJP gone without a name, it would have confused the cadres and supporters,” said a party veteran in Shimla.

“There is a wave of change blowing in the entire state. Gone are the days of kings and kingdoms. We are committed for a golden future of the state and have released a vision document for this. There will be no corruption, no mafia raj and effective administration for the betterment of all Himachalis,” said Dhumal. He cited the achievements of the central government and pointed out how important it was to have the same party government for faster and rapid development throughout his whirlwind campaign.

For BJP, it was the campaign strategy of carpet bombing the state with its top leaders which seemed to have gone well, particularly the floating voters who make a decision at the last moment. “Just see how much attention BJP is giving to the state. They will give similar attention after coming to power,” said Anil Bhardwaj, a young school teacher and a voter in Nadaun, near Hamirpur.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed seven rallies in every part of the state, Congress President Sonia Gandhi was completely absent from campaigning apparently due to ill health. Party Vice President and heir apparent Rahul Gandhi of course, addressed three rallies to make for the deficit but clearly involvement of top leadership of Congress from the campaign was missing. Congress sources in Rajiv Bhawan in Shimla admitted of “meager resources” and lack of adequate interest from High Command.

Interestingly, in the 2012 assembly polls, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had not addressed any political rally. This shows how important the elections are for BJP. Party leaders point out that for Modi and BJP leadership, winning back the hill state was a vital for the campaign of “Congress Mukt Bharat”. Several Union Ministers and chief ministers of BJP ruled states spread in every nook and corner to spread the message of the party across while most of the senior Congress leaders only addressed press conferences in Shimla.

From Congress, 83-year old Virbhadra Singh was the star campaigner and fought the polls valiantly. Campaigning for up to 16 hours a day by helicopter and road, Raja sahib as he is known in the state, left no stone unturned. He, however, did not work and campaign seriously for a few candidates, chosen by the high command and this posed serious question marks on the unity of party rank and file.

Though the results would be announced only on December 18, Himachal polls would be known for the high decibel campaign of BJP and muted response of Congress and voter indifference to making issues like demonetization and GST as poll campaign. Anti incumbency would be the single biggest deciding factor in the polls.

PROMINENT CONSTITUENCIES

1. Arki: Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is contesting against new comer Rattan Singh Pal after BJP denied ticket to two-time MLA Govind Ram Sharma. It is considered to be a safe seat for the chief minister as he did not come here after filing his nomination, except on the last day for some time. Besides several developmental schemes in the last five years here, there is an emotional connect of the voters too as the Raja Sahib has declared that this is his last elections and people want to give him a decent farewell, at least as an MLA.

2. Sujanpur: BJP chief ministerial face and two time chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal is contesting against his former protégé Rajinder Rana from Congress. Rana, who won the seat in 2012 as an Independent, has been a friend turned foe and knows the strengths of Dhumal in specific areas and is countering them. But declaring the name of the 73 year old as the chief ministerial candidate has swung the electorate towards him.

3. Shimla Rural: It’s a electoral politics debut for Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s son Vikramaditya Singh who is pitted against Pramod Sharma of BJP. The chief minister had vacated this seat for his son and had planned his succession for the last few months giving several projects in the area. But the people wanted more attention and better infrastructure from the state government.

4. Theog: In the heart of the apple belt and a traditional seat of veteran Vidya Stokes, there was a goof up and the Congress gave ticket to Deepak Rathore. BJP has fielded Rakesh Verma while the CPIM too is giving a tough fight with the candidature of veteran communist leader Rakesh Singha. Rathore did not getting any support from the chief minister, practically leaving the contest between the BJP and CPIM candidates.

5. Shimla city: Interesting contest between powerful Congress rebel Harish Janartha and official Congress candidate Harbhajan Singh Bhajji. Though, BJP’s Suresh Bhardwaj is expected to sail through, it’s going to be a four cornered fight with CPIM’s Sanjay Chauhan too having considerable influence amongst the hotel workers who constitute a sizeable section.

6. Mandi: With BJP fielding Congress defector Anil Sharma, son of scam tainted former Union Minister Sukh Ram, the contest has interesting overtones. Sharma was the Rural Development Minister in the outgoing Virbhadra Singh government and will fight with Congress nominee Champa Thakur, daughter of State Health Minister and senior leader Kaul Singh Thakur.

7. Nadaun: State Congress chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu who was continuously at loggerheads with the CM Virbhadra Singh is locked in a battle with BJP’s Vijay Agnihotri. However, BJP rebel Lekh Raj Sharma has queered the pitch for the party with his presence. Due to this contest, Sukhu has been confined to the constituency rather than drawing strategy for the party and campaigning in other parts of the state.

8. Una: Bordering Punjab, state BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti is contesting from here against Satpal Raizada of Congress. Both are fighting each other for the second time in a row after 2012 assembly polls and this is expected to be a close contest.

ISSUES

1. Law and Order: Gudia gang rape which rocked the state just a few months before the announcement of polls, triggered a major resentment against the government which was forced to order a CBI enquiry. BJP accused the Virbhadra Singh government of shielding the guilty while Congress countered that the case was handed over to CBI which reports to the BJP ruled Centre. But the gang rape suggested that all was not well in the hitherto the peaceful state. Murder of forest guard Hishiyar Singh, allegedly by the forest mafia too shook the faith of the people in the Congress government. This case too has been handed over to CBI and Virbhadra Singh accused Congress of politicization of crime in his election campaign.

2. GST and Demonetization: It’s a major theme in the election with the Congress raising the bogey of disruption of economy and BJP mocking at the Congress for being corrupt and opposing transparency. However, the people at large are hardly affected and both demonetization and GST have failed to get the traction of the electorate.

3. Import duty on foreign apples: Congress has accused BJP of neglecting the interests of apple growers by not increasing the import duty on foreign apples even though it had promised it in the 2014 elections. “Horticulture and agriculture has been completely neglected,” said former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit while campaigning. On the other hand, BJP lists steps it has taken in successive regimes to help the apple growers of the state and has promised more.

4. Employment generation and regularization of employees: Congress says that there has been an unprecedented employment generation and regularization of contract employees in the five-year tenure of Virbhadra Singh and insist that this is their USP in this election. The BJP does not deny this but its chief ministerial face Prem Kumar Dhumal says when they come to power, they will regularize 35,000 employees.

5. Monkey menace: In several parts of the state, monkeys have devastated local economies, particularly affecting the small farmers. Both BJP and Congress are accusing each other of not doing enough and promising to control it. Monkeys have been declared as vermin in the state but still dud to religious feelings, culling is hardly an option. Now both parties are saying they will set up more sterilization centres to check the monkey population

6. Expansion of Tourism: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set the ball rolling by saying that the state is a top destination in the world but the potential has not been developed. He has promised better road, rail and air network to exploit tourism potential which would be facilitated by the same party government in both Centre and the state. The promise has found traction in the state where a large number of population depends on income from tourism. Congress government is on defensive as they had overturned several tourism projects of the previous BJP government (2007 to 2012) of Dhumal. (November 9, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/change-dominant-political-theme.html

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/change-dominant-political-theme-this-nov.html

BJP smells massive win in Himachal

2017-11-09T16:20:00.001+05:30

Amitabh Shukla | Shimla/Hamirpur

It may be a “no wave” election, but the Congress in Himachal Pradesh is looking at an “honourable defeat” rather than a second consecutive term for Virbhadra Singh, popularly known as Raja Sahib in the hill State.

As campaigns ended on Tuesday, the debate in the Congress circles was limited to how many seats would the party consider as “honourable defeat”. There was unanimity that if the grand old party won 25 of the 68 seats, the honour of the party and its leadership would remain intact and its cadres would have something to look for in the future.

The BJP, on the other hand, is excited, thrilled and is anticipating a massive win. Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur told The Pioneer that the party was on its way to get 54 seats. He cited several numerological statistics for the Number 9 which is lucky for party's Chief Ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal. This included the time when his name was announced as CM face of the party, the date of birth of Dhumal and many aspects related to the 73-year-old two time Chief Minister.

“Numerology is one thing. But the sheer absence of governance in the last five years from the Himachal hinterland was the main factor which is propelling the BJP and has given it a major momentum,” the MP said. “Just go and see the development indices-roads, drinking water…and you will realise how badly the Government has performed,” said the three-time MP, who is himself addressing eight-nine meetings in a day.

What is helping the BJP is the involvement of veteran Shanta Kumar in the Kangra region which has 16 seats. In the 2012 Assembly polls, Kumar was not happy with the ticket distribution and did not campaign effectively and BJP won just 3 seats.

“This time, he is whole heartedly involved and there would be a four-fold jump in the number of seats in the Kangra region,” a senior party leader, adding “dramatic improvement in Kangra itself would take us beyond the magic number”.

The lower hills, considered to be the bastion of BJP due to the political charisma of Dhumal and Thakur, is behind the party as usual. People in the belt from Punjab border of Himachal, which is from Una to the interiors of Hamirpur, do not even hide their political inclinations.

“Just see this fluttering flag and you will realise which way the wind is blowing,” said, Nafe Singh, a 45-year-old shopkeeper of Bhota, pointing towards the Lotus flag of the party on top of his shop. His friend Prem Sharma too echoed the same sentiments. “We are sniffing a wave here for the party”, Sharma added.

The BJP has carpet bombed the entire State with a series of political rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he has continuously targeted Virbhadra for corruption and inefficiency. This has found traction even amongst the Congress sympathisers. Then several rallies by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister Smriti Irani and others in every nook and corner of the State has built the momentum.

“It's a BJP Government in the Centre and we need a BJP Government in the State too to reap the benefits. It's not a question of merely change of Government. It will benefit every Himachali,” said Monu, a 25-year-old driver who claims he is not committed to any party but would vote as per the situation. “And undoubtedly, this time, the situation demands that a BJP government comes to power,” he added.

In the upper hills, Shimla district and the apple belt, the area from where Virbhadra hails from, there is a no antipathy towards the six-time Chief Minister. “He is a doer and is popular in the belt. He will win hands down in Arki despite changing his constituency,” said Mahesh Inder a 60-year-old small dhaba owner on the main Arki road. Himself a BJP sympathiser, Inder has appreciation for the work style of “Raja Saheb”. “He is accessible and also has the charisma associated with royalty in this part of the State,” summed up the dhaba owner. His son, who assists him in work, nods in agreement.

But Virbhadra Singh is fighting a lonely battle-all alone. The support from the party has been minimal. “He is putting in 15-16 hours a day in campaigning and that too mainly by road,” summed up an aide.

In the Congress Bhawan on Cart Road in Shimla, the mood is still upbeat as there are areas designated for campaign in social media, researchers are sitting and analysing speeches and the young cadres and professionals are trying their best to counter the BJP juggernaut.

“We are giving a tough fight in each and every seat. You name a seat and we are there,” said Harish Bafna from AICC in New Delhi, coordinating electioneering in the hill State. A team of researchers and AICC observers spread in all 68 constituencies is briefing their bosses in Shimla on the developments to prepare a counter strategy.

But in the State, there is a gradual agreement that the last political battle for Virbhadra Singh would simply be a farewell function for him and his dream of becoming the Chief Minister for the seventh time would remain in the realm of dream only. (November 8, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/bjp-smells-massive-win-in-himachal.html

JHARKHAND LIVES BY ITS TRADITIONS AND INNOCENCE

2017-05-08T18:02:00.002+05:30

Amitabh Shukla

Last fortnight, I was travelling to Jharkhand, which many say is the younger brother of Bihar, from which it was carved out as a separate state in the year 2000. I was present in the function at Raj Bhawan when Shibu Soren took oath as the first Chief Minister of the state at the stroke of midnight. But that’s a different story for some other time.

Travelling from Chandigarh to New Delhi is fast and convenient by Shatabdi Express. It’s a different matter that the food in the train has shown no signs of any improvement over the months and years. Instead old timers insist that the food served was much better and tastier a decade ago than the industrial and bland food served by bored waiters now.

From New Delhi Railway Station it’s a breeze taking the Airport Express Line of the Metro. It’s truly world class. In fact, you could check in your baggage here if you are travelling by Air India or Jet Airways from Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. As I was headed to board a low cost carrier’s flight from the Terminal 1, getting down to the Aero city station and then taking the AC feeder bus service was a much better option than taking a taxi which invariably gets lost in the well known Delhi traffic jams.

So far so good. But the problem started at the Airport itself with the Indigo flight to Ranchi delayed. Initially, it was delayed by half an hour, then an hour and finally two hours. In fact, all the flights from T 1 were delayed by several hours due to what I was told by the airline staff was “unusual congestion due to bad weather” over Delhi skies. Anyway, my eyes couldn’t find any bad weather.

Due to the delay in most of the flights, there was an unusual rush inside the departure area. The shopping area near the departure after security, was full of people and all seats were taken. An equal number of people were standing, waiting for the opportunity to get a seat if someone’s flight was announced on the screens in the voice free airport. Two gentlemen were playing old Kishore Kumar songs on guitar, a few passengers listening, others amused and most looking at the screens for new flight timings.

The situation near the departure gates was worse. A sea of humanity had converged. Irate passengers were arguing with the airline staff about the ever changing timings of their flight. There was hardly any place to stand, forget getting a seat to sit. Passengers were sitting on the staircase, in fact any possible area where they could relax for a moment. Isn’t it time to have another airport near Delhi when passenger traffic is at its highest and air fares have come down to second AC fares of train if purchased in advance?

After waiting at the airport for over 4 hours, finally the flight left for Ranchi, a little over 1000 kms away with a flight time of 1.30 hours as the Captain announced.

Ranchi has been a familiar city as I had worked here at the beginning of the millennium for around 17 months when the new state of Jharkhand was created. But those were different days. A lot of water has flown down the Subarnarekha (a well known Jharkhand river) since then. Multi storied buildings and flats, fast moving vehicles in the four-lane road connecting the Secretariat to the areas where the VIPs reside, a five-star hotel, international cricket stadium…some of the obvious signs of what we call “development” in the modern parlance. So much so that I could not even recognize the area where I had lived in Ranchi years ago.

But the more things change the more it remains the same. On Sunday, I borrowed a friend’s car and went to Rajrappa to pay obeisance to Chhinnamastika temple, known for its tantric cult all over the region. I have been to this temple, known for animal (goat) sacrifice for ages, three times in the past and this was my fourth visit. I’m not sure if Maneka Gandhi is aware of the prevalent goat sacrifice in the temple which could be at least two dozen on a routine day and much more during festivals. The goat, which is always garlanded, is offered to the deity as a “Prasad” and taken inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple for blessings. Then it is taken to a courtyard for sacrifice and the meat is distributed amongst non-vegetarian friends and relatives as “Prasad”. As I was visiting the temple after a gap of 16 years, a lot had changed. The Bhera River had become dirtier, commercialization was rampant, shops had sprung up all over the place for pilgrims from Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. But then, there was also an occasional tantric, deep in meditation on a rock which abounds in the region. A different kind of a spiritual experience all together.

While crossing Ranchi on the way to Rajrappa, I saw tribal women in different groups, dressed like men with iron weapons slung on their shoulders or in their hands. Initially, I thought that this must be some demonstration, may be of the extreme Left parties which operate in the inaccessible parts of the state. The women, of all ages—from teenage to septuagenarian—were dressed identically. They had tried their best to hide their female identity by tying their hair in a head gear or a baseball cap. The dress was pant or Jeans with a shirt. There was no male in their group and they wore menacing looks as they moved in the streets of Ranchi in their group of 15 to 50 women each. The weapons which they had included Swords, spears, Gandasa, big daggers, iron roads and all its variants. Fortunately they did not carry guns.

Despite having an inquisitive mind and the instinct of a Reporter, I did not ask the women what was the purpose of this entire exercise and where were they headed to. I got the initial answer from a local driver. This was a tribal ritual which happens once every 12 years and was called Jani Shikar. The tribal women dress as males and get hold of any eatable animal or bird and either kill it or carry it home. Goats or hens were easily available and this was what they were looking for.

On the way to Rajrappa, between Ormanjhi on National Highway and Gola, I was on the wheels when a group of these tribal women waylaid our car with hills on both sides of the road. Carrying weapons, as they were, it was terrifying for a moment as they could have hit the windscreen of the car or even one of us. But when I downed the window, all a tribal women asked was some money. Promptly, I gave Rs50 note which was lying on the door jacket of the car for payment of toll tax. She took the money and waived to her colleagues that this car has paid and need not be troubled again. There were around 15 vehicles stuck there in the crowd of the tribal women and all of them paid. The local explained to me again. Hunting in forests has been banned or even if these women force their way in the forests, there are hardly any animals to hunt. With this money collected, they will buy chicken or a goat and have a feast which would only be for women. That’s feminism and militant one at that.

While coming back from Rajrappa in the late afternoon, back to Ranchi, I saw the group of tribal women again. This time some of these groups had managed success in their hunting campaign. In one of the larger groups, I found two dead goats and 4 Hen, tied to a bamboo pole and being taken to their hamlets for a feast in the evening. In another small group, comprising of 15 women, the catch was only one goat which was tied to a cloth and taken alive. In the third group, all they had managed was a hen, its legs tied up and being carried. Again, I was told that whatever animal came their way and could be eaten, was killed or taken alive, depending on the mood of those who were on the hunting mission. The person who owned the animal or Chicken had no right to protest as this was a ritual and he better watch out if he said something.

Back in Ranchi, I was informed how this tradition developed. A group of tribal women had managed to defeat a local Mughal warrior in the medieval period during the tribal festival of Sarhul when the men were drunk and not in a position to fight the aggressors. Since then, Jani Shikar is celebrated by women to remember that occasion, reinforce equality in the tribal society and also to assert their rights in the fast changing environment around them. (May 8, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/jharkhand-lives-by-its-traditions-and-innocence.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/ranchi/2017-05-07-170055.html

HIMACHAL PRADESH IN ELECTION MODE

2017-04-24T17:16:00.000+05:30

Amitabh Shukla

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually launch the election campaign of the BJP in pol- bound Himachal Pradesh with his rally at the historic Ridge in Shimla on April 27. Though Modi is on a visit to the state to re-launch air connectivity of the state Capital with New Delhi, his rally would be by and large a political affair with the PM expected to urge the people to oust the Virbhadra Singh government in the next elections.

As all the possible permutations and combinations, along with poll arithmetic is going in its favour, this is one state which the BJP thinks would go for it “come what may” in the Assembly polls to be held in December this year.

After the resounding victory of BJP in Uttarakhand, a little over a month ago, the party is in an upbeat mood in the neighbouring hill state of Himachal Pradesh. It is looking at parallels with Uttarakhand and also the same sort of poll related engineering in which several leaders from the Congress shifted to the saffron party in the run-up to the polls.

Desertions may or may not happen in Himachal but what is certain is that a political churning is going on in the state at a fast pace and there could be several “surprises” in the next few weeks.

Despite the assembly poll eight months away, there is hectic political activity, triggered by the questioning of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh by the Enforcement Directorate for nine hours in New Delhi last week. The beleaguered 6-time chief minister, one of the senior most politicians of the country, is facing a series of probes by multiple central agencies in the election year, which has sapped the entire political energy of the 82-year old Congress leader.

Singh, who remained unscathed in his previous tenure as Union Steel Minister in the UPA II despite allegations against him, is now finding himself cornered. Almost everyone in his family has been questioned and his house raided by the tax authorities on the day when his daughter’s wedding was about to take place. Not that he himself not try tricks to find dirt in the Opposition. A series of vigilance cases were lodged against the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur. This was primarily done to tarnish the image of BJP as well as Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal. Most of the cases, however, have fallen flat and little is left of them now.

Consistently on the backfoot, Congress leaders in Himachal now say that the party would build its electoral strategy around the “victim card” which the septuagenarian chief minister would play if any “untoward” incident (read arrest) takes place. Singh has already given indications of this strategy, charging the NDA government in the centre of witch hunting its political opponents. Even if he is not arrested, he will go the people saying how BJP is “unnecessarily targeting” him and his family, how they raised his house on the day of his daughter’s wedding and so on and so forth.

Top BJP brass held a series of meetings in New Delhi with their Himachal counterparts anticipating that the Congress government would fall either due to desertions or as some party functionaries said, if the chief minister himself is arrested. Governor Acharya Devvrat dashed to Delhi and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh and others to apprise them of the latest political developments in the state.

Former chief minister and Leader of Opposition, Prem Kumar Dhumal too met top brass of the party in New Delhi to ponder over the next course of action and assess the ground situation in the poll bound state. Union Health Minister J P Nadda, who has emerged as the fulcrum around which the BJP politics in the state is revolving at the moment, also assessed the ground realities of the state in his meetings with the party leaders from the state.BJP insiders in the state insist that the state would go their way if normal elections are held later this year without any wave. They are giving ample hints that if the chief minister is arrested, this may trigger a sympathy wave ahead of the elections. “This should be completely avoided and the legal process prolonged,” a party leader said.

In Himachal Pradesh, power revolves between the BJP and Congress and this has been going on for the last over three decades. In the last Assembly polls, Congress won the polls and BJP was a close second.

Even the Congress sympathizers in the state say that this time, it will be BJP all the way and they are themselves ruling out the return of the Congress. The only uncertainty is the fate of Virbhadra Singh. If the central agencies take a tough stand against him and go to the extent of arresting him, only then the political arithmetic would change, Congress leaders say.

BJP won all four seats of the state in the 2014 parliamentary polls by a handsome margin. The party even won the Mandi parliamentary seat, considered to be the bastion of the Congress as it was the seat of the wife of the chief minister, Pratibha Singh, who was contesting against little known RSS worker Ram Swaroop Sharma. Since then, pro Modi sentiments have dominated the political discourse and almost everything is going in favour of the party as of now. In the Bhoranj assembly by poll earlier this month, BJP retained the seat, indicating a groundswell of support in its favour.

With Virbhadra Singh being targeted by both the CBI and ED, senior most minister in his Cabinet, Vidya Stokes came in an attacking mode alleging that the leaders of BJP had ulterior designs in their minds to destabilize the popular and elected government at the State but their ill wishes will never be fulfilled. “The public of the State is well aware of the ill designs of BJP and will not tolerate any attempt to sabotage the Congress Government,” she said, referring to three issues—possible desertions, removal of Singh by Congress leadership if arrested or early elections.

“The BJP is trying to create vicious atmosphere and issuing ethereal statements just to create confusion and false atmosphere in wake of visit of Prime Minister, to the State,” Stokes added.

But BJP insiders say that their leadership is in touch with Congress dissidents who are weighing their options and opportunities. “There will be a tectonic shift in Himachal politics after the visit of the Prime Minister,” a party leader said. (April 24, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/himachal-pradesh-in-election-mode.html

When Gandhi became Mahatma

2017-04-20T17:20:00.001+05:30

(April 20, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/when-gandhi-became-mahatma.html

100 YEARS OF SATYAGRAHA, CHAMPARAN SHOWED THE WAY

2017-04-17T16:47:00.000+05:30

The most potent anti-imperialist weapon of Satyagraha was experimented here 100 years ago

Amitabh Shukla

Champaran is the land in north Bihar, bordering Nepal on one side and eastern Uttar Pradesh on the other, which practically made Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi into Bapu or simply Gandhiji to his millions of followers. His Satyagraha in this district made him the Mahatma (great soul) from a mere mortal. Interestingly, Gandhiji himself admits in his autobiography—My Experiments with Truth—that he had never heard the name Champaran before visiting the place in April 1917.

Satyagraha or non violent resistance to an unjust regime, one of the most powerful tools against imperialism in the last century, was experimented for the first time on a large mass scale in Champaran and that is the significance of the district, known for its Buddhist relics, forests, mango orchards and productive agricultural land. It was here that Gandhiji field tested this powerful weapon, which many Gandhians now describe as more powerful than even the atom bomb. Gandhians insist that Satyagraha destroyed the moral fabric of the imperialists to rule in the medium and long term and what began in Champaran was within months replicated in Kheda in Gujarat in 1918 and elsewhere in the country thereafter throughout the freedom struggle till 1947.

As we commemorate 100 years of Satyagraha of the Father of the Nation in Champaran against the British Indigo planters in the hot month of April in 1917, memories associated with the district from childhood onwards come flooding.

I hail from the same district and from a family of Shuklas, though not from the family of Raj Kumar Shukla, whose persistent efforts over a period of time brought the Mahatma to this district. Shukla, a farmer cum money lender, who hailed from a village close to Chanpatia near Bettiah, the headquarter of West Champaran district now, was so relentless in his attempt that Gandhiji promised that he would visit the district from Calcutta. “This illiterate but determined farmer won my heart,” he later wrote in My Experiments with Truth, referring to his meetings with Shukla in the Lucknow Convention of the Congress in 1916, Kanpur and then Calcutta from where he left first for Patna by train and then for Motihari in Champaran. In all these meetings, Shukla had only one request—Gandhiji should come to Champaran, feel the pulse of the exploited peasants and take remedial measures.

He did come with his prominent lieutenants Rajendra Prasad, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, JB Kriplani and others to oppose the exploitation of the farmers under the Tinkathia system and several other cess and taxes imposed by the then government. In the exploitative Tinkathia system, farmers had been forced to plant Indigo in a part of their land (in 3/20 part of a land) compulsorily for the last almost 60 years. They had to clean the plant which consumed a lot of time, dry it and then finally pack it for use in industrialised Europe. All this was done practically for free as forced labour. Though the farmers had protested twice in the past after organising themselves in the beginning of the century against this exploitative system, they were suppressed by the Police.

Two things happened at the same time. Gandhiji’s Satyagraha forced the British rulers to relent and end the tinkathia system. At the same time, industrial coloring agent, which was cheaper and did not involve exploitation of the peasants, started being used on a much wider scale by the industrialised west. Indigo plantation finally ended in Champaran in 1923 when the demand died down completely and nine sugar mills were opened by the British to keep happy the “White” farmers who had settled in the area through what were called Kothis (Bungalows) as a headquarter, specifically to control Indigo cultivation. Each Kothi had a British owner with retinues, supported by the local police and hundreds of acres of land in its possession where commercial farming of sugarcane started after that of Indigo came to an end.

During his April 1917 stay in Champaran, Gandhiji built the Bhitiharwa ashram, ran a campaign against prevailing practice of untouchability, emphasised on education, cleanliness and health. Helped by wife Kasturba, Gandhiji opened several basic teaching schools. In fact, it was here that the basic schools, imparting skills for livelihood, were opened for the first time on land donated by the prosperous farmers. All the trademark Gandhian activity, which became the hallmark of the Father of the Nation in subsequent period, was started and consolidated here.

When Gandhiji was charged with “creating unrest” following his on the spot assessments of peasant exploitation, talks with the farmers and their mobilisation, there was a massive show of strength in his support which forced the judicial officer to withdraw the case against him in Motihari. By word of mouth, the message had spread that the British were about to jail Gandhiji, triggering an outflow of farmers from every nook and corner of the district to the district court. In a nutshell, the Champaran Satyagraha, even though the word Satyagraha came to be used more frequently during the protest against the Rowlatt Act agitation, triggered the first non-violent struggle anywhere in the world on such a large scale.

Raj Kumar Shukla, the man who brought Gandhiji to Champaran, continued with his efforts of mobilisation of people against the British regime even after Gandhiji left. He participated in the agitation against the Rowlatt Act in 1919 and in the Non-Cooperation movement of 1922. He died at the relatively young age of 54 in 1929, leaving behind a rich legacy for Champaran which the people of the district still remember fondly.

However, much after Gandhiji left Champaran after a successful Satyagraha against the British Indigo planters of the district, the oral tradition glorifying what he did continued for years and decades. He was seen as a messiah whose presence brought a paradigm shift in the politics of the district and the state.

It was this oral tradition which I heard from my great grandfather Pandit Bhola Shukla and my grandfather Satya Narayan Shukla. In this, there are some historical facts, some narration of the events by farmers and the eye-witness accounts. Though my great grandfather was barely into his teens when the Champaran Satyagraha took place in April 1917 and could not have participated, his account from the oral tradition and eye-witnesses was so intense that he kept it narrating decades later. What Gandhiji wore, what he ate, how he travelled by an elephant, bullock cart and a tonga, how he interacted with the villagers and the farmers, how he put up at the Hazarimal dharamshala in Bettiah after coming to Motihari etc.

This oral tradition which my great grandfather and later grandfather narrated also includes tales of so called magical powers of Gandhiji, how the villagers of Champaran then believed that the British were on their way out, how scared they were from the lathi of Gandhiji (though the Mahatma was only 48 years then and did not carry a lathi when he came here), how some women thought he was a saint and could rid them and their family members of problems, vices, diseases and would bring prosperity to their family and the area.

The role of rumour and oral history was extremely important in the making of the Mahatma over a period of time. It is important in any social movement and it was this which helped people of Champaran galvanise themselves in the anti British struggle whole heartedly. All the subsequent protests by Congress and Gandhiji—be it the Non-Cooperation movement in 1922, the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1932 and the Quit India Movement in 1942 found great traction in Champaran and saw maximum arrests. My great grandfather Pandit Bhola Shukla was arrested in 1932 and later in 1942 and served years in British jails. My grandfather Satya Narayan Shukla along with his three brothers was put in jail for several months in 1942 and there was a time during the Quit India Movement when father and all his four sons were in jail and family profession of farming was left for the women of the house to manage.

Post Script: My great grandfather bought a 60 bigha plot (90 acres of land) from a British named Benson around the year 1940 in village Sabeya of Champaran district. Benson was engaged in the cultivation of Indigo before the Satyagraha of Gandhiji and later sugarcane when the first mill was set up. When farming was no longer profitable according to British standards, he gave up and shifted to England after selling his land to different people. I still own 5 acres of that land after several family partitions and the original papers of those period still has Bensons’s name, the indigo cultivator.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/100-years-of-satyagraha-champaran-showed-the-way.html