Hooda faces acid test again

Adampur & Ratia by-polls

Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh

Two bye-elections in Haryana, the campaigning for which ended on Monday, is set to test the political prowess of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Congress. Though the outcome on December 4 would not affect either of the three parties and formations (Congress, INLD, HJC-BJP combine) in the state assembly, the long-term implications could be significant.

Ratia and Adampur by-polls on November 30 come close on the heels of the defeat of Congress in the Hisar Lok Sabha by-polls which saw the ruling party in Haryana face the ignominy of losing its security deposit. Now, if Congress loses both Ratia and Adampur, it will be a hatrick of defeats, something which the central party leadership would find difficult to fathom. To make the matters worse, chances of Congress winning any of the two seats is extremely slim given that the party has marginal presence in the poll-bound segments.

Ironically, all three seats – first Hisar and now Ratia and Adampur - had been held by the opposition in the state and Congress was in any case on a sticky wicket here. Hisar fell vacant after the death of Bhajan Lal, the legend of Haryana politics and his son Kuldeep Bishnoi stepped into the shoes of his father successfully by crushing the Congress and edging past INLD.

Ratia, a traditional seat of the opposition – first the Bansi Lal led Haryana Vikas Congress and later Om Prakash Chautala led INLD, fell vacant due to the death of INLD MLA Gyan Chand Odh. Congress has never won from here in the last almost 30 years but if it doesn’t do so now when the focus is on this non-Jat constituency, then certainly questions would be raised regarding the popularity of Hooda and Congress.

Similarly, Adampur has been a family stronghold of Bhajan Lal and the seat fell vacant after Bishnoi got elected from Hisar in the parliamentary by-poll. No one, even the staunchest Congress supporter is enthusiastic about the result which they say is a foregone conclusion. Renuka Bishnoi, the wife of Kuldeep is set to make her debut in the state assembly from this seat, even her opponents admit that.

It is a strange quirk of fate that Hooda had to battle out Hisar and now two by-elections – all of which have been traditional weak links of the Congress. Politically, if he manages even a single win now, it would be an achievement but if he loses all two seats, knives would be out for him in the faction ridden state unit.

Already a section of powerful Haryana leaders like AICC General Secretary Birender Singh and Union Minister Selja are running a campaign against him and three consecutive defeats would only make the matters worse for Hooda who has been in power for seven years now. Hisar defeat sharpened the differences between Hooda and his detractors and two more defeats will take it to a point of no return, observers felt here.

For the fledging alliance of Haryana Janhit Congress and BJP, even a win in Adampur would further cement the ties between the two and prepare them for the next round of Lok Sabha polls in 2014. The allies who are set to share 45 seats each in the next assembly polls and 8 (BJP) and 2 (HJC) in the Lok Sabha polls have successfully polarised anti-Jat votes in the state. In Ratia, it is the BJP nominee who has been pitched against INLD and Congress. If the votes polled by BJP and HJC in the last assembly polls are combined, the tally still falls short of the victorious candidate. But even if the party does not win and is able to get second position, it would indicate that the alliance has gone well with the non-Jat voters of the state and has the potential to upset all poll calculations.

For the INLD a win in Ratia is a must to keep its flock together. It has been out of power for almost seven years now and cannot afford to lose another by-election after Hisar. It has fielded Sarfi Devi, widow of the deceased MLA to cash in on the sympathy factor and retain the seat.

Given the political fallout and long term implications of the two by-polls, all top leaders are campaigning intensively, holding rallies and using all their political guile, something not seen in the run-of-the-mill by-polls. Who is who of Haryana politics is there to campaign along with some national leaders signifying the importance of these by-polls in political realignment. (November 29, 2011)

http://dailypioneer.com/nation/23994-hooda-faces-acid-test-again.html

Don’t mourn for Kishenji, Ishrat

When they chose to live by gun, let them die by gun

The death of Maoist leader Kishenji in an encounter, which has been dubbed as “fake” by his fellow colleagues, underground and overground, and the findings of SIT that Ishrat Jahan was killed in a fake encounter in Gujarat along with her terrorist colleagues by the Gujarat police, has once again put the focus back on so called extra judicial methods adopted by the law enforcing agencies to eliminate hardened criminals.

Kishenji could have violated the provisions of the Indian Penal Code hundreds of times, could have killed hundreds or could have contributed directly or indirectly to the killing of a thousand people but that it not being talked about. Had Kishenji lived for another 10 or 15 years say till the year 2025, can anyone imagine how many more innocent security personnel, tribals and farmers would have been killed by that time. What is being talked about is the alleged act of omission and commission by the security forces in the difficult terrain of Lalgarh and Jangal Mahal in West Bengal not about the background and the killing machine which Kishenji was.

I am not concerned about how he was killed, whether the encounter was genuine or not. My only concern is the “concern” expressed by a section of overt and covert Maoists. When you become a Maoist, go underground, hit the forests, take on the security forces head on and then kill people, you must know what fate awaits you in the end. This definitely is not the jails but the gallows. You lived by the gun all your life and died by the gun. When you did not follow any norms or law, why do you expect that the colleagues and friends of those whom you gunned down, would follow that.

Same is the case with Ishrat Jahan and her fellow LeT operatives. No other than the then Home Secretary G K Pillai says that she had terror links, intelligence inputs were given to the Gujarat government that there was a terror plot to kill chief minister Narendra Modi and that she was a LeT Operative. David Coleman Headley, the terror mastermind, also apparently told the NIA that she was a LeT suicide bomber. Even the LeT claimed her to be its member in its website. Should the Gujarat police have waited for her and her terrorist friends to accomplish her mission of killing the chief minister before doing anything?

I can understand hue and cry being made after the death of an innocent person by security forces. I can understand that those policemen who killed two innocent businessmen in Connaught Place more than a decade back be given due punishment and they have got it. But I fail to understand why a noise is being made at the killing of merchants of death.

The question is who benefits if LeT operatives and Maoist commanders are killed? Not the commandoes and policemen who put their lives at stake and will continue to get a salary of 10 to 15 thousand per month even after a prized terrorist were killed. Not the senior officers who will get their promotions in the stipulated time. It is the society which benefits. I am benefiting. You are benefiting. You enjoy your freedom only when such menace does not lurk around in the vicinity.

Having closely watched terrorism in Punjab ever since I was a school student and its end after a loss of thousands of people, the only question which comes to mind is who benefited when terrorism in this border state came to an end. Obviously the country, the society and the people were the beneficiaries. The security forces and Punjab Police did not benefit from this. People can move about without fear, do their business freely, can venture out at any time they want. Was it possible when terror was the buzzword in Punjab? The answer would obviously be a resounding no.

It was only when the policy of “bullet for bullet” was adopted in Punjab that the average life span of a terrorist was reduced to six months. Senior police officials who battled terrorism in Punjab recalled that when terrorists were put into jail, they converted the criminals and inmates lodged there into terror machines, indoctrinated and trained them. Even two hardened terrorists lodged in a jail were able to indoctrinate 100 lodged there. No judge was willing to convict them. They used to get bail at the first appearance in court itself. There was no witness, no evidence, nothing against them. How could you implement rule of law then?

Rule of law returned to Punjab only when unconventional methods like “bullet for bullet” were adopted. If you fire a bullet or have killed someone ever, be prepared to meet the same fate. This was the unwritten code of Punjab Police and it succeeded in wiping out terror from the face of Punjab. Perhaps this is the only example in the country where terror was completely uprooted.

Indian Penal Code came into being in 1860. Though there have been some amendments, the British version largely remains even now. When IPC was formulated, there were no terrorists around, there were no Maoists, there were no LeT and terror outfits. There were no suicide bombers then nor were there indoctrinated and motivated countries out to fight a covert war with their neighbour through all means. Also isn’t the IPC also meant to punish the guilty, including death to the mass murderers, even though the process could be extremely lengthy and complicated.

Why not simplify the process even now. Why not bring suitable amendment in IPC to fight new forms of terrorism and crime. If someone like Kishenji is caught, tried and given death penalty say within six months, no security force would care to fire a bullet and would instead catch the culprit. It is only when the security forces know that even if they catch a terrorist the menace of terror would not end as the terrorist would continue to enjoy the hospitality of the government (like Afzal Guru, Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, Kasab and others).

Let us go back to February this year. What did the Maoists do in Odisha? They simply abducted a Collector and got a dozen of their colleagues freed. The state catapulted even though those Maoists, who were freed, had killed scores of people and the security forces managed to arrest them after putting their life at stake. It could have been repeated in West Bengal. Keep Kishenji in jail and allow the Maoists to go for a kidnapping spree to get him released. Should the CRPF have done this?

Rewind the date to December 24, 1999 when Indian Airlines aircraft was hijacked and taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan via Lahore and Dubai. There was only one reason for this hijack and this was to get Maulana Azhar Masood released from a jail in Kashmir. It was not the government but the country which lost its face in the international community after the dreaded terrorist was released. The same Masood’s name figured in dozens of anti-India terrorist activities later on.

It was time when terrorists got due punishment they deserve, if not by the courts, then by law enforcing agencies. Ask questions and give severe punishment even if a single innocent life is lost. Don’t ask questions when peddlers of death meet the fate which they want for others. Don’t create a situation when the security personnel start thinking and contemplating what to do when they see the likes of Osama Bin Laden in front of them. Just allow them to pull the trigger. (November 27, 2011)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/23428-dont-mourn-for-kishenji-ishrat.html

Advani creates ripples

BJP leader LK Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra is taking place in the region at a time when Punjab stares at assembly elections, UT of Chandigarh is in the middle of civic elections and both Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have assembly by-polls to contend with.

Out of the four geographical boundaries, BJP is in power in the hill state of Himachal and shares power with the Akali Dal as a junior partner in Punjab. It has not been near power in Chandigarh (which only has an elected civic body) for almost a decade while in Haryana, a new alliance has been formed with the Kuldeep Bishnoi led HJC which shows promise as it announced its intent and seriousness in state politics by romping home in the Hisar by polls, considered a watershed in national politics.

It would be premature to analyse the impact of Advani’s Yatra in the region as various political permutations and combinations would be at play in the polls. Moreover, the Yatra was not to highlight regional and state level issues but those concerns which impact all citizens.

But the fact that the Yatra exposed the fissures which the party is having with the Akali Dal is now being admitted by the state BJP leaders in Punjab. Advani was not accorded the type of welcome he deserved as the top leader of NDA. Moreover, BJP leaders felt that SAD deliberately disassociated itself from the Yatra and the ruling party could have handled the protests of the radical Sikh organizations against Advani more deftly.

In addition, instead of a NDA show of strength, it was mainly a BJP show in Punjab with Akali supporters generally keeping away as they had not received directions to come out whole heartedly in support. Nevertheless, the veteran of many a Yatra, Advani was full of vigour and with single minded focus continued his tirade against the UPA and black money stashed in foreign banks.

The Yatra coincided with fierce “verbal war” being fought between the Akalis and its main challenger, Congress. The lung power being exhibited sometimes assumes comic proportions with rival camps spinning creative words and phrases to counter each other. Not a single statement by either chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal or PCC chief Captain Amarinder Singh remains unchallenged in the surcharged political atmosphere.

In this backdrop, February could well turn out to be a watershed in Indian politics and would set the tone for the larger political battle for power in Delhi in the summer of 2014. If the Akali-BJP alliance overcomes the odds and manages to retain power, it would be a setback which Congress is never going to forget. More so, when Manmohan Singh, considered a “son of the soil” is the Prime Minister of the country and a Punjabi icon who has made it big, really big, outside the state, something which every Punjabi aspires for.

But if Congress romps home, it would indicate that issues like Jan Lokpal, Anna Hazare, black money stashed abroad, corruption in high places, runaway inflation etc only have a marginal impact on the people when they go out to exercise their franchise. Elections for Uttar Pradesh Assembly would also be held around the same time as that of Punjab, may be a month later. It too, along with Punjab, would be a crucial landmark for both the Congress and BJP as the largest state in political terms would send a message which is not going to be lost.

By polls of Ratia and Adampur in Haryana too are coming at a time when the Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress government is yet to emerge from the aftershocks of the Hisar defeat. The ruling party’s candidate had lost his security deposit, an embarrassment which no explanation from the party can justify. While the outcome at Adampur in the November 30 bye-election is a foregone conclusion, being a stronghold of the Bishnoi family, it would be at Ratia where both BJP and Congress would be tested. Being an INLD stronghold, performance of the BJP-HJC alliance and Congress would be keenly watched here. BJP is contesting Ratia for the first time after an alliance with HJC was stitched and party in-charge of the state Harsh Vardhan says that lost ground has been covered and they were looking for an impressive outing in the electoral arena.

In UT of Chandigarh, changes brought about in reservation of seats have upset the poll calculations of both ruling Congress and the main opposition BJP in the civic body. Ten years of anti-incumbency has forced Congress on the back foot but the challenge of BJP is seemingly not strong enough. The party is yet to find a leader of the stature of Union Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal who runs the Congress show here. As it would be primarily an urban milieu in which voting will take place, the outcome would surely be keenly watched as it would indicate which party has influence on the urban voters of the country, a segment which is growing rapidly.

Himachal’s assembly election will be held almost a year from now. So the by polls might not matter much. But it will surely point to the trend and whether the ruling BJP is able to hold on to its strength or not. So both Congress and BJP are set to put into place all their political might to give the right message to the electorate of the hill state.

As Advani continues with his Yatra, political parties of Punjab perhaps have learnt the most from his numerous yatras in the past. Be it the SAD, Congress or the PPP – all are trying various hues of the Yatra in the state in the run-up to the February battle. Only the result would indicate which Yatra has been able to convince the voters and which remained merely a travel on the dusty roads, lanes and bylanes of Punjab. (November 20, 2011)

(The writer is Senior Editor, The Pioneer, Chandigarh)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/21781-advani-creates-ripples.html

Narco-terrorism sapping vibrant Punjab

Punjab is in the grip of a deadly virus, a scourge which has wide ranging implications for the future – drug and substance abuse. The problem has reached such alarming proportions that the younger generation faces a bleak future. No one knows how it will manifest 10 years from now.

An entire generation bore the brunt of terrorism in the 1980s and the early 1990s. Thousands lost their lives. Even as the Punjabis overcame their grief and fought terror head on, the deadly drug menace gripped the state, threatening the generation which followed that of the terror victims. People living in the border areas of the state bore the brunt of terrorism, now they are face to face with the narco terror, slowly killing people.

I am not comparing the two situations. But the plight of an average Punjabi mother or wife living in the rural areas of the border districts is the same. Mothers lost their sons and wives lost their husbands during the height of terrorism in the entire 1980s and first half of the 1990s. Now, mothers are losing their sons and wife their husbands to drugs. Earlier, the cult of violence was visible with gun toting men moving around, now drug abuse too is visible with the youth dying a slow, meaningless and painful death.

Drug abuse is no longer a secret in Punjab. Everybody in the state knows someone who has either died because of it or is a drug addict. Every person in the state knows someone who is into substance abuse and has done irreparable damage to himself. There are families where all the male members are addict and they work only to get their quota of the intoxicant, not to take care of their families.

In border districts and cities like Amritsar, petty crime like chain or bag snatchings, waylaying the pedestrians and robbing them are committed only to get some money to get the quota of drugs. These drug addicts and couriers are also in the bigger crime and it has sort of become a part of the parallel economy in these areas.

An Inspector General, earlier posted in the Border Zone, helplessly told me that the problem has reached a magnitude where only a war like intensive effort would help neutralise it and that too it will take several years if started right now.

“We had cut the supply line of drugs. We tried surveillance and enforcement, resulting in the smugglers getting arrested and the addicts starved for drugs. Village elders pleaded that people will die if they do not get their quota. I saw people suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms which even led to deaths,” said the police official. So no one wants the supply lines cut. “If people take drugs, they will die in say 3-5 years. If it is stopped forthwith, some of them could die in a month,” he said, pointing to the need of setting up rehabilitation centres on a war footing and why the village elders do not want the supply lines cut without any plan to rehabilitate the addicts.

Another enforcement official saw a correlation between massive amounts of drugs seized in the months of September and October this year and the Punjab assembly elections. He did not want to divulge but indicated that some candidates for the assembly elections could be hoarding drugs to supply them during the elections and the seizures could only be the tip of iceberg. “The entire border belt from Ferozpur to Pathankot has witnessed hectic activity on the part of the smugglers recently. They are becoming innovative from throwing the drugs from Pakistan to their Indian couriers waiting near the fenced border to using the shallow water in the rivers to cross the border and deliver the drugs,” he said.

In fact, not a single day passes when the Punjab Police or the BSF does not recover a huge quantity of poppy, opium, synthetic drugs and what not. The amount of drugs floating in Punjab is mind boggling so much so that police officials say that it was futile guessing it. The source of these drugs could be smuggling from Afghanistan via Pakistan, the inaccessible hills areas of Himachal Pradesh, some quantity from Nepal and also pilferage from the state controlled poppy farms in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Leave alone the known intoxicants and drugs, when I came here six moths ago, only then I came to know that Correction Fluid, used to rectify typing mistakes, is used as a drug by some. Pain killers and tablets to mitigate stomach ache is taken to get a high. A politician from the Doaba belt told me that mothers in the area pleaded with him to get chemist shops closed in the area as they were selling cough syrups, pain killers etc to the addicts and such shops were of no use to the community.

In fact a Punjab Government survey sometime ago had revealed that 66 per cent of the school-going students in the state consume gutkha or tobacco; every third male and every tenth female student has taken drugs on one pretext or the other and seven out of 10 college-going students abuse one or the other drug.

An affidavit in the Punjab and Haryana High Court admitted that the vibrancy of Punjab is virtually a myth and many even sell their blood to procure their daily doze of deadly drugs, even beg on the streets for money to continue their addiction. It used the word “drug hurricane” to describe the situation which has gripped the state. Multiple drug dependence is the latest bane in which the addicts get into several drugs at a time or simultaneously.

It is not surprising that Punjab has lost its sporting talent and no new sportspersons are coming on the national stage from the state. Instead, Haryana has marched ahead and most of the sportspersons from the northern region are not from Punjab as was the case a few years ago.

I am sure the policy makers, politicians running the state and those in the Opposition, and the bureaucrats know much more than I do on the prevalence of drug abuse in the state. It was time they acted rather then let Punjab fritter away its youth and talent to the menace. (13 November, 2011)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/19967-narco-terrorism-sapping-vibrant-punjab.html

Yatras for Sangat, izzat...votes

With Assembly election knocking at the doors of political parties, the season of political yatras has commenced in Punjab. Every party in the state is in yatra mode to reach out to the people with polls barely three months away.

Congress and the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) might have got a bit late in their canvassing through the yatras. But it was the Shiromani Akali Dal which began the mass contact programme in the state with the much touted Sangat Darshan a few months ago. A concept, the copyright of which is with the SAD, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal visits a village or a small town for the Sangat Darshan which is actually a public relations exercise to consolidate party’s core vote bank. He disburses funds, listens to the grievances of the people, summons officials and gets the work of people done on the spot. He also spent a few nights in the villages, obviously to connect to the common villagers and show that government has reached their doorstep.

Simultaneously, his son and Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal brought in the Kabaddi World Cup, a popular sport in this part of the country. Though the participating international teams might predominantly have expatriate Sikhs and Punjabis as team members, the extravaganza has caught the imagination of the people just ahead of the assembly polls. You could mainly find the surname “Singh” in teams of United States, Italy or Australia and they might have come here to visit their home state, rather than play Kabaddi, but the gatherings have been a perfect platform for Sukhbir to showcase to the people what the SAD-BJP government has done in the state in the last almost five years. Kabaddi has indeed turned into a political strategy in a state where flexing muscles is a part of political expression.

Congress cannot obviously sit and applaud. The party has launched its own “Punjab Bachao Yatra” to counter the Akalis and come back to power in the state. The “yatra” is in the form of rallies and public meetings in different parts of Punjab where the PCC chief and chief ministerial aspirant Captain Amarinder Singh, AICC in-charge of the state Gulchain Singh Charak and Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal are the “star” campaigners. Local leaders, MLAs and MPs of the party have been taking part in the Yatra where Congress is challenging the Akalis with threats and even abuses. The Captain has successfully prevented Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Punjab to inaugurate the Khalsa Heritage Centre and this surely is a political feather in the cap of the Maharaja.

Then there is the Jan Chetna Yatra of BJP veteran LK Advani. Though, it is an all-India Yatra, Advani will spend 3 days in Punjab. The timing is crucial as it coincides with the intensive campaign which other parties have launched in the state. BJP has been struggling with its urban support base in recent months and the party leaders believe that the Yatra would help consolidate its support in the state and unite the warring leaders.

Another Yatri in the poll season of Punjab is Manpreet Badal, the nephew of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal who was expelled from the party last year and subsequently formed Peoples Party of Punjab. Manpreet has “Izzat Bachao Yatra” to bank on and has adopted the same modus operandi like the Congress. He is attacking the Badals day in and day out and there is nothing to choose between his PPP and the Congress. His Yatra might not draw the kind of support he is expecting but the Third Front nevertheless seems to be a reality with the formation of the Sanjha Morcha which comprises the Left parties. Bahujan Samaj Party is set to join this platform and this could upset the existing poll calculations of both the SAD-BJP combine and the Congress with around 31 per cent of the voters belonging to the dalit category.

If these Yatras were not enough, Baba Ramdev too has started his “Swabhiman Yatra” in the poll bound Punjab. He may not be aspiring for a political position as of now, but his sustained anti-Congress diatribe has rattled Punjab Congress. Reviving the plank of black money, money stashed in foreign banks and the “treachery” of the ruling party at the Centre, Baba’s yoga camp and the Swabhiman Yatra will only benefit the SAD-BJP combine. He hailed Kabaddi as a sport to get rid of drugs and also appreciated the Badals for organising the event. The Baba in fact got into a loin cloth, entered into the Kabaddi arena and participated in a game in Moga. With photos splashed all across, the message is not lost. All his activities in the run-up to the polls is intended to benefit the ruling alliance in the state by default.

Anna Hazare too has plans for Punjab. This is one untested political commodity which the Congress fears but cannot admit openly. The septuagenarian anti-graft crusader has threatened to hold a day long fast in Punjab and campaign against the Congress if the Jan Lokpal Bill is not passed in the Winter Session of Parliament. No one knows whether the crowd and the television cameras which Anna can generate will translate into votes. But he will grab the eyeballs and this is what has sent Congress on the backfoot. It is no longer a secret that Congress loathes him. You talk to any leader, big or small, from the party and they only have negative platitudes for Anna and his team.

Captain Amarinder Singh lobbied hard to prevent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from coming to Punjab to inaugurate an “Akali project” to prevent his rivals from benefiting in the assembly polls. He wrote letters to the PM and brought the issue in a meeting with party President Sonia Gandhi. I am not sure whether he would lobby for the passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Winter Session, lest Team Anna campaigns against Congress and affects his prospects of coming to power in the state.

The long and short of this is that Punjab is headed for a photo finish. I have not seen any survey, pre poll forecasts or psephology in play in the state in recent weeks. No one is sticking his or her neck out and say what will happen when people go out and press the buttons of the EVMs in February.

So what will be the poll issues? My guess is that it would be cocktail of local and national issues – the governance or lack of it (as the Congress and PPP alleges), rapid development of the state (as the Akali Dal claims), Jan Lok Pal Bill (as Team Anna would like us to believe), black money stashed abroad (Baba Ramdev) or corruption (Jan Chetna Yatra of Advani). Then obviously price rise, inflation, petrol price hike (middle class Punjabis love driving and they feel the pinch).

This cocktail is set to keep the pot boiling till the election result settles it. (November 6, 2011)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/18223-yatras-for-sangat-izzat-votes.html

Chhath — honouring the bounties of nature

Amitabh Shukla

After the pomp and show of Diwali where celebration is the key and materialism rules the roost, comes the festival of Chhath in which the devotees connect with the Supreme Being through tough rituals, strong belief and solemnity. The festival and the vrat honours and remembers the natural forces which have been sustaining the human body, mind and the spirit since the dawn of civilisation. This is the only festival of the country in which prayers are offered not only to the rising sun but also the setting sun. The symbolism is inherent – never forget one who is down and out.

Unlike other festivals, there may not be any structured myth or tale associated with Chhath as it evolved naturally over centuries. It is a festival of prayer and propitiation observed with extreme solemnity. Spirituality is inherent in the numerous observations rather than celebration. It is the inner self and its purification which is the core of the festival. People observing the vrat, fast without food and water for 36 hours. The idea is to purify their body and spirit in the process. Only after all the numerous rituals are complete is the person permitted to have his food which reinforces their belief in nature and its numerous bounties.

Thanksgiving and seeking the blessings from the forces of nature - Sun God, mother earth and the river (water) is the core of the festival. The people believe that the wish of a devotee who has followed all the prescribed rituals is always fulfilled.

Like other festivals, different devotees seek different meaning from the festival and have their own interpretation. For many, it is Chhathi Maiyya whom they honour, giving a feminine touch to the worship of sun God. But the basic premise that nature is all powerful and human beings a small part of this nature, is never lost. It also reminds of the days when human civilization was confined to the river banks and sustained itself only through the forces of nature.

The strict discipline during the festival means that people go for a strict salt less vegetarian diet cooked in earthen vessels a day after Diwali. The devotees sleep on floor and wear unstiched clothes. In the evening, in the midst of the setting sun, holy water and milk is poured in the river or a water body (argya) and blessings of the God sought for the entire family. The devotees stand in knee deep water performing this ritual.

Interestingly, there is hardly any mythology behind the Chhat puja and there are no religious books which define how the puja has to be carried out. This has been traditionally carried over through the centuries by word of mouth and imitations, passing from one generation to the other without losing its essential meaning.

A unique element of Chhat is its universality among all castes and communities among Hindus of Bihar and eastern UP. People living in those areas have taken this festival to wherever they live, in India or abroad.

The offerings to the gods makes it clear that twice in the year, at the time of harvesting season (chait and kartik) people thank their creator for providing them ample food. The offerings include, thekua made of wheat floor, all seasonal vegetables, gram, coconut, lemon, sugar cane and milk. The offerings are made in new baskets made of green bamboo.

Every activity and offering is natural, derived from the five elements of nature – earth, fire, sky, water and air – the five pillars of life. Chhat also is a symbolism of Hindu philosophy which says that a person is made of these five elements and then dissolves himself in those five elements after his life cycle comes to an end. (1.11.11)