HIMACHAL PRADESH IN ELECTION MODE

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

(April 20, 2017)

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

100 YEARS OF SATYAGRAHA, CHAMPARAN SHOWED THE WAY

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

SUN, SAND AND THE SEA

SUN, SAND AND THE SEA

Travel Diary: Goa

Amitabh Shukla  

Goa to India is similar to what Hawaii is to United States—known for idyllic holidays with fun frolic and parties common to both along with sun, sand and the sea. I have never visited Hawaii and have heard about it only from friends, Goa is a familiar territory having visited the place quite often in the recent past.

Often friends ask me, “What makes you visit Goa so frequently?” Well, the answer is not simple. Let me explain this. I do not have the intention to travel to Hawaii nor have I calculated the cost. What I am sure is that I cannot climb every summit nor do I aspire for it. My summit is Goa for that purpose and that’s enough sea, sea food, sand and sun for one life time.

Can you describe the sound of the waves crashing the sea shore, can you explain the sudden sight of the sea from a distance, can you explain the enormity of the sea and the music which each of the wave generates. These have to be absorbed and can never be explained. As the adage goes “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder”, similarly I can say, “Music is in the heart” and plays out whenever the ears hear what it wants to. That is the beauty of the place.

The idyllic walks along the beach, the drunken brawl between a couple or friends, the child playing with the sand and building castles, the lone fisherman trying his hooks to get an early morning breakfast, the middle class housewife breaking free in a dress which she can never wear in her in laws house. The list is endless.

You just have to have the ears and the eyes to absorb what is happening around and there is plenty anytime of the morning, day and the evening. That is music and meditation. That is complete relaxation and rejuvenation.

Long walks on the road, singing, practically shouting, at the local bar and eatery with only applauses from the few foreigners sitting around, being foolish and no one giving a damn, a fat person trying to fit in a small brief and making a dash in the sea or the pool, a skimpily dressed woman or man not even getting a second glance.  All these can happen only in Goa and nowhere else in India. That is for sure.

Visiting the local fish market at Mapusa and elsewhere leaves you marveling with the enormity and variety of food the ocean generates everyday and sustains the coastal Goans. The Saturday Night market in Arpora gets into you and all of a sudden you realize that the entire humanity is one—Black, Brown and White people enjoying the same music, drinking from the same brand, window shopping the same stuff and appreciating the diverse world of varying hues.

Often I harbored the dream of owning a small apartment in one of the Goan villages, a little away from the tourist hubs of North Goa and enjoy the life as it came. This is simple. People here are on a song most of the time and live life as it comes according to their terms and conditions. People open up easily and it is wonderful to strike a conversation with any Goan. They would reveal all their life history to you and even their crushes in younger days in five minutes of conversation. Trust comes naturally to them. They give you a two-wheeler or car on hire with minimum of paper work, knowing well that you will come in the evening and return it back. The system works so perfectly here.

Afternoons are reserved for a siesta and not even a Tsunami would wake the people. The Taxi wallah would refuse to take you anywhere in the afternoon. He would simply park in the shade of a tree and have a nap, not bothered about the money you offer. The shopkeeper would down the shutters, the housewife would snore and so would the security guard of the apartment you are living in. It’s infectious and has caught everyone. That is determining pace of your life. I did not check with the health authorities, but I am sure that the medical college does not receive cases of sleep disorder in this state. Sleep comes naturally to a Goan.

Over the years, over commercialization has taken its toll and the main tourist hubs of Baga-Calangute-Candolim are busting at its seams now. Too many people, little concern for environment and the young brats ensures that the place is littered each morning with waste of the evening gone by. More troublesome was the sight of broken Beer bottles on the beaches on which people walk without shoes. I saw this at several places between Baga and Calangute  and was an eyesore. Stray dogs on the popular beaches in hordes, particularly in the mornings and late evenings, make the matters worse and forces you to walk with a stick to scare them off. Isn’t there any Government programme to stop their breeding on the beaches?

By the way, you have the option to move on to the lesser known beaches of North (Ashvem, Morjim, Arambol) and South Goa if you want to enjoy solitude by the sea. I would give a tip here. Have a drink from early till late in the evening at one of the shacks of Colva in south Goa on the easy chairs in front of the waves and it is magical with a candle lit in and gentle sea breeze blowing on your face.

The Taxi system too needs to be improved upon. The unions and taxi owners have ensured to keep out players like Ola and Uber from Goa. What is means is that you pay Rs 2000 for a 50 km journey from North to South Goa while it would have cost a quarter if the web based services had been permitted to operate in the state. But the taxi owners and their unions have their say in the government and so far managed to keep Ola and Uber away. “They can never enter Goa and affect our business,” summed up a driver whom I had hired for the day. (April 10. 2017) 

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