The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

NEWS ANALYSIS
Why the Himachalis voted the way they did?
L.H. Naqvi

Hillbilly is a derogatory word for farmers who live in the mountains in the south-east in the USA. I had the opportunity to spend some time with them in 1979 as part of Rotary International’s Group Study Exchange team to Tennessee. I found them as simple and caring as the people of Himachal Pradesh with whom I shared the best five years of my career as a journalist.

Having literally seen the best of both the hills I can say that hillbilly ought not to be a dirty word. A hillbilly is not a crook. A hillbilly detests all forms of deception and hates religion being used for whipping up communal passions. A hillbilly abhors being taken for granted. This is the message that the hillbillies of Himachal conveyed in no uncertain terms through the electoral verdict that left the Congress speechless, the Bharatiya Janata Party stunned and the Himachal Vikas Congress nowhere.

To understand the implications of the verdict it is important to analyse several factors, including the rise and fall of Mr Sukh Ram. From being a king-maker in the last assembly he will now have himself for company in the new legislature. His fate reminds me of Imran Khan. Mr Sukh Ram’s only consolation is that he has done better than the heart-throb of a cricket-crazy generation both in India and Pakistan. His charismatic personality still causes quite a flutter in elite circles.

The former cricket icon and founder-president of Pakistan’s Tehrik-e-Insaaf had caused a nation-wide upheaval by throwing his hat in the political ring. Mr Nawaz Sharif was sure that the magic of the cricket legend would help the Tehrik sweep the national assembly election. The international and domestic media too were convinced that Imran Khan’s promise to attack political and bureaucratic corruption would see him trounce Mr Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto, who had become objects of national derision for amassing wealth beyond their known sources of income. The chinky-eyed Imran got carried by the attention he received and spurned Mr Nawaz Sharif’s offer of power-sharing. His party did not win a single seat. Mr Sukh Ram has at least retained his own seat.

But unlike Imran Khan, Mr Sukh Ram never for a moment took the high moral ground of rooting out corruption. In fact, his rise and fall should provide enough grist to political pundits to analyse for the next five years. He was comfortably ensconced as Union Communication Minister in Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao’s government. Then one day the CBI knocked at his door that led to many more doors from where crores of rupees were found stashed in suitcases, and in the puja room. The BJP held Parliament to ransom for several days. Mr Sukh Ram was made to resign as minister and was expelled from the Congress.

He did what most disgraced politicians do in India. He returned to Himachal and floated the HVC. Surprisingly, the people stood by him in the 1998 assembly elections for two reasons. One, he had given every house in Himachal a phone line as Communication Minister. Two, he had been expelled from the Congress even though he was not convicted in the cases of corruption filed against him. The arbitrary action had hurt Himachali pride.

But why did the people turn their back on him this time? It was not just Mr Sukh Ram, but the BJP also that had to pay the price for betraying the trust of the people. The HVC leader was expelled from the Congress and thrown out of the government because of the BJP. However, when the numbers did not add up the BJP forgot all it had done to humiliate Mr Sukh Ram for forging a workable majority in the previous assembly. The HVC leader too let bygones be bygones. The people were not amused and showed the door to both the HVC and BJP.

There is another dimension for which we shall have to return to the story of Mr Imran Khan Niazi. Had he accepted the offer of seat-sharing the verdict would have created the illusion that Mr Nawaz Sharif had been returned to power because of the Tehrik. But Mr Sukh Ram is not a political simpleton like Mr Imran Khan. Imran spurned the offer of seat-sharing while Mr Sukh Ram was keen to have such an arrangement with either of the two main parties. The Congress took two steps forward and two giant steps backwards and was saved. The BJP played a more crafty game. According to its calculations Mr Sukh Ram’s HVC as the third front would cut into the Congress votes and that would help the BJP. But the hillbillies had other ideas.

But there are other aspects of the Himachal verdict that deserve scrutiny. Himachal Pradesh in a manner of speaking is a completely Hindu state. So why did the voters say an emphatic no to Mr Narendra Modi? They did so because secularism is not about making Hindus and Muslims live in peace. It is actually meant to keep religion out of politics.

Take the case of Turkey. It was a Muslim state for six centuries before Mustafa Kemal Ataturk overthrew the Ottoman dynasty and laid the foundation of a secular nation. It is the only Muslim country that does not allow religion any role in matters of state. Pakistan could have been the second country to follow a secular constitution had it not stifled the voice of its founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah. General Musharraf said he was inspired by Kemal Ataturk, but has actually encouraged the growth of Muslim fundamentalism in Pakistan.

But Turkey became a secular state because of the coercive policies of Ataturk. Himachal did not need a Hindu version of Ataturk for keeping religion out of politics. In fact, Uttaranchal set the trend last year. In the assembly elections in 2002 the newest hill state rejected Hindutva. In 2003 Himachal, its neighbour, surprised itself by rejecting a more virulent form called Moditva.

The Himachal verdict may baffle a stranger who has been fed on the bogus theory by myopic secularists that religion and communalism are two sides of the same coin. It may be in the case of Turkey and that is why the army has given itself the power to stamp out religion if it raises its head not only in politics but in the civic life of the people. However, the founders of the Indian Constitution did not see religion as the flip side of communalism and, therefore, gave freedom of religion an important place in society.

That being religious does not generate communal passions was best exemplified by the people of Himachal in the assembly elections. They are extremely religious, but during my posting in the hill state seldom was I made to feel uncomfortable because of my name. I have been to Renuka, Chintpurni, Hadamba in Kulu, Jwalamukhi and most other places of Hindu pilgrimage. How can I ever forget the look of disbelief on the faces of my colleagues whenever I showed respect to the presiding deity of the mandir we visited and received prashad from the priest?

I always give the example of Himachal for explaining Islam’s position on idol worship. Before the advent of Islam various Arab tribes would come to Mecca during the month of Haj and fight over the superior status of their idols representing their gods. There were as many as 360 idols in the House of Allah that Prophet Mohammad destroyed for giving to the quarrelling tribes the concept of a faceless Creator of the universe. Would devout Muslims have any problem with the more than 360 village devtas of Himachal? No. I have never seen two Himachalis fighting over the status of their devtas. To you your religion to me mine is the unstated motto that governs life of most Himachalis.

But has the Congress learnt any lesson from the Himachal verdict that rejected Moditva? If it had, Congress President Sonia Gandhi would not have joined the Vice-President, Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in congratulating the Indian cricket team for defeating Pakistan in South Africa. A perceptive Tribune reader rightly questioned why similar congratulatory messages were not sent to Saurav Ganguly for defeating Namibia, Zimbabwe, Holland and England in the same tournament.

BJP stalwarts skirt real causes of debacle
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 9
The BJP leadership seems to have learnt little from the party’s humiliating defeat in the Assembly poll. This was evident from the manner in which senior party leaders tried to put the entire blame for the electoral debacle on infighting during the meeting of state office-bearers and district presidents here yesterday to ascertain the reasons for the defeat.

The situation demanded honest introspection but those at the helm of affairs tried to oversimplify matters in a bid to skirt real causes of the reverses suffered. In fact, it is the Congress which has suffered more than the BJP due to infighting. Had the congress rebels not played spoilsport for official party candidates in about 12 seats, the BJP’s tally of seats would not have reached the double-digit figure.

Interestingly, the BJP won most of the seats where its rebels secured the maximum number of votes. These include Solan, Nalagarh, Banjar and Kutlehar. In some other seats where rebels of the Congress and the BJP both were in the fray the rebel and official Congress candidates together polled more votes than their BJP counterparts.

For instance in Kulu the votes polled by the official candidate of the Congress and the rebel totalled over 34,000 as compared to 27,000 secured by the BJP’s official candidate and rebel. Similarly in Bhatiyat, where both parties had rebels, the combined votes of Congress candidates and its rebel were more than that of their BJP counterparts.

Mr Kishori Lal, who was the Industries Minister in the Dhumal government, got only 7,957 votes as against 13,948 polled by the winning Congress rebel, Mr Kuldeep Pathania. The BJP lost only the Hamirpur, Shillai and Kotkehloor seats because of the presence of rebels.

On the other hand, it was fortunate to win the Paonta, Rajgir, Kutlehar, Chachiot and Balh seats because of the presence of Congress rebels or HVC candidates.

The undercurrent against the BJP was so strong that not only its official candidates but even rebels were rejected. Only one BJP rebel, Mr Navin Dhiman, emerged victorious from Pragpur. In contrast, as many as four Congress rebels managed to enter the House. The Congress won a number of seats, despite the presence of strong rebels. These included Chopal, Kumarsain, Santokhgarh, Kusumpati, Doon, Nadaun, Dharamsala, Kangra and Kulu. The BJP candidates were relegated to the third or fourth position in as many as 12 seats.

Moreover, big guns of the BJP like Mr Jaikrishan Sharma, Mr Praveen Sharma and Mr J.P. Nadda were defeated even though there were no rebels in the field.

Despite this, the BJP leadership is blaming infighting for the defeat. Perhaps, it finds it too embarrassing to admit the fact that corruption was the single major issue, which did it in at the hustings.

By sweeping under the carpet various scandals, like the health purchase scam, irregularities in allotment of hydel projects, bitumen scam, favouritism and nepotism in recruitment, which surfaced from time to time the Dhumal government did not send the right signals to the people. The failure of its legislators to declare assets as promised only made things worse.

Mr Pramod Mahajan, General Secretary in charge of party affairs in the state, who attended yesterday’s meeting, also hinted that organisational failure had contributed to the debacle. The moot question is who is responsible for the “weakening” of the party organisation. The high command gave a free hand to the state leadership to run the government and manage the party affairs.

However, it was the coterie comprising Mr Praveen Sharma, Mr J.P. Nadda and Mr Rakesh Pathania surrounding the Chief Minister which ruled the roost.

Instead of bridging the factional divide in the wake of the Jwalamukhi episode, which brought the party on the verge of a split, the ruling group systematically sidelined the rival group by propping up rootless loyalists to upstage established leaders. The coterie played an important rule in planning and implementing the game plan.

Consequently, the factional fight reached right down to the grassroots level. The one-sided approach of the state leadership could be gauged from the fact that the state executive, which normally has 80 members could not be balanced even after expanding four times and increasing the number of members to about 130.

The disciplinary committee and state election committee initially had only Mr Shanta Kumar. Later, one more member from his camp was inducted to each committee. It was not surprising that these committees became redundant and when it finally came to distribution of ticket, the party had to convene a series of informal meetings of senior BJP and RSS leaders and the election committee had nothing to do.

There was lurking fear in the minds of the cadres that the same coterie would be calling the shots if the party was voted to power and they would be at the receiving and for another five years.

Finally, it was the anti-Kangra image of the Dhumal government which spelled doom for the party in its stronghold. It will not be easy to recover the lost ground as the people are convinced that the BJP leadership worked overtime to undermine the political importance of Kangra by carving out new districts from it and reducing the number of Assembly constituencies.

Membership drive of BJP
Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 9
The state unit of the BJP has fixed a target of enrolling 5 lakh members.

Mr K.D. Dharmani, in charge of the party’s membership drive, said the process would be completed by March 31 and membership registers would be scrutinised and certified by April 7, 2003. He said active members would be enrolled from April 1 to 7 onwards and the drive would be completed by April 30. The election of the new state BJP chief would be held in September.

Meanwhile, the party had set up a three-member committee comprising Mr O.P. Kohli, a national secretary and in charge of the party affairs in the state, Mr Suresh Bhardwaj and Mr Ram Swaroop, vice-president and organising secretary, respectively, of the state unit, to ascertain the reason for party’s defeat at the constituency level. The committee will tour the state and interact with workers before finalising its report.

	Dhumal elected BJP leader in Assembly Shimla, March 9 Former Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal was yesterday unanimously elected leader of the BJP in the Assembly. His name was proposed by Mr K.D. Dharmani and seconded by former minister Ravinder Ravi. The BJP party had a marathon meeting in which the causes of the rout of the party in the Assembly elections were discussed. UNI
	Zonal system may be revived: CM Our Correspondent Mandi, March 9 Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh declared here today that the government was actively considering reviving the zonal system and restoring the offices of the Divisional Commissioners at Mandi and Dharamsala. Addressing his first press conference here after becoming Chief Minister at the local Circuit House, he said Himachal had been divided into three administrative zones by the Congress government. The previous government “motivated by narrow political considerations” had done away with the arrangement, dividing the state into three administrative zones-Shimla, Mandi and Dharamsala. These places had been elevated to Divisions where, besides Divisional Commissioners, Chief Engineers of the PWD, IPH and HPSEB had been posted. It had been envisaged to set up well-equipped regional hospitals at the three regional headquarters. The previous government, he lamented, had subverted the entire concept. The Chief Minister said the Congress had won the elections with a massive majority on the issue of corruption which had assumed alarming proportions in the state for the first time since its inception. He pledged to root out corruption and come true to the expectations of the people who had reposed faith in Congress. He said the well-documented charge sheet presented against the then Dhumal government by the Congress would be looked into by the state government. Expressing concern at the deteriorating financial crisis in the state leaving the state under a huge debt of Rs 15,000 crore, he said the present government had an uphill task to bring the economy back on the rails. He said the Congress had the political will and potential to extricate state out of the mess. He said barring a few constituencies, development had come to a virtual halt during the past five years. Describing the claim of good performance as “false and hollow”, Mr Virbhadra Singh said “outsiders” could have been misled by the jugglery of figures, but people of the state knew that pretty little had been done for them and it lead to the rout of the BJP. The Chief Minister lambasted the previous government for not only politicising bureaucracy, but also dividing it on regional lines. He said neutrality of bureaucracy was paramount for functioning. The BJP government had flouted rules and conventions. Efforts would be made to de-politicise the services. He said the myth of the “Hindutva” card in Himachal had been exploded. People of all casts and religions lived in peace and harmony in the state and they could not be mislead by sentimental slogans. He said the Congress government would concentrate on development and not waste energy on witch hunt. He said the main priorities of the government would be harnessing hydle power, promotion of tourism and generation of employment and self employment in public and private sectors. Steps would be taken to ensure employment of Himachalis in power projects.
	CM to redress grievances Shimla, March 9 Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, will meet the public at his official residence, Oakover, between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. daily whenever he is in Shimla. Mr Virbhadra Singh said redressal of public grievances had always been on his priority agenda. TNS Ishwar Das is pro tem Speaker Shimla, March 9 Dr Suraj Bhan, the Himachal Governor, yesterday appointed Mr Ishwar Das, a senior Congress legislator, as the pro tem Speaker. He has been elected as member of the state Assembly for the seventh time. TNS
	‘Sensitise’ women on breast cancer Tribune News Service Shimla, March 9 Dr Suraj Bhan, Governor, has stressed on the need for creating awareness among women, especially those living in rural areas, about breast cancer and its early detection so that timely treatment could be provided. Speaking at the inaugural session of the annual meeting of the Breast Cancer Foundation of India at Indira Gandhi Medical College here last evening, he said women needed to be sensitised about the disease and encouraged to come forward to protect the vulnerable population by counselling and other measures. The Governor said the importance of breast feeding in minimising the risk of breast cancer needed to be highlighted as it had been established that women who did not breast-feed their infants had a higher risk of developing cancer. There was growing tendency amongst the urban women not to breastfeed their infants. The Health Minister said the increasing incidence of breast cancer was a major challenge before the medical fraternity and a multi-pronged strategy involving medical scientists, doctors, health workers and social workers was required to counter it. She emphasised on making breast cancer treatment programme a mass campaign. She said lack of awareness among women and shortage of women doctors were some of the hurdles in the way of early detection of the disease. She suggested a special training programme on breast cancer for women health workers, besides launching an awareness campaign. She suggested involving mahila mandals and members of Panchayati Raj institutions in this campaign. Prof B.S. Sanyal, president of the Breast Cancer Foundation of India, said breast cancer was the second most common cancer among Indian women and there had been a two-fold increase in its incidence during the past two decades. He said the 40-60 age group was the most vulnerable.
	Demand for regular staff in college Our Correspondent Nurpur, March 9 The local Arya Government College has been functioning without a regular principal and teaching and administrative staff for the past many months. The college was taken over by the state government on October 26 last year. However, the government did not issue any notification regarding the take-over of the college even after announcement by former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. The future of as many as 700 students of the college has been hanging fire for want of a regular principal, teaching and administrative staff. The college also lacks basic amenities like separate urinals, common room and canteen etc. The present staff appointed by the previous managing committee of the college was regularised under the UGC norms but has not been getting salary following the failure of the government to release the drawing and disbursing powers. The Central Students Association, headed by the NSUI, has urged new Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to fulfil basic requirements of the college. It also demanded the starting of faculties of arts and commerce in the college.