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Unrest in Darjeeling
Poison in rivers |
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Maya memsaheb
Israel must opt for peace
Last-minute tendencies
After an uneasy calm, the Darjeeling hills are on fire yet again. Gorkhaland agitation has run its course over more than three decades. The simple, peace-loving people are, as always, caught in the crossfire of
political parties and the desire to get on with their daily life without disruptions. Identity does matter but is there any excuse for lack of development?
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Unrest in Darjeeling
Developments
around Darjeeling hills have taken a dangerous turn following Tuesday’s police firing near the Bhutan border. The unfortunate death of three people including a teenager and two young women, all supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s demand for statehood, was precipitated by a slash of the Khukri on the face of a policewoman that led to ‘panic firing’ by the police. The GJM is prone to use its muscle power and in the past, forced Subhas Ghisingh into exile and incited its followers to kill Madan Tamang, both critics of the GJM. Tuesday’s stand-off again exposed the inability of the police to adopt non-lethal means of crowd-control, much talked-about since the stone-pelting incidents in the Kashmir Valley last summer. Meanwhile, the state government’s desperate plea for deploying the Army in the hill districts, for the very first time since the agitation for a separate Gorkhaland began in the eighties, also exposed how vulnerable the Left Front government is at the moment. With the Assembly election round the corner and faced with strong undercurrents of anti-incumbency, the state government has clearly ceased to govern. The responsibility for the present stalemate rests squarely on the shoulders of the governments in New Delhi and Kolkata. Tripartite talks after all are going on for the better part of the last three years but they failed to find a middle ground between Kolkata’s refusal to have another division of Bengal and GJM’s insistence on not just a separate state but also the inclusion of three districts in the plains. Even when the two principals agreed on an interim body, the GJM insisted on nominating all its members while the state government stuck to its stand of proportional representation on the basis of panchayat polls. The GJM’s demand to extend the interim body’s jurisdiction over Dooars and Siliguri also remains a contentious issue, largely because a majority of the people in the plains do not seem to favour Gorkhaland. The hill districts of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong have strategic significance and the government cannot allow the region to be held to ransom. Maintaining law and order is undoubtedly the responsibility of the state government but a lame-duck government in Kolkata calls for an intervention by the Union Home Ministry.
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Poison in rivers
Haryana
Environment Minister Ajay Singh Yadav has approached the Centre to stop Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and UP from polluting the Yamuna and Ghaggar rivers. The other rivers in the region — Ravi, Satluj and Beas — also stink. Given the callous neglect of the rivers as well as political apathy and even connivance in the contamination of water resources, it is heartening that at least one minister is seriously taking up the issue. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal too is pushing a Centrally-funded Rs 1,388 crore project to clean the rivers flowing through Punjab, but the results are not yet visible. There are three sources of river pollution: industrial discharge, municipal waste and chemical runoff from agricultural land. The Haryana minister has taken up the issue of industrial pollution but is silent about the flow of chemical residues from the fields. There is need to spread awareness about the damage caused by the contamination of water resources. Cancer and water-borne diseases are common among people consuming untreated ground or river water. People of Agra get water from the Yamuna carrying all the poisonous waste from Haryana and Delhi. No one has yet calculated in monetary terms the negative impact of the Green Revolution on human health in Punjab and Haryana. While the rich can use bottled water, the poor lack access both to clean drinking water and healthcare. Instead of spending heavily on medical treatment and water purification it is better to take preventive measures and plug all sources of river pollution — upstream as well as downstream. This requires strong political will – at the Central and state levels — for firm action against the polluters and green taxes to fund the save-environment drive. It is not enough to lodge complaints against the defaulters or make grand announcements for media consumption; politicians must genuinely address the issue.
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Maya memsaheb
IF instances of uprightness make a headline, new benchmarks in bending over backwards are hitting fresh low-lines. Sycophancy is moving downwards — literally. From brown-nosing to bottom-licking and now shoewiping. When Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati accidentally stepped over a puddle after alighting from her helicopter at Naunakpur village, her personal security officer, a DSP rank officer, Padam Singh, took out his handkerchief and wiped mud from her sandals. While he was diligently at his shoe-wiping job, encircling the lady’s feet in an uncomfortable squat, the lady continued to sign some files nonchalantly. Padam Singh 61, had been given an extension of two years by the government after he retired last year. He had a 15-year-long stint managing her personal security staff. If BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) MLA Syed Kazim Ali did not find anything unusual about the incident, he was not wrong! Amma has been scoring over Maya for long. Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa is known for showering her followers and ministers, who prostrate before her, with a benign smile of acceptance. In its zeal to please Maya memsaheb, the BSP painted capital Lucknow in the party colour, blue, for her birthday bash. Not only this, they are alleged to have coerced people to shell out money for the 25th founding celebration of the party, for which they had also allegedly killed a PWD engineer in Auraiya. Sycophancy has acquired new connotations. Yet these fail to shock us. Across party lines and hierarchy, new tools of adulation are used to express gratitude and demanding favours in Indian polity. Pictorial spoofs of sycophant politicians; N D Tiwari, the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh picking Sanjay Gandhi’s chappals at Agra; Maharashtra Chief Minister Shankarrao Chavan doing the same honours to Sanjay Gandhi, and many such incidents have left sycophants undeterred in their pursuit to please the boss by blurring the lines between loyalty, respect and shameless obsequiousness. Perhaps lack of faith in a system that rarely delivers justice at various layers of democracy promotes sycophancy of shoe-wiping nature! And, it isolates fairplay and uprightness further.
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The two hardest things to handle in life are failure and success. — Anonymous
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Israel must opt for peace IT was at Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, one of the Gulf countries, that I read about the confidential records of Israel’s negotiations with Palestinian leaders from 1999 to 2010. One could sense a feeling of shock in the Arab world how the Palestinian Authority could offer unilaterally the territories which meant so much to it. This was before Egypt was in ferment. However, I was sad to see that Tel Aviv had missed the biggest opportunity to live in peace, not only with the Palestinians but also all other West Asian countries. How could it reject the acceptance of all its annexed settlements, east of Jerusalem, except the one at Jahalul Hakel? One could think of only one explanation: hatred of hardliner Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike an agreement with the Palestinians who he thinks have already been vanquished. Since he has built his political career on enmity towards them, he cannot reconcile himself to shaking hands with those who, though defeated, have offered the other cheek. Yet the rulers, however intractable, should know when to compromise, particularly when it is clear as daylight that there is no alternative to peace. Mr Netanyahu probably thinks that Israel has to stay as an uncompromising country to exist in a hostile environment. This is where he goes wrong because hostilities cannot be an end by themselves. Ultimately, there has to be peace. Israel should have realised by now that the gun does not solve the problem. True, it can bludgeon any Arab country which raises its head against Israel. But someday the West Asian countries will put their act together, however unstable they may look at present, and hit back even at the risk of a bigger and more dangerous conflagration. Time is on their side. I recall my visit to Israel some three decades ago. I had just toured Arab countries and had found them sipping coffee all the time and invoking Insha Allah after every sentence. But there was not even a semblance of preparation to avenge the humiliating defeat in 1967 at the hands of Israel. Still they had not forgotten the humiliation. They gave a better account of themselves, especially Egypt, in the war a few years later. I feared at that time the prospect of an unending war. With that uneasiness I went to Israel. I wanted to assess the mood and mettle of Israeli people. That they were building up their country impressed me. I was struck by their sentiment of togetherness. Still I thought how heavenly it would be if they could live in peace. At Tel Aviv, I was invited by a couple for an evening meal. I shared with them my fears and forebodings. They looked towards their small sleeping child and said: “We want to live in peace. They (the Arabs) still threaten us that they would throw all the Jews into the sea.” Since I had talked to the Palestinians at Jerusalem as well as at the Gaza Strip, I could imagine their plight. They had been driven out from their hearths and homes. They wanted a state of their own so that they would have an identity, a place of their own where they could live in peace and in dignity. I had imagined that they would never reconcile to the Jewish settlements outside the territory the UN had mandated in 1948. But there is a great change. Even the Arab world has come round to extend recognition to Israel provided it goes back to its original borders. Yet I find that the fear Tel Aviv faces of annihilation influences Israel’s policies. The beginning dates back to discrimination that the Jews have faced all over the world except India. I was India’s High Commissioner in London in 1990 when a high-powered Jewish delegation met me to express their community’s gratitude for not having suffered any discrimination in India. But I cannot say that for certain about the Jewish community. Some of those who migrated from India to Israel complained to me during my visit that they had experienced racialism, the whites looking down upon them because of their colour. The sense of discrimination existed despite the communes where people ate together as a community. I found even the wife of the then Vice- President serving at one of the communes where I was driven by him to have breakfast. Israel has changed since. Nonetheless, I had mapped out a different future for it. A country which was born in blood and sand, I thought, would one day give the Arab countries technical knowhow and modern science to help them develop. Perhaps when a nation feels insecure all the time, it loses sensitivity to the sufferings of others as the Israelis have shown with regard to the Palestinians. Details about the efforts aimed at peace for the last three decades have shown how far Mr Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestine leader, had compromised to have a settlement. Where do both Israelis and Palestinians go from here when the process of peace has been killed? This is a pertinent question. New Delhi, which enjoyed confidence of both at one time, is suspect in the eyes of the two. The US has the key. But President Obama is so afraid of the Jewish lobby that he does not dare to annoy it as he has his eyes fixed on a second term. Mr Mahmoud Abbas has been strongly castigated by Hamas, the Palestinians Islamist movement. But he has stood firm. Things would fructify if Washington were to pick up the thread from where Mr Abbas had left it off. It is difficult to imagine that Mr Netanyahu would relent. His coalition has shrunk from 74 seats to 66 in the 120-member Israeli Parliament. Maybe, those who see peace as the only option for Israel would assert themselves and support another person to head the coalition which will pursue the peace offer. If Labour leader and Defence Minister Ehud Barak could split the ruling Labour Party, why could some others not do such things when they came to realise that Israel’s affirmative answer would be too late? The situation in Egypt should be of concern to Israel. If the Islamists come to have the upper hand there, as they have emerged in Tunisia after throwing out the old regime, Israel would have all the regrets for not having accepted the peace offer from the Palestinian
leadership.
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Last-minute tendencies Those
Indians who claim that they are not afflicted by the last-minute syndrome are probably fibbing. We have to admit that we always tend to put off things until the alarm bells start ringing loud and clear. While the rest of the world habitually takes stock of the task at hand, plans for it, sleeps over it and then executes it, we relax and relax and then press the accelerator in a breathtaking fashion. Whether it’s an exam, a meeting, or a train journey, we postpone our preparation till it is time to press the panic button. The fact that we still manage to score when it counts and actually catch most trains indicates that we are extremely capable people. Examples abound in each sphere of endeavour. When a bag has to be packed for a trip beginning early the following morning, we tend to pack it late at night. When a test or interview is upon us, we begin cramming with just hours to go. When a rendezvous is to be kept, we laze around for an inordinately long time and then rush to make it, minutes past the appointed time, with some solid excuses at the ready. One of the most innovative excuses that I heard at a meeting from a late-joiner was that he had been waylaid by the media for a byte since a film star had recently shifted into his apartment-block. My wife is one who specialises in the art of utilising the ‘last minute’ most effectively. She is always running late for everything but somehow manages to tackle her responsibilities in the nick of time and never seems to annoy anyone, except sometimes, me! I sometimes wonder if such tendencies are hereditary, but I have managed to avoid asking her that question till today. A few years ago, an upcoming seminar had the organisers in a real tizzy, for they hadn’t tied up either the sponsorship details, or the chief guest or even the venue, and they had just a week in hand. Speakers had not been informed. Cards were still to be printed and distributed. Even the list of invitees hadn’t been drawn up. All that the organising team was sure of was the seminar’s topic: ‘How to be more organised.’ With a major crisis looming large, they burnt the midnight oil and worked tirelessly. Hours before the morning of the event they had everything in the bag. There was nothing left to do. They trooped into the seminar hall and decided to catch some sleep. So sleepy were they that none of them noticed the arrival of the chief guest until he was waking them up. The media was clicking away as they rubbed their eyes and the guests were rolling with laughter. The “last minute” may thus not be a very reliable option, but it can certainly be a rib-tickling
one.
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After an uneasy calm, the Darjeeling hills are on fire yet again. Gorkhaland agitation has run its course over more than three decades. The simple, peace-loving people are, as always, caught in the crossfire of political parties and the desire to get on with their daily life without disruptions. Identity does matter but is there any excuse for lack of development?
Rumbling in the Darjeeling hills
THE picturesque mountainscape could lull any visitor into a willing suspension of disbelief but soon enough one senses the latent discontent. Tourists to Kurseong and Darjeeling are told they are lucky that there is no shutdown by the Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha (GJM). Then follow the numerous signboards on shops and posters announcing the existence of Gorkhaland. The irony and contradiction of the demand for Gorkhaland are symbolised by the announcement on the arched gate as the visitor enters Darjeeling and a poster barely 100 yards away. The arch defiantly proclaims: "Welcome to Gorkhaland" and the poster screams, "We want Gorkhaland." Between the assertion of identity and the realisation that the region is dependent upon the West Bengal government, rather the Centre, for the fulfillment of its demands lies many a tale of betrayal, murder and even a reality show star. A minority population in the state, the Gorkhas are geographically far removed from the power centre. They are dominated by Nepali and Tibetan influences and a majority are tribals. They cannot be classified as any one tribe but are in fact a community of Gorkhali/Nepali speaking people in the geographic areas of Darjeeling and adjacent areas. Lepchas and Limboos are some of the early tribes indigenous to this area. While Siliguri in the plains is bustling with activity and shows signs of development, howsoever uneven, the hill people yearn for growth. It was the state policy of concentrating regional development to Siliguri (which was a huge Left vote-bank) led to the first Gorkhaland agitation under the GNLF, bringing to the fore the aspirations of a long-neglected community. As Roshan Giri, the Secretary of the Gorkhaland Janmukti Morcha bemoans: "Unless the government accedes to the demand for a separate state there are no chances of the process of development gaining momentum." This is precisely what they had tried to verbalise in the recent talks with Home minister Chidambaram. The people of the area (Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong) have been consistently denied access to resources and participation in the process of development, be it by the now defunct Darjeeling Hill council, self-serving politicians or an apathetic state government. Says a resident of Kurseong, "We have been misled continuously by leaders who goaded us to ask for a separate state when we should have demanded development, instead". A sentiment that is voiced by a majority of common people who have no stakes (except the business of living peacefully) in the neglected subdivisions of Kurseong, Kalimpong and Darjeeling, the region its proponents claim, should comprise the Gorkhaland. For the leaders (local, state or Centre) the region is a troubled spot, not a vote-bank to be nurtured. The three parameters of development that make life livable for the common man, electricity, roads and water (bijli sadak aur pani) are predictably missing. New technology, planning, policy and marketing systems seem to have passed them by and ostensibly the overwhelming feeling is that planners have no qualms about passing on the benefits of this region to people in the mainland. What adds to the residents' anguish is the 'Sikkim effect'. (See box) The vicious cycle is they strike to make themselves heard but the numerous shutdowns and bandhs alienate the local population as well as the tourists who are hugely inconvenienced. Add to this the eight-hour power cut (because the residents of the area have not been paying either electricity or telephone bills for the past two years). Darjeeling town has no hospital equipped with clinical or diagnostic facilities. There is no ICU or CCU, no ultrasound machine or CT scan facility. The hospital was set up in 1944 by the British and more than six decades after Independence there is hardly any change. With local effort money has been raised to install a CT scan machine but it is not enough. If someone has a stroke or a heart attack, one is lucky if one survives the three-hour journey to Siliguri, the nearest place with adequate medical facilities. In 2004, Dr PD Bhutia from Kalimpong, who was practising in Kolkata, describes how he wanted to pay back to the region by setting up practice here and tried to set up a CCU unit but the political uncertainty drove him to Siliguri. Says Devaraj Dutta Roy, a Kolkata-based professional who has observed the movement over the years, “The only beneficiaries of this era were a new class of people called ‘contractors’ ..it seemed anybody with a little influence (read those who led the violent agitations of the 1980s) amongst the GNLF could become one and land plum Public Works contracts..a source to channel state money and keep everyone happy.” Numerous water supply and pipeline projects which were commissioned for the hills. Until today every house struggles to get a decent supply of water even once a day. These overnight lakhpatis lorded over and kept the rule of the tyrannical GNLF intact.) many locals do not give a damn about a separate state or an interim set-up leading to partial autonomy. The region has no medical college, engineering college or university. With a network of good schools, the youngsters are forced to go out for higher education. The major industry, tea did not bring economic prosperity to the locals. The tea estates carry the baggage of the still operative master-slave matrix. Says Neelkamal Chettri, an activist for environmental rights, "Resources have never been ploughed back into the region. Tata Tetley, Unilever and ITC control the tea markets. While profits have soared manifold, there is no capital that is invested on the workers and their work practices remain the same. We might have ceased to be a colony but the process of de-colonisation has not impacted the workers in tea estates." Tardy and outdated laws such as the Plantation Labour Act of 1951 hardly ensure that workers get their due. The workers are paid a measly Rs 67 per day and own no assets like land or property. The resistance to official authority or government's lop-sided policies has invariably come from leaders with their base in the tea estates. The archaic plantation law is now being reviewed by the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Plantation Management under the Commerce ministry. Pasang Sherpa (who heads the tourist coordination committee in Darjeeling) talks of how 90 per cent of the tourist traffic has been hit by the frequent shutdowns, strikes and bandhs. He too echoes London-based Mona Chettri, working on a doctoral thesis on Identity and Development at SOAS, London, and asks what use is identity without development. For Mona, identity mattered so much that she decided to knock down the stereotypes about Nepalis and Gorkhas through her research project. For the well-heeled it can be identity but for the man on the street it is development or the lack of it that defines life. Gorkhaland is the story of successive governments denying people their right to local development. Frustrated of endless wait, people organise themselves to demand reasonably good living conditions, infrastructure in terms of roads, hospitals and educational facilities as well as decent job-opportunities. When this basic right is denied to them, they raise demand for a separate, autonomous state. We continue to deny them the basics, but then are ready to consider, even concede, the most illegitimate or unreasonable of their demands. When the people speak or articulate their demands through a groundswell of protest, we refuse to listen. When the situation gets out of hand, we approach "interlocutors" to initiate dialogue with the same people we had refused to listen to earlier.
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