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Last word: Harish Rawat
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Fifty Fifty
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Two misses later, the coveted seat is his By SMA Kazmi After decades of hard work and political and personal blows, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat has proved he is a mass leader and capable of leading the Congress to victory.
It was the fulfillment of an ambition for the Union Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat after two missed chances in the last decade. He was sworn in as the eighth Chief Minister of the state on February 3, 2014. For the Thakur leader from Kumaon region, the elevation has come with an enormous challenge of not only providing succor to thousands of people affected by the June 2013 natural disaster, but also leading the Congress, with its back to the wall, in the crucial forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. "We will serve the people and fight the polls with the goodwill of the people," he says. Political journey Rawat, who has never shied away from challenges both in his personal and political life, began his political career from the remote hills of Almora district as a block 'parmukh'. Born in 1948 in a farming family at Mohanari village in Chaunalia area of Almora district, Rawat did his initial schooling in Almora. He went to Lucknow University to pursue law and then plunged into politics. He remained active as the district president of the Youth Congress, Almora, and held various positions in the youth organisations as its joint general secretary and general secretary at the national level in the 70s. He was the District Congress president of Almora district. He also served as chairman of the Sewa Dal, a frontal organisation of the Congress in the 80s. He has been in touch with trade union activities since his youth and was the national president of the National Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, an apex trade union organisation, for many years. Being a young Congress leader from the Kumaon region, Rawat made a grand entry into politics after defeating senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi from the Almora Lok Sabha seat in the 1980 parliamentary elections. He won the seat again in the 1984 and 1989 Lok Sabha elections. Shaky ground However, with "Mandal and kamandal" politics of Uttar Pradesh in the 90s, the fortunes of the Congress nosedived, as also of Rawat. He lost four consecutive Lok Sabha elections from his home constituency of Almora to the BJP in 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999. In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, he pitched his wife Renuka as the Congress candidate from Almora, but she too lost. "He is a born fighter. He never loses hope and works among the masses tirelessly," says his wife. After the formation of Uttarakhand in November 2000, Rawat was named the first president of the state unit of the Congress. He worked zealously to rebuild the party in the state which was nearly decimated in the Garhwal and Kumaon regions which formed part of the new state. His efforts bore fruits and the party won with a majority in the first-ever state Assembly polls held in February 2002. But the party leadership ignored his claim, despite the fact that all state Congress chiefs who led the party to victory in their respective states in the Assembly elections, including Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh, were made Chief Ministers. Instead, veteran Congress leader ND Tewari, his old political rival in the Congress, was sent by the party high command to lead the government. A sulking Rawat continued as the state Congress president from 2001 to 2007. As a consolation, he was sent to the Rajya Sabha in 2002. Tragedy strikes Apart from political setbacks, Rawat also suffered personal tragedies. His son-in-law, a Major in the Army, died fighting militants in Jammu and Kashmir in 2004 while his son Ranjit Rawat died in a road accident in 2007. His son Anand Singh and daughter Anupma are following in his footsteps. Anand Singh was a former Youth Congress president of Uttarakhand and Anupma assists her father in nurturing and consolidating his Hardwar Lok Sabha seat. After the Almora Lok Sabha seat was reserved in the new delimitation, Rawat took a calculated political risk to contest from the Hardwar Lok Sabha seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and won the seat for the Congress after a gap of a quarter-of-a-century by a huge margin. He was made the Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment in the Manmohan Singh government in 2009. Later, he was given charge of Agriculture Food Processing and Parliamentary Affairs. In the third Assembly elections in Uttarakhand in 2012, the Congress won by a slender majority of one seat, but Rawat was again denied a chance to head the government, causing consternation among his supporters. This time, the party high command reposed faith in Vijay Bahuguna, MP from Tehri Garhwal, to head the government in March 2012. Congress legislators supporting Rawat staged a dharna at his New Delhi residence for 18 days. Later, the party was able to placate him and made him a Cabinet minister (Water Resources). The inept handling of the situation arising out of the June floods that devastated large parts of Uttarakhand and claimed thousands of lives by the state Congress government headed by Bahuguna again gave an opportunity to Rawat, who relentlessly pursued his objective. With the crucial Lok Sabha elections ahead, the party high command has finally decided to give him a chance to prove his worth as a mass leader. "My first priority will be to provide maximum help to disaster-affected people across the state so they can rebuild their lives," he says.
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Good News Padma Shri Dr Brahm Dutt has been treating and supporting patients afflicted with leprosy through his NGO in Faridabad.
Bestowed with the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in 2011, the long journey of Dr Dutt, aged 82, in social work began in 1977, when one day he noticed a young person begging near his house in the NIT, Faridabad. He noticed that the man was suffering from some disease. He made enquiries and learnt that the man had been fired from the job of draftman after he became a victim of leprosy. "His story moved me so much that I decided to work for the welfare of such persons, whose number was around 25 at that time in the city," says Dr Dutt. The temporary shelter he built for that man has now been developed into a residential colony for around 200 persons. It has 70 houses for those who have either recovered or are undergoing treatment. Expressing concern over the myths about the disease, he says had there been a sustained campaign to spread awareness and adequate infrastructure to help patients, the disease would have been wiped out, or at least been controlled by now. Busting myths He says the multi-drug therapy (MDT) is a cure and patients are not required to be isolated. "It is the least infectious disease, mainly because nearly all of the population has a natural immunity against it. But the stigma surrounding the disease due to its disfiguring effects causes its victims to be isolated and shunned," he remarks. Leprosy causes permanent disability and is primarily a disease of the poor, but the myths associated with it must be removed at all costs as these are the main hindrance in fighting the battle. He says the disease is treatable with MDT, which combines three drugs to kill the pathogen and cure the patient. If it is used in the early stages of infection, disability and disfigurement can be avoided. Unfortunately, individuals with leprosy are stigmatised. The fear of leprosy is worse than the disease itself, he says. The disease is characterised by a long incubation period and timely diagnosis can prevent nerve damage. A practising Supreme Court lawyer, he is fondly called ‘Babuji’ by his employees and social workers associated with his NGO, Bharat Mata Kustha Ashram. He says: "My work is not over even though I have spent over 37 years on this cause. A large number of shelters and ashrams have come up across the state and the country, but a lot remains to be done for the welfare of lepers." Laws biased The government is still to enact a Bill or law for the welfare of leprosy affected people. Ruing lack of will and support from political circles, he says he submitted a draft titled ‘Bill for the welfare of leprosy affected persons’ in 2003, but it has been pending in the absence of adequate support from political parties. While a number of meetings were held with various authorities, the Bill is awaiting Parliament nod. Claiming that this legislation is the need of the hour, he says despite being cured, hundreds of victims continue to languish in the ashrams as there are no job avenues and rehabilitation measures. "No award is better than the enactment of the Bill at a time when India has 15 lakh leprosy patients — three-fourth of the total population of lepers in the world. We have adopted all means, including the RTI, dharnas and legal recourse, to achieve our aim," Dr Dutt says. Claiming that the historical legacy and societal stigma toward leprosy are evident in various laws containing discriminatory clauses against lepers, he says most marriage and divorce laws consider leprosy as grounds for divorce, with the Special Marriage Act, 1954, declaring leprosy as "incurable". Admitting that Haryana has a very low count of lepers, he says a majority of them at the 21 ashrams of the state are migrants. Most patients are in states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal. Though a project aided by the World Bank was launched under the aegis of the National Leprosy Control Programme in 1993, the result is below expectations due to lack of proper coordination and funding of programmes aimed at helping the patients. Dr Dutt, who pays from his pocket for the welfare of patients, says leprosy is a prominent national issue and should be tackled with a concrete policy and programme, rather than just having a soft spot for the patients.
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Fifty Fifty
diversity, according to the new mantra being chanted by recruiters flocking to B schools, leads to better decision making. And so they are hiring many more women than ever before. But how does one ensure diversity in our lives — as well as our work spaces — when we have so far encouraged those around us to maintain the status quo? Our attitude in present day India — and this applies to all communities — is that any kind of new thinking, any kind of change, any inclusion of unknown individuals or groups into our fold should be regarded with suspicion. We saw this recently in the aggressive attitude towards the African community by some members of AAP in Delhi. Gender, race, class, caste — anything can lead to discrimination and bias. The fact that the media covered the incident without an outright fierce indignation makes one suspicious of the change we are heading towards. Even though I have been supporting AAP and am a member, I admit that in other countries where human rights are respected, such as the UK, the minister concerned would have been sacked. Are we then drifting deeper into a lynch mob kind of politics? Yet, no amount of evidence, real or imaginary, can justify what the minister did that day.
It is interesting that through the years, we still try to keep out extraneous influences and ‘foreign elements’, usually to preserve the purity of our own ‘superior’ caste system or sustain our customs. Thus even simple harbingers of social change, such as inter-community marriage or free-choice relationships or the rights of women, are rarely encouraged — despite the fact it would lead to progress. The old adage that we were taught in school — ‘There is unity in diversity’ —should be changed to ‘there is diversity in unity’, celebrating diversity of every kind rather than ‘unity’. Should we always speak with one voice, and present a single point of view? ‘Rulers’ would like this very much as that way they can present a singular rather than pluralistic solution to everything. For society to open up to new ideas and initiatives, an overdue education drive is required. Rather than focusing on the growth rate and the forthcoming elections, governments should be looking at how to quickly bring the young and old of this country into the 21st century. New ideas and innovations should be stressed upon in school and colleges — and much like what the B schools are now doing — a major emphasis should be on the importance of diversity, both in the workplace and ideation. The only success mantra is actual change, and by including more women, for instance, in all branches of activity, will maximise progressive change. Thus, I am surprised that AAP does not have more women on its team, nor does it have a more apparent gender-friendly approach. One of its leading founding members (a woman!) has just quit on that score. It is not enough to have a few representatives and spokespersons. One initiative they could have undertaken was to push for more women candidates, especially in Haryana which has a dismal sex ratio. Instead, some pronouncements of AAP on khap panchayats have been mystifying, leaving many of us in despair. Can this really be a party of change? Women have the most important voice in this election, and yet one does not see any effort as yet to recruit them, nor do we see any significant numbers of women ideologues or leaders emerge from AAP. The fact that they have not pushed the most significant change they could have undertaken (like the other ‘progressive’ parties that are parroting the old 33 per cent formula) cannot be a coincidence. Even if they now decide to announce a ‘gender-friendly’ agenda, for many it is already looking like another patriarchal outfit. Also as the elections are far too close, it is considered unlikely that they will want to put up a majority of women candidates. Like the eager recruiters at the B school campuses this year, let us hope that if not AAP, other political parties give a major push to their women candidates. But will any of these highly male dominated parties wake up to India’s changing reality?
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DR
Brahm Dutt is a messiah for those afflicted with leprosy. Having treated
and provided shelter to over 10,000 leprosy patients, Dr Dutt has
created awareness about the disease. He was recently awarded with the
Padma Shri for his contributions.
Women have the most important voice in this election and yet one does not see any effort thus far to recruit them specifically.
