THE OTHER SIDE
Paritosh Kimothi
Journalists who were active at that time and others too may tell you that one of the purported reasons behind the creation of Uttarakhand as a State was to develop it as an ideal Hindu mountain State. Successive Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party governments were elected by the people to govern the State and serve the public. The Congress may be viewed as “anti-Hindu” and the BJP “pro-Hindu”, but factually, neither of them have done what was really needed. Had attempts been made to develop Uttarakhand as an ideal Hindu State, it would have set an example for the world, considering the real repercussions of the concept being acted upon. Factually, this could have been an ace for the then Congress government, apart from benefiting the people and setting an example for others. The failure of the Congress in Uttarakhand may also be viewed as a fuel which created Prime Minister Narendra Modi- thankfully.
Returning to the follies of the BJP, one was reminded about this following the cabinet expansion in the State on Friday. As done in the past many years, some mediapersons perpetuated the stereotype talking about regional and caste balance being catered to in the cabinet expansion. Basically, what this means is that an elected public representative from say Chamoli or Almora is expected to focus more on his or her home district if made a minister, despite taking an oath against bias and other undemocratic practices. In a democratic system, should Garhwal and Kumaon, Brahman, Thakur et al really matter more than the crietiera of citizenship and socio-economic position- the avowed aim being serving the public. The divisions perpetuated by politicians reminds me of an instance which the government has tried to exploit politically with some success. The first time when the malpractices in competitive exams were caught, some of the folks I talked to were angry not because of injustice but because, as they said, they didn’t have the phone number of the chap who could set them up to pass the test, obviously in return for money. This is basically what our netas exploiting a compliant population have turned many of us into. We will holler at the government and accuse it of rampant corruption and then do the exact opposite once we get the chance to indulge in the corruption we are pretending to be against.
In case the reader thinks the chain of thought is incongruent, please understand that all this and much more is all what Sanatan Dharma or its Hindutva form are about. The Char Dham Yatra is about to start next month. The government maintains that it is the backbone of the State’s economy. And yet, the authorities have done little more than spend money- wherever it went- on garbage disposal. The trash is ending in our sacred rivers. The men dumping bones after an Iftar feast on a boat on the Ganga in Uttar Pradesh were arrested, rightly so. If we take the same legal and religious points into consideration, can you guess who and how many will be arrested or at least summoned by the court in Uttarakhand?
The irony is that the slick Doonites are the experts on Uttarakhand’s mountains and culture while the government actually encourages this ‘culture’. Not to go into details, as the establishment already knows it, there is something more dangerous than all forms of jihad which is eating into the structure of Uttarakhand. Check what the anti-conversion act has actually achieved and whether it has even affected those on a “mission”. Politicians claim to have enacted strict laws without adding if and for how long the accused is sentenced. One cannot say it all but even if one observes the surface, the general public with common sense can ascertain whether the aim of creating Uttarakhand, maintaining g its culture and environment have been met. Also, remember your own weakness in allowing the authorities to do so.
