Uttarakhand Elections: Will the Congress Please Act?

Scheduled to go into polls in Feb 2012 to elect a new state government, Uttarakhand, a young hill state is seeking attention and care from the National Congress leadership. UP is seen as a more important field for the Congress party.   Party bigwigs including Rahul Gandhi have been spending a lot of time in Uttar Pradesh and have taken keen interest in the events and issues in Uttar Pradesh.  Unfortunately, Uttarakhand gets no such importance in national politics and is far from central government scrutiny and attention. 

 Lack of attention to issues in Uttarakhand has created a major clog in the governance of this state.  As much as governance is the responsibility of the ruling government, governance and ensuring good governance is also the most important job of an opposition party.  It would not be wrong to say that checking the ruling government and ensuring good governance is an even bigger job of the opposition party than the ruling party itself.   

As elections approach, it is time to introspect whether the Congress party has played and is playing the role of a strong opposition party in Uttarakhand.  Since the current government came into power by winning the peoples' mandate in 2007, it has constantly been facing several allegations among which the most crucial ones can be singled out to be corruption and lack of development.  Other than these, the infamous Nishank government has also under been attack from civil society groups for stalling development projects, for supporting local mafias involved in land scams and excise scams, gross misappropriation of government funds and bias towards women and minorities particularly Muslims and Dalits.

An examination of Government processes and functioning will throw light into irregularities and procedural violations by the Ramesh Pokhriyal government in several matters such as SAF Winter Games, Maha Kumbh at Haridwar, Sturdia Land Scam, MDDA Corruption Scandal etc., None of these issues have been strongly followed up by the Congress in Uttarakhand.  The opposition is silent while the ruling party continues to harass people, violate the tenets of the constitution and all law and policy.  In the past four years, the Uttarakhand Government has not initiated any programs or policy measures that can be categorized as pro-development policy. 

In the past four years, Uttarakhand has witnessed interruptions in power supply and major power cuts including in the provisional capital, Dehradun.  The people of Uttarakhand, particularly people living in the higher regions of Uttarakhand have not received any benefits of NREGA or RTI, or central schemes such as NRHM or Ayush.  Each of these aspects needs detailed introspection and analysis.

The masses of Uttarakhand seek new leadership.  The only change that this state and its people can hope for is a change in power.  The people of Uttarakhand will vote for change, will vote for the Congress.  During a time so hopeless, the Congress prevails as the only hope for change for many thousands of people who live in Uttarakhand.  They look for leadership, for empowerment and for a pioneering movement against the state government. 

In spite of the fact that all factors seek immediate intervention by the Congress, the Congress party, its leaders, both national and state are silent.  We do not understand this silence.  We do not understand whether the Congress is with us, the people. Can we bank on the Congress?  Will the Congress come forward to protect us?  Will the Congress lead us to good governance and development?

Will the leaders stop treating Uttarakhand as a foster child and pay more attention to people’s needs and issues here?  

This time, the people of Uttarakhand ask for intervention from the Congress party.  The time is now!  The people of Uttarakhand silently and in as many words possible, appeal to the leaders of the Congress party to look into their plight and to lead the people in a movement against anarchy, dictatorship, and the rule of a biased partisan racist gender-biased communal party.  Uttarakhand needs resurrection.   It is falling into a deep pit of anarchy and chaos.  The time is not far when Uttarakhand would soon become another Gujarat led by yet another fascist communal gender biased Chief Minister.  Acting now is the only solution to stop another pogrom.  

Will the Congress please act before it is too late?

Indian politicians are now luring youth to join politics.  Every third day, there is a news item in most mainstream newspapers on Rahul Gandhi's tours and his call to the youth of India to join politics, so that they can bring change.  The BJP also revamped its youth wing a few months back and demonstrated interest in giving its youth platform fresh life.  The idea is very exciting.  The idea has been branded exceptionally well and it has successfully created hope and curiosity in many thousands of youth in urban and rural India.  This idea has been promoted so well, that at least a segment of young people have come to believe that entering politics is similar to enrolling in college or writing an entrance test for an engineering program. 

Several political parties have introduced new terms and phrases targeting youth that have led young people to believe the above.  Phrases and terms such as  "Join Politics" and "Talent Hunt" are examples.  These terms have a mass appeal to them, can be easily understood by lay people, represent accessibility, easy approach, fair system and meritocracy and therefore instill confidence in people.  Talent hunts have attracted several hundreds of people all over India from cities, villages and towns alike.  I have seen people stand in lines for two full days to get interviewed at a talent hunt.  Some of these boys and girls had travelled for two straight days on foot, and then in buses from remote villages to reach the Talent Hunt venue.  What is interesting is that, Talent Hunt in itself promises nothing.  At Talent Hunts, political parties do not guarantee anything to the participants.  Unlike regular Talent Hunts at entertainment shows etc., these political talent hunts have not listed eligibility criteria, terms and conditions, or ultimately, what happens to the candidate after the first round of interviews.  The kind of talent the party is interested in is unclear and what the party defines as talent is equally vague and ambigous.  Notifications of talent hunts are heavily publicised; what happens after, is not known.  If such Talent Hunts are expected to have results, then, why is that we have not seen an announcement in any of the newspapers? 

All this boils down to a few basic questions, so what does "join politics" mean and how do talent hunts facilitate youth who want to join politics? 

Does join politics mean, join a political party, or be active in politics or choose politics as a career.  In the traditional sense, a career is a means of living, a means to make money or to fetch a livelihood.  Are political parties trying to tell the youth of India that politics is a great opportunity to make money?  How can a young person make a career out of politics unless he has financial backing?  How will he or she pay for his three meals and rent by entering into politics?  And how is politics a career if it does not offer growth or hold a future financially. 


Most of these basic questions have not been answered by those who have been inviting us to join politics.  Since, no party has taken the time and effort to explain what they mean by join politics, or to explain the opportunities they are showcasing, it is difficult not to raise the above questions.  It is furthermore difficult to not associate politics with money, as that is one of the fundamental requirements for any young person to survive unless he or she has an inheritance in waiting or a rich family to fall back on.  Where is the opportunity, people?  Where is the opportunity for the 'not-so-rich' young people in these scheme of things?  Can one have a career in politics and also have a career in arts, sports, investment banking, manufacturing or teaching?  Is this really an opportunity that would benefit governance, benefit democracry, benefit the nation, reduce corruption and improve our general quality of living?  Or is this, ultimately another avenue, for those, who enter politics to make money, see no future in any other career and resort to further violence, further corruption and everthing further to assert what is our current political scenario.