|
Power-Full Party Power-Less
People
Jagmohan Singh
 Just the other
day, newspaper headlines in Punjab screamed that Sukhbir Singh Badal
has again become the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab. The people of
Punjab were second time lucky as they again have the opportunity to
convert this dying green belt into California, and no sarcasm
intended since these are Sukhbir’s words.
The next day’s
top stories are screaming that Punjab is in the grip of a power and
water crisis. Alongside is the first decision of the deputy chief
minister –census of non-resident Punjabis – to safeguard their prime
properties and interests. In case you have forgotten, he has just
returned from an overseas trip. Nobody in Punjab grudges that,
because the dream to become non-resident persists, and how can one
rue that particularly when a group of non-resident tycoons met the
power-full leaders in Chandigarh and expressed their desire to set
up a nuclear power plant in the border town of Attari!
That politics is
about power is not lost on the people of
Punjab
and the northern states of
India,
particularly during the “horror” months of the summer. Prior to the
parliamentary elections and the just concluded bypolls which
returned the dynastic Naunihal, all water and power flowed to
the constituencies where elections were held, particularly
unfettered to Jalalabad –the constituency of the son of the Chief
Minister. It is amazing how the flow of water and electricity is
also at the command and control of the power-full. As soon as the
elections are over, results declared, power is shut off. Power-less
people murmur in protest, the heat making that too impossible and
the near power-full bureaucrats are ever pliant to dance to the
tune.
What about the
Power-less? Have a look at the picture above. The power-full are
cheerful and the power-less have their eyes fixed either on the
ground or sometimes to the skies hoping for heavens to fall or pour,
literally.
E M Forster
described the Indian summer in A Passage to India as “the herald of
horrors”. Since then, the horrors have increased manifold.
Electricity is available in Punjab for less than 8 hours in a day in
cities and much less than that in the villages.
More people are
affected due to dehydration following sweltering heat with no
electricity, bad drinking water than are dying of swine flu. Should
a pandemic of swine flu strike Punjab, it would be made worse with
the power situation. The rich, famous and powerful, like the above
will rush to generator-run state-of-the-art corporate hospitals,
whereas the poor, underprivileged and power-less will have to make
do with government-run euphemistically called civil hospitals, where
doctors would either be absent or themselves be carriers of H1N1
virus.
The latest
decision of the BBMB (Bakhra Beas Management Board) to reduce water
outflows from the Bakhra dam by 3000 cusecs a day will drastically
damage paddy in Punjab and Haryana. The only hope will be a
downpour, should it happen. This will also reduce electric supply by
nearly 200,000 units. The power-full party of Punjab has not made
any statement towards resolving the crisis but is more worried about
losing power in Haryana and therefore all energies are being thrust
into saving the situation there by stalling the formation of the
proposed Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
The tussle
between the Power-full and the Power-less is likely to continue for
quiet some time till it reaches to a head on collision. In a welfare
state, where policies are designed invariably with an eye on
elections, free water, free electricity has been playing havoc with
the lives of people. Those who wanted them free are now reading
between the lines. Free means No.
Only the
Power-less can change the equilibrium. The power-less should unite
to become power-full. Think beyond your own house. Think green.
Think solar. Think unconventional. Think nearer to the nature. Think
different. Think of the ways more in consonance with Sarbat Da Bhala
dictum.
12
August 2009
|
Read Also