OPINION

The most unique and admirable aspect of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership is that it seldom displays black eyes even in the worse of poll bashing. The most recent example being the local body polls in Punjab.

On the day that Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government was celebrating completion of the first year of the its second full-term, the results of the civic polls in Punjab came out, where AAP was placed a distant third behind the Congress and the Akali Dal. Expectedly, there was no acknowledgment by the AAP leadership of the humiliating defeat of being reduced from the position of the main opposition to that of third.

But within a few days it had bounced back with its Surat ‘victory’. Though the critics have credited the Delhi’s ruling party making debut in BJP’s fortress to handing over the reigns to Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), the fact remains that Arvind Kejriwal had the foresight to galvanise Patel votes, long disenchanted with BJP, in his party’s favour.

The Centre can rightly pat its back on the issue of disengagement with China in Eastern Ladakh without firing a bullet after the initial clashes in May last year. The Centre stood ground for full nine months before the disengagement could start. Hopefully the stand-off on Ghazipur, Singhu and Tikri borders doesn’t take that long before the disengagement starts, though it has already been three months since farmers started to agitate.

In Eastern Ladakh, the sparse local population was not affected by the standoff. It was matter of strategic dominance which was at the core of the issue and it didn’t affect lives of the millions as the standoff at the borders of the national Capital is affecting.

The government could afford the kind of time frame it had to resolve border issue in Ladakh but such strategy in case of Delhi borders has brought much harassment to the masses. Several lakh people in their vehicles and public transport buses cross borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to enter the national Capital and vice-versa for earning their livelihood.

Many may differ with the government on the issue its attitude towards farm laws and farmers’ agitation, but several among them mat still be on the same page as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on andolanjeevis that is those who live by the agitation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week while speaking in Parliament, appealed to the agitating farmers to end their protest and discuss their demands with the government. He also said that the country needs to be protected against what he called andolanjeevi or those who survive on, by and for protests.

The Prime Minister went onto define them as andolanjeevi, who could be seen in every agitation and that the country needed to be protected from such people, who were actually parjeevi (parasite). When the Opposition tried to get even with the Prime Minister on the issue, he was quick to clarify that the farmers’ movement by andolankaris (agitators) was pious but there was no denying the fact that there’re some who were trying to make a living out of this agitation -- the andolanjeevis and parjeevis.

Some of the Congress leaders including its former president Rahul Gandhi and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram have tried to equate themselves with andolanjeevis and also call Mahatma Gandhi an adndolanjeevi. In a post on microblogging site twitter, Chidambaram wrote, “I am a proud andolanjeevi. The quintessential andolanjeevi was Mahatma Gandhi.” One has to disagree on this count with Mr Chidamabaram as Mahatma’s personality certainly doesn’t come under the ambit of andolanjeevi as defined by the Prime Minister.

Without getting into the debate of the new farm laws being good or bad, let’s come straight to the point. The prolonged standoff between the government and the farmers has brought the National Capital Region (NCR) to a grinding halt.

The all-powerful government of India by deploying 50000 police and para-military personnel, putting spikes on the roads and creating three layers of reinforced cement concrete barriers may have ‘saved’ Delhi from a ‘çhakka jam’ during those three hours on the last Saturday, little realizing that Delhi has been in a state of ‘chakka jam’ for the past two months.

The traffic gridlocks on the Ghazipur Delhi-Uttar Pradesh and Singhu and Tikri borders with Haryana every morning and evening are a testimony to the fact that the NCR has fallen victim to the standoff and the agitators succeeded in putting the government in a quagmire. Not that the congestions are there only at the borders but also in the heart of the city with layers of barricading to keep the seat of the government ‘safe’.

The capital city and its vibrant satellite towns, which have been struggling to beat back the blues caused by the long period of lockdown due to the pandemic find themselves further brow-beaten by the government-imposed clampdown. The universities in the National Capital Region have been forced to reschedule examinations, being held online due to the pandemic, because there are extended internet shutdowns.

On February 14, Chief Minister of Arunanchal Pradesh Pema Khandu would lay at Tawang the foundation stone for a memorial to be built in the remembrance of Major Bob Khathing, an Indian Army officer who played agreat role in establishinging Indian sovereignty in then North Eastern Frontier Agency (NEFA), now Arunachal Pradesh. It was on this day 70 years ago that Maj Khathing saved Tawang for India.   

After Independence, re-establihing Indian sovereignty in NEFA was not an easy task and here Maj Khathing and his guardian angel, Jairamdas Daulatram, played a big role. About Daulatram historical references are limited to him being a representative from Sindh and later East Punjab in the Constituent Assembly. It was, however, after Independence — during his tenure as the Governor of Assam between 1950 and 1956 — that he played the role of being a nation-builder.

An astute statesman, Daulatram understood well the strategic importance of Tawang and realised that whoever controlled Tawang would control North-East. In the autumn of 1951, Maj Khathing, who on retirement from Army had joined the Indian Frontier Administrative Service (IFAS), then working as an assistant political officer, was summoned by Governor Daulatram.