HARI OM Is central government discriminatory? Why the repeated floods in Mithila has not received the adequate attention while the entire nation is shedding its tears now when Kashmir is experiencing the natures fury? Read my article and send me your invaluable feedback. My Blog: vivekanandspeaks.wordpress. Follow me on Twitter. We are two peoples in the same republic By Vivekanand Jha When Kashmir is crying in agony in the wake of the unprecedented flood, the entire world, especially entire country, is moved deeply by its shrill. However, the flood that ravaged Mithila year after year had sadly very few takers. The general perception was: it is Mithilas fate, who can help it? Seeing the unprecedented flood in Kashmir and its grave implications for the inhabitants of the state, it rent my heart as I sincerely empathised with my brethren of Kashmir as someone who has been exposed to the fury of flood which had wrought havoc in my own native area of Mithila year after year. The media attention that the tragedy has generated is something of gargantuan proportion. In fact, the responses coming from across the country, including the various Chief Ministers, was purely overwhelming. Truly so, the tragedy of this magnitude ought to have invoked the universal sympathy and, thankfully, it did. However, the very contrast between the same nature of tragedies of even far greater magnitude occurring elsewhere, mostly and repeatedly in Mithila, ironically had failed to evoke even 20% of the sympathy that the current calamity of Kashmir has done. Whereas it is indeed appreciable that Kashmirs tragedy has become a matter of national consciousness, the repeated tragedies of greater magnitude which has afflicted the unfortunate people of Mithila in Bihar, had paradoxically never stirred the hornet nest as the latest one in Kashmir has stirred, why? Why it has been such that people of Kashmir, who have been traditionally entitled to greater central attention and care, demanded an immediate attention of the government and all its paraphernalia on war footing--every conceivable means that government could have pressed into application on war footing --it did. The valiant Indian soldiers who were accustomed to hearing Bharat ka kutta wapas ja, wapas ja, setting aside their own differences with the local populace, plunged in to secure as many lives as they could; and, not only the tools and gadgets that could be applied best and quickest, the soldiers bravely went around to save the lives of the citizens even if it meant losing their own. The Prime ministers zeal and over enthusiasm in securing the lives of the citizens which manifested in his reaching the spot and supervising over the coordination of operation and announcing an immediate release of One thousand crores of Rupees, galvanised the various chief ministers of the states like Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Jaylalitha, to immediately announce a donation of Rs five crores each for the victims of this massive tragedy. The rescue operation is still on as more than two hundred people have reportedly died in the wake of this unprecedented fury unleashed by the river Jhelum, and the people across the country are empathising with the people of Kashmir. So far so good. The irony now is this: the flood of Kosi, Kamla and Gandak have been deluging Mithila for several decades but it has hardly ruffled the feathers of those who ruled India. The fury of Kosi especially which had uprooted lacs of people and killed thousands and destroyed the livestock of countless values, year after year, had not struck the chord with neither the government, nor the fellow citizens of the country, to the same degree that the current calamity of Kashmir has struck. Why Mithila has remained on the periphery of national mind space whereas Kashmir, despite confronting a far lesser tragedy in comparison to what Mithila had witnessed time and time again, indeed deserves a serious thought?. Although Kasmirs preeminence on the international radar is a well known fact, and the consequential governments alacrity is also logical, but then, why Mithila, being an integral part of the nation; a part that throughout has been the flag bearer of the republic, would still languish while the one rebelling against the union and ever trying to secede would still remain its favoured child , is indeed regrettable. It is a well known fact that the union of India has to be extra sensitive to Kashmir because of the secessionist design of its leaders and even the common people, for government of India could not afford to be seen as insensitive to this tragedy of utter magnitude. Still, the courting of one people of the republic while ignoring the others, amounts to sowing a seed of dissension in the republic which claims to be one while it strives to divide its people into two categories: a favoured and a pampered one like Kashmiris, and the neglected and blissfully ignored like Maithils of Bihar The turbulence of Kosi which covers even a larger part of Jammu and Kashmir and far larger number of people, had witnessed a catastrophe in 1987--a flood of such a huge magnitude that happened once in a several decades. Lacs and Lacs of people were displaced, several thousands perished and thousands of hectres of land inundated, Thousands of people stayed on embankments and on the interiors with nothing to bank upon. Although the efforts were made by the governments --both state and Central- to rehabilitate the people, but still lacks of people lost their livelihood and consequently had to seek refuge in the metropolises of this country. What government has done for those people who lost everything in the wake of the calamity? Nothing other than leaving them to fend for themselves.Worse still, there is a rumour that central government has a vested interests to keep Mithila on toes and in utter deprivation; render them materially impotent for ever so that they could serve as labour in the factory and in construction industry across the country. Long ago Vir Sanghvi had written a piece in his Counterpoint in Hindustan Times that why not give up Kashmir, for the colossal fund that centre had to invest to keep it under Union, could be saved. Vir had gone on adding: what the poor Biharis and the people of Uttarpradesh have done so as not to deserve a better living standard as the citizens of this republic. Vir had the negligence of these states in the hand of the union in his mind when he had broached his suggestion. Vir had also tried to puncture the hypothesis that the Indian republic will break if Kashmir secede from Union. In fact, if that were true, then the obvious question arises that wherever Muslim population surpass that of Hindus, such state will immediately secede from Union. The truth is known to everyone: Kashmir remains a problem because it has a dominant Muslim population who will never volunteer to remain as apart of Hindu India. May be the time has changed now: a new government presided over by Modi has taken over. Modi believes in his egalitarian vision for all states. He might not continue with the erstwhile discriminatory policies of the Congress rule. But still there is a fix: Why didnt Prime minister Modi discuss with his Nepali counterpart about building a barrage over Kosi or taking steps to tame Kosi, for taming Kosi needs a tripartite agreement to be signed between the government of India, Bihar and Nepal government. And as regards the river uplinking project, Dr Dinesh Mishra, an expert in the field of river, has confided in this writer that this is easier said than done. What plan Prime minister Modi then has for the people of Mithila who have been at the receiving end of the fury of Kosi and other turbulent rivers year after year and who have overwhelmingly voted for him in this just concluded 2014 general election? if Modi does not come out with any concrete solution for Mithila, perhaps the area will be doomed for ever. Indian republic will be accused of creating two different peoples --the one in Kashmir who are pampered and still remain rebellious for ever, while the docile and nationalists Maithils who are grossly neglected and left to fend for themselves. Will Modi prefer to have two different peoples in his republic, choice is his.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 07:02:17 +0000
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