SIGNS OF THE TIMES – MAY 25, 2020
Humra Quraishi
Even in the midst of the mounting sorrows and ongoing tragedies, has any one from the ruling brigade even once bothered to walk till about the roadside and the highway and publicly and profusely apologize to the grief -stricken fleeing masses —-our precious mazdoors and migrant workers.
Our mazdoors walking from here to there in those behaal- badhaal conditions …desperate to save their lives or whatever remains of it. Yet not a word of apology from the sarkar of the day! Instead, petty politics coming in way even in their transportation, for their safe return to their very native places … And in between it all, announcements of complicatedly- complex sounding packages which even leading economists find hard to decipher. And in the midst of this gloom, arrests of any of those students and scholars who’d dared to speak out against the CAA or against the North East Delhi pogrom of February 2020.
And why was such a hue and cry raised by the Right-Wing brigades when Rahul Gandhi met and spoke to the migrant workers? He met them out there in the open, on the roadside, and as a worried –concerned- earnest citizen he wanted to meet them and find out what should be done to ease their trauma in the ongoing conditions.
In fact, the Right- Wing rulers of the day should have been talking to the migrants and mazdoors. But perhaps they opted to sit un-moving from their air-conditioned homes and offices …And if Rahul Gandhi did , what a concerned citizen ought to have to done , that is go down and talk to the aggrieved lot, there was this all that useless hungama…. Correct me if I’m wrong but Rahul Gandhi was one of the first few who had warned this government way back in February that the Coronavirus has made an entry in the country and there was every possible danger of the virus spreading out, but little response coming from the government. After all, it was all too preoccupied making all possible bandobasts for the welcoming ceremony of President Trump, and there after toppling the legitimate Congress government in Madhya Pradesh.
In fact, I do very strongly feel that the Right -Wing brigades together with the godi media under their control, have tried their level best to distract if not hoodwink the masses, and also trample upon any strong voice of dissent who could dare question and raise his voice …They have tried to put in hurdles in the political graph of Rahul Gandhi, who comes across as earnest and farsighted and down to earth. In fact, Khushwant Singh was so impressed meeting Rahul Gandhi that he had not just told me details of that one meet with him but also wrote some of those details in his book – ‘Absolute Khushwant’ (( Published in the summer of 2010 by Penguin ) To quote Khushwant from his this book – “ Rahul had telephoned sometime last year and said that he wanted to come and see me. He came at the appointed time—4 p.m. —and spent almost an hour in my home. I gave him tea – he said that he’d like some tea—and we spoke of politics; about the current situation in general and other things in particular…I told him, ‘Your cadres are very weak. The BJP has the RSS and the VHP to work for it at the grassroots level. The Congress lacks that.’ He said that he agreed with me and that he was already working on this. He is seeing to it that the party members are trained and the party built up. I see that he has been concentrating on young workers and has picked some very talented youngsters, many of them women. I also told him that during elections voters have to be wooed and drawn towards the party. I said that the most important thing that he should keep in mind is to resist flatterers and to hold back from accepting any portfolio…We didn’t talk about his grandmother or his great grandfather.”
In fact, Khushwant had told me ( as I was co-authoring this book with him – that is , all of Khushwant’s views and viewpoints , put down by me ) in great detail why he thinks that Rahul Gandhi has the ability and the potential and the capability of leading the country. To quote Khushwant from this book– “ He has taken on Mayawati in her own territory. It is a brave thing to do. He himself seems to have no caste or class prejudice .What he has been doing in Amethi, staying with the lowest castes and sharing their food—I don’t think you can criticise him for that. He is not being patronizing; he is highlighting a shameful reality in our country. Even in the twenty –first century there are untouchables in our society and they live wretched lives …The young Gandhi is becoming a mature leader. Maybe after the next elections ( 2014 ) , if his party wins, he may agree to become PM. Or he may still choose not to. He has his priorities right— he is not concerned about position and kursi, but strengthening the Congress party.”
Whilst on the Gandhis, let me say that I was very impressed by the manner in which Priyanka Gandhi got the buses arranged for the transportation of our mazdoors and migrant workers to Uttar Pradesh …And then the humble cum mature way in which she tried to relay to the chief minister of that State , Yogi Adityanath, that in these ongoing tragic circumstances the first priority ought to be the safety and well -being of our mazdoors She did what a responsible political leader ought to have done.
But, then, we all saw how the political games of the Right – Wing rulers came in way — of our masses and their safety! In fact, whilst on Yogi Adityanath , I must write that there is not just apprehension but also anger cum fear amongst the Muslim community not just in Uttar Pradesh but across the country ever since last week’s news reports that Yogi Adityanath will hold the charge of the Waqf Boards in Uttar Pradesh …Said to be a temporary charge till elections are held for the Sunni and Shia Waqf Boards but only the naïve are going about digesting this official note or footnote . After all, why this delay in holding the required elections to these Waqf boards? Anyway, elections are a formality but then even that formality seems to be getting bypassed! …Also, the Muslim community cannot ever forget that speech of Yogi Adiyanath where he spoke distastefully to say the least, in the context of graves, those who lie buried in there …Not to overlook the fact that a large number of grave yards in Uttar Pradesh are built on Waqf lands!
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