Mamta Kalia

quite opposite to them. This has only
increased the alienation of Uttarakhand’s
people from the state at the national
level. This is also clear from this increasing
loss of confidence of Uttarakhand’s people
in the national parties and organizations
which have their roots in the national
movement. This is also responsible for
its passing under the influence of political
and social ideologies which are either
revivalist, (anti-equity and anti-social
reform) that are busy in pushing the
country backwards into the centuries
of mediaeval mentality or are driven
by isolationist impulses which see
Uttarakhand’s future only in cutting it
away from the nation’s mainstream.
If today politics in Uttarakhand
appears to be entering sometimes a dark
tunnel the responsibility mainly is that
of the national forces which during the
past decades have not tried to understand
the problems of the country’s backward
regions through a continuous dialogue
with their people and with real, committed
local representatives on the basis of a
scientific study and research. Nor has
it made an honest effort to work out
a suitable plan of action to resolve the
problems and act on it faithfully. Impelled
by the politics of power, the national
parties have engaged most of the time
in turning these backward areas into
their “vote banks” and, some of them
in the name of raising teams of local
political workers, and using muscle and
money, and political manipulations have
given birth to a class of corrupt and
characterless persons who can act as
middlemen and touts between various
sections of the population and its leaders.
People’s anger is centred on these
middlemen and touts who, without any
service to the people, hard work or
contribution in the technical field, have
emerged as the “novex riche” and, on
the basis of their newly-acquired wealth,
strength and power, have been
dominating the people.
In the same way there have emerged
in the economic field powerful elements
whose prosperity has not resulted from
any real effort on their part to modernize
agriculture or industry. These elements
have become rich by misusing the
subsidies and facilities given under the
government’s Five-Year Plans. In their
malpractices, exploitation of labourers
engaged in road building under various
contracts through underpayment of
wages, and in the name of establishing
new industries, resorting to practices
that have been described as “black
economy”, figure prominently. Reckless
cutting down of trees and illegal trading
of the other physical and human resources
of the hills are also included in their
repertory of malpractices. This “new rich”
class has become fully dominant on the
economy, society and politics of the
region. This new class has developed
such deep overt and covert links with
prominent politicians of the state and
its administration that because of them
the state, too, has lost whatever of the
old prestige it had been able to retain
April-June 2010 :: 43