Darjeeling Diaries...

Amidst the July end 72 hour strike declared by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha to demand a separate State, the beauty of Darjeeling takes my breath away. The roads are devoid of tourists who otherwise would have hijacked the mall area, a place where you can sit at a Café Coffee Day, sipping your coffee and looking out at the mountains peeking amidst the fog. I wish I had an SLR camera to do justice to scenic beauty. If you just want to take a walk down the mall area, sit on the benches to chat while the furry street dogs and horses walk about, you might just forget there is a city bustling with activity and the honking cars that you left behind to steal some time away in the hills of Darjeeling. The small clean station of Darjeeling with it’s toy train parked thanks to the strike, cries out to be occupied by tourists. Eventhough the strike called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha translates into shops downing shutters and offices not functional, Darjeeling won’t let you leave without an image of it’s beauty imprinted in your mind.

The GJM President Bimal Gurung resigns from post of Chief Executive of the Gorkha Territorial Administration which came into being on 18th July 2011 after a tripartite agreement was signed by the Centre, State and the GJM. The GJM say they are not happy with the functioning of the GTA with unwanted interference from the State Government and unapproachable attitude. They have gone back to a more firm demand for separate Statehood in the wake of the UPA 2 Government agreeing to separate Statehood status for Telengana, breaking away from Andhra Pradesh. GJM wants Gorkhaland to be the 30th State of the country, refusing to be sidelined anymore by the Centre and West Bengal Government. They are stepping up their peaceful agitation, asking tourists and school students to leave the hills in 2 days time. Torchlight marches will give way to more sloganeering with flags of GJM and other forms of agitation.

Many from the GJM have switched loyalties to the Trinamool Congress, the future of talks with the State and Centre now depends on their ability to convince them that they mean serious business. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not too happy with the turn of events of Telengana and the echo of Gorkhaland growing louder. The GTA was her achievement and the Hills were smiling as she would say. But the people here say Darjeeling was a territory part of Sikkim in 1988 as per the white paper published during the Left Front Government’s rule and a realignment of territories took place. They say they speak a different language, their culture is different from the rest of West Bengal.

When I speak to one tourist from the UK who had grown up in Kalimpong not far from Darjeeling, he is saddened at not being able to visit there due to the bandh. I tell him he can come back when times are better and he replies saying “I am 73, I doubt I will be able to come back”. The tinge of disappointment, the pondering over the strike which will affect the economy of Darjeeling as the hills primarily depend on tourists makes me ponder. When will tourists be able to come back at leisure without being disappointed, to enjoy a sumptuous breakfast at Glenary’s or Keventers?

The empty hotels wear a longing look to usher in tourists into their hotel rooms and witness the scenic beauty of the mountains from their cosy rooms, like the hotel where I am staying at. Owned by a Tibetan, naming the hotel Seven Seventeen considering the numbers lucky with everyone’s birthday in her family falling on the 7th or 17th. She says the hotel owes it’s success to the patronizing guests…But when will luck favour her soon again? Ushering the tourists back without the disappointment of being sent away due to another strike, by the people hopeful of the birth of Gorkhaland.

City of 'Bhoy'

 

In recent weeks, I open the newspapers, switch on the television or through my work have come across eve teasing, molestation and rapes in West Bengal. Kolkata from being a city of Joy has become a city of 'Bhoy' or fear as it is called in Bengali. It seems to be not a one off incident, but now a regular affair. It could also be that these things did happen in the State, but were never reported to the extent that they are now. Bad enough there have been rapes reported recently, but now eve teasing and molestation on the city's road are also rampant. When I speak to victims or those who were with them at that point in time when the incidents occur, I know the sense of uneasiness that has gripped them. For me as a girl in the city, I can see the deserted streets that give a sense of unwanted presence of citizens traversing their paths towards their destinations. This was not the case though a few years ago, but I spot the difference only because I live in an area which is usually buzzing with activity and the transformation is evident.

It is sad but true, that fear is instilled in the minds of citizens, women and men while fearlessness takes over the unruly masses that smirk at thought of being intimidating. When I say intimidating I refer to the gang of men on bikes showing their so called power by troubling citizens on the roads, the epitome of uncouth. I spoke to an actor Indrajit and his friend DJ Akash who narrate the incident on Park Street on a Saturday night when they saw a gang of 18 men on 9 motorcycles making rounds near their car when they spotted Indrajit's sister in law and neice. One said ' Uthale' while another said 'Uthale, kuch nahi hoga'. The actor and DJ kept mum instead of questioning the youth as the safety of women was first priority. The gang of bikers had the audacity to do this when the women were accompanied by 3 men. I ask them why they didn't file an FIR and they say they didn't have substantial evidence as the bikers were many in number and it was impossible to note down the bike numbers.

I speak to one Police officer about the lack of evidence being one of the reasons some people choose not to file a Police complaint and he tells me that evidence can be collected. But are these words enough to coax victims out of their shell of fear? What stops them? Is it the acceptance that the Police can't do much as most of the accussed will be out on bail as the laws have loopholes? Or is it that noone wants to get into that mess of Police and the court?

I speak to an American lady staying at a city hotel who was solicited by a waiter and she chose to file a complaint of sexual harrassment with the Police, while the American Consulate helps her out. The accussed is let off on bail. She tells me India has become worse than what it was, since her earlier visits in her 40 years of being married to a Bengali. I tell her that in the past, we citizens could not venture out of our houses late at night with fear of being unsafe lurking around somewhere, be it Kolkata or other cities. Also most women including me have faced eve teasing or molestation and have learnt to be street smart to fight back. While noone crossed the limits with foreigners as much before since there was somewhat a fear of the law, there were not so many people bragging about their political clout. Times have changed now and the fear for the law replaces fearlessness and hence crossing the limits with foreigners has become more prevalent now, perhaps for this reason.

Yet I say that it is not alarming enough to make women stay locked up in their homes. What needs to change is each one of us, whether women or men, should wrap ourselves up with an air of caution. Men too, for it is them who face the brunt. Like the TV anchor from Mumbai who along with her friend were molested outside an eatery in Howrah on a Monday night, while her male friend was beaten up by 5 men. It was as regular an event of the male friend getting food packed while the 2 women and the anchor's father sat in the car, only to have a drunkard pass lewd comments at the anchor's friend. When they protested, the event took a turn for the worse.  
   
But where does the buck stop? Is it that now targetting the modesty of woman is common and so it should be about digesting the fact or that the law and order situation could just get better eventually? Your guess is as good as mine and till the latter happens, fight back instead of staying quiet. I just hope the unpleasant times are a passing phase...a bad dream that will be replaced by better and safer times which is a wish that is on almost every Kolkatan's lips.

 

As They Step Out To Vote...

The winds of change have ushered in the TMC Government voting out the Left after 34 years in power, but some things have not changed. There are still people who are not allowed to go out and vote, intimidated by some, that is what the second phase of Panchayat elections showed. Perhaps because some are identified as supporters of a particular party which the other party wants to intimidate. Like the independent candidate Laxmikanta Gayen of Sonachura Gram Panchayat in Nandigram (located in East Midnapore district) and his supporters who were too scared to go out and vote for him. A reporter from a newspaper managed to track down Gayen, who was seated below the Tekhali bridge making calls to his supporters to go out and vote.

I travelled to Hoogly and Burdwan districts during the second leg of polling on the 15th of July. Barring one person, people in Singur were too scared to speak to me.All I asked them was, would it be issues like the contentious Tata motors case, better farming facilities, improvement of infrastructure, etc they would consider while voting. In Burdwan district, a crude bomb killed a CPIM candidate's husband in Jhamuria while some prevented him from going out to cast his vote at a polling booth 300 metres away. Three people died in total while some were injured in political clashes in the second phase of Panchayat polls, despite the presence of paramilitary forces patrolling the booths. But it takes just seconds for things to happen and we are talking about around 12,500 polling booths across three districts. Would it be correct to say security forces are not doing their duty effectively? Or is it the culture of West Bengal politics that has been embedded since decades and history repeats itself?

For a State where the common man has been politically aware from a young age in urban and rural Bengal, there are somethings that will never change. For the rural masses, their political alignment defines them and hence more reports of clashes come in from districts, especially with close to 30% of rural population in Bengal . It has been just two years since the corridors of power have now changed colours from red to green and there are some more years to go into the era of change, to see whether the history of political culture will be rewritten.
       

'Painted and Dented'

What do Indian Politicians hope to portray and why would they gain the confidence of the public or voters if their thought process is digressive instead of instilling faith to usher in a better tomorrow? When Abhijit Mukherjee, Congress MP from Jangipur Constituency made a statement on 27th December 2012 saying women come' painted and dented' for protests on the Delhi rape and all are not students, it created outrage not just amongst the public, but his sister and wife too. President Pranab Mukherjee's son who took his father's seat as MP at Jangipur has embarrassed the Congress that is trying to put the protests on the Delhi rape behind them while his family too wonder where this statement came from. His sister Sharmista said that she does not agree with her brother and is an emancipated woman who does visit a discotheque sometimes. She goes on to say these are not views of the family.

After the statement on television, Abhijit Mukherjee when asked by anchors what he meant by the statement, he says these are his personal views and that when he was in college, he students would study and not dress up.Is this what a responsible representative of the people says? When these are his individual views why even say them on television? Media is meant to disseminate information, why blame them later? When I went to his house to request him to come for a live on our show, he sees me dressed in a black long sweater, spectacles and boots and when I introduce myself says "How do I describe you?". For a moment I was speechless and asked him to repeat his question as I thought I heard wrong. And when he said the same thing, I just replied "The why you choose to perceive me." without taking the discussion any further. His views should just be in his head and not on his lips as a responsible representative of the people. I for once was surprised and it certainly wasen't a comment I misunderstood.

There was more. After the live on our channel, he says never to trust the media, but what about responsibility as a Leader if the media did not get hold of his 'painted and dented' statement? He goes on to tell me and another girl, my reporter friend from another channel how times have changed and now words misunderstood. A term 'maal' would be used for girls in college and he calls an MLA from his constituency who has a surname that sounds the same as the term. Was there a need to make such a comment to justify a way of thinking? 

The incident has probably been relegated to the back of the mind for most people, but this is an incident that I will recollect from time to time as one of the many experiences as a journalist
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Repairing Faith...Rebuilding Uttarakhand.

After the June 15th floods in Uttarakhand, thousands were rescued but thousands still remain stranded. While rescue operations are still on which keeps hope alive, it is the residents of Uttarakhand now that need help. I watched a story on one of the National news channels which says that there is only ration and relief material for 30 families out of 270 families. It might be said that in dire situations, make do with what you have. But one of the residents said, 'We helped rescue pilgrims, but what about us?' And it really makes one wonder, has the State administration forgotten about them? How long will the residents continue to survive on ration and relief material meant for less than half their number? From the looks of it, it will take years to repair the damage in the State. But before that, there are more pertinent issues that need to be addressed.

The politics behind the blame game overshadows the need of the hour. Some reports suggested it was a man made disaster as warning signs were ignored and norms were not adhered to. But man made efforts too can reach out to the people at the core of the State and thereafter help rebuild Uttarakhand. Politics aside, who sits with a plan on how to go about the work in the aftermath of the disaster? The buck doesn't just stop at rescuing people and presuming those missing as dead. It is not easy for the victims of the natural disaster to move on and it is not a plausible solution for the State administration to ignore the reality faced of the road that lies ahead. With hopes shattered, the State Government has a task of living upto the faith of the commoners that choose to rebuild their lives in the State rather than fleeing to greener pastures with the nightmare left behind.