SPECTACULAR HIGH ALTITUDE PASSES OF HIMACHAL- PIN PARBAT.

 

             SPECTACULAR HIGH ALTITUDE PASSES OF HIMACHAL [ I ]

                                            PIN  PARBAT

 

The massive Pir Panjal range of the Greater Himalaya  separates the districts of Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. There are a number of rugged passes along this range which the hardy tribals have used since time immemorial- Kugti, Chobia, Kalicho and Rohtang served the residents of Lahaul, while Hamta and Pin Parbat were used by the people of Spiti. Inevitably, with the expansion of the road  network and improved connectivity, these passes now witness the passage of only the resilient “gaddis” or the adventurous trekker.

                          

                      [ Pin Parbat Pass. Photo by Sanjeeva Pandey ]     

At 5319 meters  Pin Parbat straddles the watershed of Kullu and Spiti: the north is drained by the mysterious Pin river, and the south by the Parbati. Pin Parbat also separates two distinct eco zones: the Kullu side is blessed with lush green temperate vegetation while the northern Spiti side is a cold desert devoid of any vegetation, a frozen canvas of sculpted rocks and lonely peaks bathed in the most colourful hues imaginable. The pass can be approached from both sides but the route from the Parbati valley on the Kullu side is the more preferred option.

                   [ The infant Parbati exiting Mantalai lake. Photo by author ]

The  launch point for the ascent to the pass is the glacial Mantalai lake (14000 feet), the source of the Parbati river and a three days’ trek from the road head at Pulga in the Parbati valley. There is no human habitation after Khir Ganga, a day's trek from Pulga, and the only peoples you can expect to meet thereafter are the itinerant, nomadic and transhumant Gujjars or Gaddis with all their worldly assets literally on the hoof, guarded by that matchless breed of dogs – the eponymous gaddi or Himalayan Sheep Dog.  It is possible to reach the pass from Mantalai in one day’s hard trekking and climbing, but this is not adviseable because it involves a climb of 4000 feet and then a descent of another 3000 feet to the camp-site on the other side, all over rocks, ice and crevasses. Any delay and one can get stranded in dangerous no man’s land in the darkness. It is best, therefore, to camp at the foot of the pass after leaving Mantalai and push up to the pass the next day.

                  [ On the saddle of Pin Parbat pass. Author is fourth from the right.]                                 

The track from the lake heads  east along a narrow, detritus filled valley overhung with glaciers on both sides which feed the lake itself. It ends about three kilometres later at an awe-inspiring feature: a sheer wall of loose rock and moraine, rising straight up 1000 feet at an impossible angle of 70 degrees. It’s difficult to get a firm footing on this slippery slope and one has to inch up one step at a time, keeping a lookout for falling boulders.  It takes two hours to reach the top: at 15000 feet the view is stupendous- a 270 degree sweep from the west to the north, an unending array of glaciers, peaks and shimmering streams, all feeding the forbidding lake which we had just left behind.

                [ The massive snout of a glacier on the way to the Pass. Photo by author ]

The track continues eastwards from the saddle, along a narrow, scree covered valley floor, through which flows another small stream originating from the glacier atop Pin Parbat itself. We followed this rivulet for a couple of kilometres and then pitched camp for the night- Base camp I.

The next day dawned bright and crisp as only the mountains can offer. We broke camp at 7.00AM, and after a kilometre came to a huge rockfall about 50 meters high which would extend all the way to the pass. The going is tough, but soon relieved by the snout of a massive glacier on the right, at least 150 feet high. It was an awe-inspiring feature as we moved along its foot: it had ice caves and overhangs from which little ribbons of snow melt emerged in hundreds of cascades, all merging into the little stream we were following. Soon we were above the glacier and could now see its huge expanse from the top. It stretched away as far as the eye could see to the south, and it was fractured with hundreds of crevasses. I sometimes wonder if this immense glacier is still there, or if it too has succumbed to the effects of global warming.

                        [ The colours of Pin valley. Pin river is in the middle ground.

                           Photo by author]

                  

After another kilometre or so, the top of the rockfall is achieved, and the Pin Parbat pass itself  now rises on the ridge-line, completely encased in a thick mantle of ice. This ice crust is about 10 feet thick at the edge. We clambered over it; the prospect before us was absolutely mesmerising: wave upon wave of ice dunes, hillocks and shallow valleys of snow and ice on the massive glacier, gently ascending to the pass itself. There is no track and the surface is fractured with innumerable crevasses. The snowfall of the previous night had covered these fissures with a light mantle of snow, obscuring them from the careless trekker and presenting an additional danger.  Carefully roped up, we trudged  through the vast ice field and after about an hour crested the top of the glacier. This is indeed glacier land- all around us were these massive rivers of ice and we counted at least 12 of them. We were now standing on the exact watershed line between Kullu and Spiti, looking down into the little known Pin Valley, taking its name from one of the streams originating from the pass- the Pin river. Base camp II was a further 1000 exhausting meters below.  From Base camp II, which is on the banks of the infant Pin it is another two days’ trek to the little village of Mudh. This is  the Pin Valley National Park, the domain of the snow leopard, Spiti wolf, ibex and ghoral.

THE SLAPSTICK QUANDARY

 The last fortnight has not been a good one for Himachal's politicians. The Chief Minister, Mr. Sukhu, lived up to the promise he had shown as a child and lost all four Lok Sabha seats to the BJP. The late Chief Minister Raja Virbhadra's son, Vikramaditya Singh, will never be able to show his face in royal circles again, having lost miserably to a far-from-common commoner in the Mandi seat. Mr. Anurag Thakur of the BJP has been divested of his central Ministership. There is some speculation that the always smiling Mr. JP Nadda may have had something to do with it: he first moth- balled the father, and now the son. That now leaves only the Holy Ghost, the banarsi pan(jandrum), he of the Immaculate Conception, to deal with. As someone sang, to everything there is a time...And finally, the Himachal-ki-beti Kangana Ranaut was slapped in the kisser by a lady constable of the CISF (Central Industrial Slapping Force). (This, of course, solves the mystery of the recent deployment of the CISF for Parliament's security- perhaps the stigmata on Ms Ranaut's flaming cheek is a dress rehearsal of what Opposition MPs can expect from the CISF chappies in Parliament. Of course, Ms Ranaut herself is now safe- a lawyer friend tells me that slapping her again would amount to res judicata or double jeopardy, and would therefore not be allowed by My Lords if they ever return from their vacations. 

Coming back to the slapping, however; I feel a disclaimer is in order here: I abhor violence and do not condone it, except when it is inflicted on people I don't like. I do not dislike Ms Ranaut- how can the male of any species except perhaps the streptococcus?- but I do disapprove of many of her utterances and the ideas she stands for. She is a loudmouth and a motormouth whose natural instinct is to insult and abuse, like she did all those women at the farmers' protest. The CISF constable, Kulwinder Kaur, is the daughter of one of these women, and belongs to a proud community which does not believe in turning the other cheek- as Ms Ranaut's own flaming cheeks bear testimony to. To put it bluntly: Ms. Ranaut was asking for it and got what was due to her. If you want to lie down with dogs, expect to be bitten by a few ticks and fleas.

But she has her defenders: how can a person in uniform slap a woman?, they shout from their majoritarian ramparts. Really? What have persons in uniform not done to their country-men under the orders of this regime to which the lady from Mandi owes her allegiance? Have they not dragged women wrestlers (champions all) on the roads of Delhi and roughed them up while in uniform? Have they not burnt at midnight (without the consent of her parents) the corpse of a young Dalit girl, raped and killed by upper cast men, while in uniform? Have they not barged into the hostels and libraries of Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Milia and mercilessly beaten students of both sexes without any reason, while in uniform? Have they not stood by and watched, for almost a year now, the atrocities being committed on the women of Manipur, while in uniform? Did not a railway policeman, while in uniform,  walk through a train coach, shooting members of a particular community with impunity? Please, all ye bhakts of various shades of saffron, spare us this drivel about uniforms. In the India of today a uniform is not a symbol of lawful forbearance, as it should be, it is a license for excess, accompanied by the Supreme Leaders's guarantee of complete immunity from the law. So what type of clothes Kulwinder Kaur was wearing when she planted the Congress symbol on Ms Ranaut's cheek is quite beside the point.

Welcome to public life, Ms Ranaut, and to the world of slippers, slaps and ink- ask Mr. Kejriwal, who has been slapped more times in public than by his mother as a child. Welcome also to the reality that sooner or later your past will catch up with you. One cannot make a career of foul mouthing individuals, abusing communities, vilifying particular religions, indulging in violence of the ideological and verbal kind, and not expect a pushback. This slapstick episode in which Kangana Ranaut plays the lead role has many subtle nuances, and all those who condemn Kulvinder Kaur without acknowledging these nuances are just being hypocritical and politically correct. Adopting a politically correct stance is the laziest response to a controversial situation. And, as Harry Truman so correctly remarked, political correctness is nothing but the deluded belief that it is possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end. Good luck, folks, in finding the right end!

DELHI, HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME

 My first posting as Deputy Commissioner was in 1980, to a district called Una. Una sits uncomfortably on the border with Punjab, and was apportioned to Himachal under the Punjab Reorganisation Act in the 70's. Ever since then Himachal has been trying to return it to Punjab, without any success ! The reason?- the good citizens of Una just have to be the most argumentative, cantankerous and litigious bunch in the Himalayas. In fact, I was told of a legend there that when Guru Nanak Dev visited Una during the course of his travels, he spent a night there trying to preach to the people. It was apparently in vain because they wouldn't listen to him, kept arguing with him on every issue and generally gave his teachings short shrift. Next morning, before leaving, he conferred his benediction on them by praying to God that they should not be disturbed in their present place of habitation, that they should prosper there, and be spared the wanderings that was the lot of people in those times.

The Guru moved on to Anandpur Sahib where he was treated with utmost respect, his every word venerated and his teachings enshrined in the hearts of the good people of Ropar. He blessed the villagers next morning by saying that they should travel all over India and not remain settled only at one place. His followers, in some surprise, asked him why the difference in blessings for Una and Anandpur Sahib -asking the latter to endure the hardship of dispersing all over the country while wishing for the comfort of the former by asking them to remain settled at one place? It is said that the Guru replied (no doubt with a twinkle in his eye!) that the people of Anandpur Sahib were the true disciples for his message of love and fraternity and should therefore spread this message throughout the country; conversely, the people of Una represented every value which he, the Guru, abhorred and preached against, and it was better if such people remained confined and isolated at one place and not spread their negativity !

I am reminded of this enlightening anecdote post the election results in Delhi where the BJP won 7 out of 7 Parliamentary seats. Because Delhi is no different from Una and its citizens deserve a similar "blessing". While the ordinary citizens of India were fighting to regain their democratic heritage from a despotic regime, these pampered elite of Golf Links, Punjabi Bagh, the RWAs of Dwarka and the coddled bureaucrats of Motinagar have been content to live in their bubble of privileges, windfall real estate earnings and vacations in Bali. They have once again displayed their total disconnect from the real Bharat, even as they plunder its resources to extract a disproportionate share of the nation's energy, water and other resources, and destroy its green cover, rivers and environment. The callousness they had last displayed when booting out millions of migrants during the Covid lockdown has once again been reflected in their total apathy and lack of concern at the endless suffering inflicted by this BJP regime on the average citizen for the last ten years. By giving all seven seats to the same party they have endorsed another five years of authoritarianism. It is rural India, not the effete, self-serving urbanite of Delhi (and Bangalore), which has put a brake on this.

According to the available figures of Delhi, about 50 lakh voters preferred the BJP, as against 38 lakhs for the INDIA alliance. These same people had come out in their tens of thousands and flooded the India Gate and Boat Club grounds in 2012 to protest corruption and lack of safety for women in the UPA govt. But now they are unconcerned about the same, and even more disturbing, issues. It would appear they have been lobotomised in this last decade by the toxic and heady mix of hate, Islamophobia and crass materialism to the point where they attach no value to all that was once the essence of our great country: tolerance, pluralism, citizens' basic rights, concern for Gandhi's Daridranarayan, the freedom to debate, the jewel of a democracy with all its flaws.

And they certainly cannot plead ignorance, for the worst atrocities and constitutional violations have occurred right under their noses, in Delhi itself: the engineered riots of 2022, the brutal beating up of JNU and Jamia Islamia students by police, Shahin Bagh and the dictum of "Goli maaro saalon ko", the barbaric treatment of protesting female wrestlers, the vandalisation of Delhi's history, architectural heritage and natural environment by grotesquely bizarre projects like the Central Vista and Bharat Mandapam extravaganzas, the usurpation of common public places under the guise of security.

These same citizens have twice voted in the AAP in the last two Assembly elections by a massive 90% mandate, and had rejected the BJP. So where is the outrage that the same BJP, under a puppet, unelected Regent has not allowed the elected state government to function for the last ten years? Are they not angry that their mandate is being usurped and systematically subverted by an arrogant Ozymandias in  Lok Kalyan Marg? That their elected Chief Minister and other Ministers have been arrested and detained without any apparent evidence or trial for months? That Delhi, the capital of the largest democracy in the world, has been reduced to the status of a panchayat in which a Chief minister has fewer powers than a sarpanch? One would expect that, even if Delhi-ites are too self centered to bother about national issues, they would at least be worried about the deplorable goings-on in their own city. Can they not see that every welfare or development programme of the AAP govt. relating to education, health, transport, piped water for slum colonies, door step ration delivery, subsistence elctricity supply- has been sabotaged by the same unelected and unaccountable Regent simply to wreak political vengeance for his party's political losses? What kind of stupidity permits them to approve of this venal politics in their own city? Even a dog does not defecate in his own backyard.

Even as distant and one-horse towns like Ayodhya and Sabarkanta and Banswara have shown by their voting how precious the idea and the Constitution of India is to them, the vast majority of Delhi's residents have demonstrated that they may be literate but they are certainly not educated. By their callous indifference to the plight of India's minorities and the hundreds of millions rotting at the bottom of the media-built shining pyramid, they have revealed all that is wrong with India's elites; they have also demonstrated the validity of activist Harsh Mander's words in his 2015 book LOOKING AWAY : "A just and caring state can only be located ultimately in a just and caring society.....India will not change until we- the middle classes- also change." They should hang their heads in shame for having let down a great nation, its freedom fighters and the visionary statesmen who created this country out of 500 territorial fragments and wrested them from the debilitating embrace of colonialism. To its eternal shame, Delhi has set the clock back by many years, and proved right the prescient words of George Orwell: "A people that elect corrupt politicians, impostors, thieves and traitors are not victims....but accomplices." 

I have little doubt what the great Guru, were he around today, would have advised them to do.

LAST RIGHTS

 

LAST RIGHTS

    Notwithstanding the hundreds of babies who die every year in hospitals of the Delhi, Gorakhpur and Farrukhabad variety, rates of both infant and maternal mortality have been consistently declining. One of the main reasons for this happy development is the govt's push for Institutional Deliveries as against the age-old practice of home deliveries, presided over by midwives. The former, by ensuring better hygiene and medical care, has led to improved survival rates for both, mother and child. Strangely, however, the opposite appears to be happening for older people! More people are nowadays dying in hospitals than at home, at least in urban areas. "Institutional deaths" anecdotally outnumber "home deaths". (Try to recollect how many people you know who have died at home in the last few years- I can  think of only one). There are many reasons for this but we will not go into them as that is not the subject of this piece. But what it has done is left me with a insurmountable problem and much to worry about (apart from the fact that I have to file my Income Tax Return soon!)

    At a sprightly 73 I am uncomfortably conscious of the fact that I have crossed the average life expectancy age in India by a margin better than the NDA's majority, and may not live to see either Rahul Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal become Prime Minister of India. As things stand today that may require the said average to go up to about 90 or perhaps require even a second rebirth. But you can't fight with averages, and since I am  about as average a Joe as any you'll come across in a week of Sundays, its time for me to start thinking about the grand exit and the family pension for the long suffering wife. And that's where the problem arises.

  You see, I don't want to be told Bon Voyage or Happy Landing (or whatever they say in Sanskrit these days) in a hospital, attached to more pipes and tubes than a vat in a distillery, with a ventilator pumping air into me as if I was an old, retreaded tyre with a dozen punctures. It is my fervent wish to board Yamdoot's busy shuttle service (the last mile connectivity) from my home, surrounded by the few family and friends whom I have not yet managed to annoy, gazing wistfully at the " Aam Aadmi" cap I had promised to wear when Mr. Kejriwal became Prime Minister. Since that doesn't appear likely anytime soon, I may as well not hold my breath, if you see what I mean. I have written all this in my living will for my sons to read and carry out. However, since they are products of Bishop Cotton School Shimla, I can't depend on their ability to decipher words with more than two syllables, hence this public statement.

    But I digress, as usual, from the main point, which is this: Who will issue my Death Certificate if I cop it at home? I am told that only a govt. doctor or a hospital can issue a DC. Now, I can hardly hope that a sarkari doctor will deign to come to my house in Puranikoti village when given the good news of my departure, considering that they rarely go to even their places of posting! Please press the Save button on this problem, dear reader, while I move on to the next one.

    The second, even bigger problem for me is this: I am a non-practicing Hindu (i.e. not a gau rakshak or a bhakt) but do not wish to be cremated at Benaras or Haridwar, for the simple reason that I do not want half of my torso floating around in  polka dot Jockeys till I land up at the Ganga barrage in Kanpur- though, I must confess, since I belong to Kanpur this will be my final "ghar wapasi" of sorts. There is also that little problem of getting caught in a ten kilometre traffic jam on the way to Haridwar, or of bumping into a sulking Mr. Modi in Benaras and being mistaken for a potential NDA ally.

    There are other reasons too for avoiding the barbeque and being toasted by my colleagues and neighbours. I don't wish to be converted to CO2 or methane or whatever toxic gas ex-bureaucrats are composed of, and burn another hole in the ozone layer. I'd much rather become top soil and end up as a begonia or a daisy and, if my luck holds out, perhaps be plucked by a pretty young girl some day! My desire, therefore, is to be buried- and that too on my own land in Puranikoti village, and not in a cemetery which is probably an encroachment on forest land. (Having served for almost four years in the Forest department, I certainly cannot become a party to this, you will agree). It took me two years of bending and genuflecting to obtain permission from the govt. to buy this land, and another three years of scraping and begging to build the house on it, so I don't intend giving it up so easily. I fully intend to hang around there- as a daisy, if you will but more likely as a cactus shrub- to further ensure that the Deputy Commissioner Shimla does not resume the land on the grounds that , since I don't have an Aadhar number, I never existed officially. But the problem of that damn Death Certificate remains, now worse confounded. You see, one also needs a certificate from a crematorium or burial ground authority that the body has been properly disposed off ! Without this the police are likely to dig me out again, register an FIR against me and then I'll become case property. And we all know what happens to case property in police stations- it gets buggered-sorry, burgled!

    Maybe I should just convert to Jainism or Buddhism, climb into that hole in the ground I had dug up for a rainwater harvesting tank, and take "samadhi". Or, better still, I can claim that my birth was not biological and that therefore no Death Certificate is needed. After all, we do have a precedent for this at 7, Jan Kalyan Marg, New Delhi, and we all know that obsession is nine tenths of the law, don't we? That should solve all my problems. Or maybe I should just listen to the Beatles and Let It Be. But there's reason to worry here too: what if my sons decide to be like the chap who, having just lost his wife and being asked whether they should bury, cremate or embalm her, shouted: " Don't take any chances- do all three!" That would be too much of a good thing.

     

THE MISSING GATE-KEEPERS.

  Campaigning is now almost over as we head inexorably for Result day on the 4th of June, and it is a prospect which fills me with dread. Never, ever, have we had an election so filled with hate, bigotry, despicable language, threats, complaints, lies and manipulation. Never have we had an election where the stakes were so high, especially for the demonised and intimidated 14% of our population pushed to the borders of citizenship. Never have we seen a Prime Minister so contemptuous of the law, conventions, canons of basic decency and language, basic humanity. Never have we seen a citizenry so divided by religious fault lines. Never have we been in a position where the survival of our very Constitution is under threat. For, regardless of  the results on the 4th of June, the country is headed for a dangerous period of instability, chaos and even more social conflict which may even threaten our very survival as a functioning democracy. How did we reach this point of almost no-return?

  We have reached this nadir of democracy because people who were entrusted with the responsibility- on oath- to defend the values of our republic have looked the other way, at best, or have colluded with the usurpers at worst. Without their indulgence, accommodation and hand holding of these inimical forces the country would not now be teetering on the edge of the precipice. They have been found to be missing in action when the country most needed them.

  The prevarication of the Judiciary, its inability or unwillingness to confront the Executive, is perhaps the single most important factor which has emboldened this regime to push the frontiers of the Constitutional envelope, to salami-slice it with impunity without having to amend it. Inordinate delays in deciding important cases have resulted in faits accompli which have invariably favoured the government. The jurisprudence of the "sealed cover" has made a mockery of the law, as we saw in the Rafale case. Court monitored inquiries- Pegasus, Hindenberg- have never reached any satisfactory closure, allowing the government to claim a "clean chit." Even when the actions of the ruling party have been held to be illegal- Ram Mandir, Electoral bonds- the perpetrators have been permitted to retain the proceeds of their crime, and to make use of them for electoral purposes.

  Decisions now appear to be based on the predilections of individual judges, not on established principles of law: the most glaring example of this is the universal refusal to grant bail, even as the police go around arresting people with gay abandon. NCRB data shows that about 55 lakh persons were arrested in 2022. Most of them are probably rotting in jail, which is why 75.80% of prisoners are undertrials. This suits the Executive just fine, because it enables it to detain persons-dissidents, opposition leaders, journalists- even without any evidence or trying them. Matters have predictably now come to a point where even Chief Ministers can be indefinitely imprisoned without conviction just on the eve of crucial national elections! Even as convicted rapists like Baba Ram Rahim can be repeatedly RELEASED on parole before elections ! What kind of justice system is this, the citizen is entitled to ask?

  The judiciary appears to have as much contempt for civil society and its representative organisations as does the government. A case in point is the recent dismissal of the pleas of ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms) and Common Cause, two of the finest voices of civil society, for reforms in the VVPAT counting process. The judgment did not take into account global practices, views of experts or the misgivings of the public. It was simply based on an abiding faith in a discredited ECI and technicalities which the court was ill equipped to analyse. Cross verification of the EVM/VVPAT count would have needed nothing more than a few additional hours but would have instilled a badly needed confidence in the electoral process. This judgment has only emboldened the ECI to ride roughshod over civil society and Opposition's concerns and reinforced its carapace of unaccountability. The judiciary's facade of independence has been further dented by the self-confessed revelations of two High Court judges that they are adherents of the BJP/RSS ideology: one of them is now contesting the elections on a BJP ticket.

  The ECI (Election Commission of India) is perhaps the most distrusted institution in India today, having expended all its previous glory on self-serving sycophancy of the current regime. It has consistently and unabashedly done everything in its power to create a pitch which favours the BJP-from its volte face on the Electoral bonds issue in court, to the long drawn out, six week schedule for the polling, its inaction on the many complaints of names of voters being deleted from voters' lists, of voters of a particular community not being allowed to vote in some booths, its steadfast opposition to cross verification of VVPAT counts, the unexplained delay in releasing the absolute number of votes polled,  the  unprecedented increase in polled votes in the final lists. This has led to wide-spread distrust of its motives, and apprehensions of its conduct during counting day. The Commissioners could have made an attempt to dispel these concerns by agreeing to meet the delegation of Opposition parties or to hold regular press conferences (both of which its predecessors had invariably done). But it has obstinately refused to do so, perhaps fortified by the Z+ security cover conferred on it recently!

 Things have come to such a pass that all results declared on the 4th of June could now come under a cloud in public perception; the sanctity of the election process (which was never doubted even in the critical 1977 election) has now been eroded. In a first of its kind various civil society organisations have issued appeals to Returning Officers, the uniformed forces and even the President to abide by their oath to the Constitution and ensure a free and fair result on counting day. This general distrust could have grave implications post the counting, only because the Election Commission was found wanting when it should have stood up to be counted.

  Whereas the above two institutions have facilitated the empowerment of the BJP's vicious brand of politics, the corporate media has done worse- it has brought the vitriol, bigotry and hate into the sitting rooms of people. By amplifying the ruling regime's lies and falsehoods, by not questioning them, by concentrating on divisive subjects rather than genuine news, it has managed to legitimise falsehood and  hatred on a scale even Goebbles would have marvelled at. This media has spread Islamophobia throughout the country and has helped elevate Mr. Modi to a Godly status, something which he now publicly claims himself. By constantly disseminating false or slanted news and not projecting the Opposition's points of views, it has denied authentic news to the public at large and violated the first principle of journalism. It has assisted the ECI in preparing a doctored pitch (at least in the perception of a large number of people) for the election.

  The institutions which were meant to ensure a free and fair election have not done their job, and the nation may end up paying a heavy price for it. They will not be judged gently by history, nor do they deserve to be. But for the moment we are entitled to ask of them: Where were you when the country needed you most?

   

PURANIKOTI DIARY - LEARNING SOME LESSONS FROM NATURE.

   One is never too old to learn a lesson or two about life. I found that out this month, the lesson being that you can try to run away from the effects of climate change, but you cannot hide from it : it will get you, sooner than you think. We ran away, as is our usual drill, from the heat, water shortages, power outages of the NCR to our place in Puranikoti in April end: amidst the dense forests, flowing nullahs and quiet of the village, we thought, we could put climate change behind us for a few months.

  How wrong I was! The forests are dry as tinder, afire in many places; the nullahs no longer flow; the sun beats down on us like a physical force. For the first time in 18 years, ever since I built my cottage here, I am having to buy water from water tankers! Even though we get water from a govt. scheme and I have a 25000 litre roof-top water harvesting tank. The problem is that the water sources of the former scheme have almost dried up, and there has been no rain for the last six weeks to fill the water harvesting tank. There has been hardly any winter snow here for the last two years and all the underground aquifers have been depleted, the rainfall pattern has also altered: earlier we used to get a locally induced shower every three or four days but now we are dependent, it would appear, on the north-westerly disturbances emanating from the Caspian sea. Whatever happened to our micro-climate, I wonder? 

                            

                                    [ Mountains on fire. Photo by Pankaj Khullar, IFS (Retd.)]

                               

      The lesson is writ large on the burning forests, the dried up streams and "kuhls", the unbelievable temperatures in Una and Hamirpur rivalling those of Chandigarh and Gurgaon. But, like a student with an attention- deficit disorder, our state govt. will just not learn it. It carries on with its business as usual policies, it continues to level the mountains and slaughter thousands of trees for airports which are not needed, build four-lane highways which devastate the mountains and whose muck chokes the rivers, approve more hydel projects which are environmentally disastrous.

                                 

                                  [ Forest fire near Solan. Photo by Pankaj Khullar, IFS (Retd.)]  

The Chief Minister has announced that he wants to double tourist arrivals, from 20 million a year to 50 million! Is he smoking Malana hash, I wonder? Our infrastructure and natural landscapes are already crumbling under the onslaught of the existing 20 million tourists; one cannot even visualise the devastation that will be necessary to accommodate another 30 million- just their potable water requirements will amount to 3 billion litres per day! A June 2021 report, quoting the HP police states that 18370 tourist vehicles enter the state every day; even these numbers have made a mess of the traffic in every single town of the state. The Atal tunnel near Manali recorded 20000 vehicles a day passing through it this year. Can one imagine the state of affairs if all these numbers were to be doubled, which is the Chief Minister's fond wish ?

                              

                                         [ Typical summer vacation? Traffic jam at Manali ]

  The fate of Himalayan states can be seen, even as I write this, in what is happening to the Char Dham yatra: the lakhs of people stranded for days on the Gangotri-Yamunotri-Kedarnath routes: the mountains just cannot bear these numbers any longer. The blame has to be shared by an ecocidal government ramming through the four-lane Char Dham highway in a fragile mountain system, as well as by the brain-washed urbanites, riding high on an SUV-driven religiosity, unmindful of the consequences to nature. Himachal should learn from all this, before it's too late.

  Smell the smoke of the forest fires, sir, and the stench from the dry nullahs filled with plastic waste and human refuse. Learn from countries who are putting the health of their natural landscapes and ecology over tourist dollars. Stop the felling of trees, the cutting of mountains, the unnecessary building of roads, airports, not-so-smart cities, the damming up of rivers and streams. The cumulative effect of all these hare-brained policies is what is imparting a local impact to the global phenomenon of climate change. Do a course correction while you still can. Concentrate instead on protecting your forests, implement water harvesting schemes on a war scale in both urban areas and the forests, limit the tourist numbers to a sustainable level, bring back the micro climate which nurtured the state, climate proof the sustainability of your eco-systems. Show some vision beyond defeating Kangana Ranaut in the elections. Make your money by protecting your natural ecology and assets, not by destroying them.

Or be prepared to be taught a lesson by Nature. The classes have already begun.

THE FOURTH OF JUNE - AND THE DAY AFTER.

   I sincerely hope the Hon'ble Lordships who dismissed the petitions for mandatory counting of VVPAT slips (with wholly unwarranted aspersions on the petitioner, the Association for Democratic Reforms) are able to sleep soundly these days. I also hope they have by now realised how misplaced their touching faith in the current Election Commissioners was.  For every round of polling brings fresh disturbing news of malfunctioning of EVMs, of only the BJP symbol being displayed no matter which key one presses, of EVMs being "captured" by ruling party goons with the connivance of the police, of Muslim voters not being allowed to vote, of a BJP candidate (who has no business being inside a polling booth except to cast her vote) forcibly lifting the burkhas of Muslim women to verify their ID, of CCTV cameras in strong-rooms being rendered ineffective by electricity "failure", of en mass deletion of names of voters of a particular community. All accompanied by the sepulchral silence of the Election Commission.

  In one of the laziest judgments delivered in recent times, the Hon'ble judges premised their order on a complete faith in the Election Commission and its impartiality. How wrong they were is being proved on a daily basis. For the present Election Commission is the most deplorable, partisan and incompetent one we have had since 1947. It is as transparent as a block of granite, as communicative as a trappist monk with a vow of silence, and as straight as a corkscrew. It takes no action on hate speeches, allows a communal video to be shown for four days before taking it down just hours before polling, it is petrified of even taking the Prime Minister's name, let alone calling him out for persistent anti-Muslim baiting, its "notices" are targeted mainly at the Opposition parties, it changes, without any explanation, the practice of revealing polling numbers instead of just percentages: it takes days to reveal even this information in the age of "digital India"! And, in order to leave no doubt as to which corner of the ring it is in, it castigates the President of the country's largest opposition party for raising just this issue in a letter! The credibility of this Commission has hit rock bottom but it continues to dig deeper every day. All of us knew this, but apparently the Hon'ble judges did not.

  I fear the nation may pay a huge price for this indefensible misjudgment of the Commission's character and intentions. The real mischief will happen on counting day.

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  It appears that some of Mr. Modi's divinity has rubbed off on me too: these days, perched in my mountain home at 7000 feet, I feel like Moses on Mount Sinai, surveying the frenetic goings-on far below with cynical disapproval. Things haven't changed much since the days of Moses either- what he beheld was worship of the golden calf, what I see now is hysteria about the saffron cow (speaking metaphorically, of course). To provide a non-Abrahamic analogy, I feel a bit like Jamlu Devta of Malana village on the heights of Chandrakhani Pass, observing  the other inferior devtas of Kullu conducting their road shows (it IS election time, after all!), each trying to impress the voter- sorry, devotee- to be declared the numero uno. ( Incidentally, Jamlu Devta is not to be confused with Jumla Devta, the other reigning deity in Delhi).

  And what I see is that, notwithstanding the indulgence (if not worse) of the Election Commission, the misuse of the official apparatus and the thousands of crores of bribes as electoral bonds being allowed to be retained, the BJP is going to fall short of a simple majority by at least 30-40 seats. The rag-tag NDA allies may garner another 30 or so seats, but it is unlikely that they will bail the BJP out: as Parakala Prabhakar explained to Karan Thapar in a recent interview, these parties are "contextual" not "ideological" allies of the BJP, and when the context changes they will jump ship like the proverbial rats. And that is when the fun begins, or the shit hits the ceiling. It is something we all should be discussing and worrying about, because this moment will put to the test every single institution, conventions and laws we have so painstakingly created over the years.

  Mr. Modi has been in power continuously for the last 22 years, and has made no secret of the fact that he loves it so much that he is not likely to hand it over to any one else, election or no election. He has, after all, been ordained to rule by God himself. Moreover, he has much to lose and fear if he has to relinquish power. His atrocities and excesses have made him many enemies; having lived by the sword he can expect no quarter from them. His imperious decisions will be called into question and investigated- Rafael, demonetisation, PM Cares fund, Electoral bonds, Pegasus, the Panama and Pandora papers, the Hindenberg expose on Adani, the award of contracts, ports, airports, mines, railways to cronies. Cadavers from the past will be exhumed to point their gory fingers at him- the Gujarat riots of 2002, the NE Delhi riots of 2021, Judge Loya, the Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi encounters, the killings in Manipur, the imprisonment of Sanjiv Bhat and human rights activists: many more may emerge once the repressive lid is lifted off a citizenry and media muzzled for the last ten years.

  He will not, however, be without powerful allies who have been his accomplices in his megalomaniac excesses- bureaucrats, the police and defense forces, institutions like the Election Commission, Reserve Bank of India, Banks, SEBI and other regulatory bodies, even the judiciary. Just about every organ of government has, in the last ten years, been infiltrated by right wing sympathisers if not outright "bhakts", and for all of them this will be a moment that will endanger not only the continuance of Mr. Modi but  their own survival. They will provide the pushback to, and try to prevent, any change of regime, and, since they will continue to occupy positions of power in the system, they will constitute a potent challenge.

  With the kind of resources he will still have, and the strength of the backing from within the governmental structure, Mr. Modi can be expected to move heaven and earth to stay on in power. There will be no repeat of 1977 when Mrs. Gandhi handed over power peacefully, and for good reasons: our institutions and systems of checks and balances have been thoroughly eroded over the last decade, an independent media no longer exists, the character of our politicians has plumbed unimagined depths, and the very fabric of society has been torn and shredded. The engineering of large scale violence on the pattern of the January 6th violence in Washington cannot be ruled out, giving the present regime the perfect excuse to declare an Emergency, suspend all rights and call out the uniformed forces who have shown that they are not at all adverse to a touch of high handedness and have their own take on how best to preserve the "sovereignty of the nation". The fate of the nation will then depend on the President and the Supreme Court; somehow, however, I cannot muster up much confidence or hope in either.

  If, in spite of the election results (or because of manipulated results), Mr. Modi and the BJP/NDA  manage to retain power for the next five years, India will cease to exist as a genuine democracy. But then, as Satan said, for some it is better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven.