THE CHAR DHAM OF THE GREAT HIMALAYAN NATIONAL PARK (II)- THE RIVER SAINJ

     

                             (This is the second of four blogs on the GHNP)

   The Sainj is the second of the four enchanting mountain streams in the GHNP (counting from the east), draining its central parts. Most people do not go beyond its confluence with the Tirthan at Larji village, about 35 kilometres below Kullu, and miss out on a fascinating experience- the journey to its source, the Rakti-Sar glacier at 4000 metres. One can approach it from either the east, crossing from the Tirthan at Rolla, over the ridge line at Guntarao and Rakhundi Top (3600 meters), on to Dhela thatch (3200    meters) down to the Sainj river near Shakti village, and then follow the river upwards. This would, however, make the trek very demanding and long (seven days to the glacial source of the river), so most people prefer the second route, up the Sainj valley itself rather than doing the transverse from the Tirthan.

                     (Narrow trail to Shakti, Sainj river on right. Photo by author)

   This five day trek begins at a tiny hamlet called Neulli, the last roadhead in the Sainj valley, 45 kms from the traffic tunnel on the Mandi-Manali national Highway, on the left bank of the Beas. Neulli is reached after driving through the larger villages of Sainj and Siund, but the less said about them the better: both have been devastated by the construction of the Parbati Hydel project and their natural environment ruined for perpetuity. Neulli itself is now meeting the same fate: just beyond it is the 100 MW Sainj Hydel project. This falls within the eco-zone of the GHNP which is supposed to be a protected area. This project should never have been allowed but then this is the sad tale of Himachal’s “development” in microcosm, and it's not the only one.

   The journey on foot begins from Neulli and gradually, as one passes the sylvan little hamlets of Niharni, Denga and Chenga, one’s anger and frustration begins to fade, soothed by the sheer beauty and serenity of the river, the thick forests that embrace it lovingly on both sides, the sheer exuberance of the rare birds that live off the river- the brown dipper, the plumbeous red-start, and the blue whistling thrush. It is a captivating, 22 km trek all along the Sainj to the first day’s night halt at the forest department trekker’s camp at Shakti, a small village of about 25 families. Located on the right bank amid a thick grove of seabuck thorn, the camp has dormitories, kitchen, toilets with running water and can easily accommodate about 20 persons. From here on, however, it will be tents, sleeping bags, dal-roti and "siddu"- washed down, quite appropriately, with the old monk's libation since this is a near-pilgrimage after all !

               ( High altitude pastures on way to Rakti Sar glacier. Photo by author)

   On the second day one crosses the Sainj to its left bank on a swanky new wooden bridge (the old one was washed away by a flood some years ago) and proceeds upstream for eight kms. to the hamlet of Marour, the last habitation, consisting of about twenty houses and an ancient temple. There used to be a forest rest house here but about twenty years ago it caught fire mysteriously one winter night- the suspected handiwork of the Marourians who wished to discourage touring by the foresters in the area: the former are suspected to be indulging in large scale poaching and extraction of rare medicinal plants from the Park. (The rest house has since been rebuilt). It is ten kms. and three hours of gruelling trekking from here to Parkatchi thatch, the next camping site. There are two tracks from here, one along the river and the other five hundred feet higher up, through the forests; both are equally strenuous, but on the former one can pick up some amazing driftwood! Just before Parkatchi we crossed a substantial stream coming from the north-east and joining the Sainj; this is the Chiush Nallah, and beyond this is all Park territory. Parkatchi thatch ( 2950 metres)  is a flat bluff projecting into the river valley and about 300 feet above it. The size of four football fields, it was a sight to behold: completely carpeted with yellow euphorbia, blue geraniums, red primula and purple ratanjots, a medley of colours no human artist can ever replicate. To the north rises the round summit of Munda Tapra, 6000 metres high, beyond which lie the ranges of Rampur in Shimla district. There is a one room forest hut here but we preferred to camp amongst the flowers- where else?!- and slept to the ever present, wafting aroma of the myriad of flowers, and the soothing lullaby of an adolescent, gurgling Sainj, as yet unaware of the fate that awaited it at the hands of man a few kilometers downstream.

                                (Camp site at Parkachi thatch. Photo by author)

   The third day’s goal is the Rakti Sar glacier itself, seven kms away though lush alpine pastures with abundant signs of bear, tragopan, monal and “maitu” ( blue sheep) all around us, enough cause for elation. About two kms. from the campsite another stream from the north joins the Sainj at a spot called Rakti-Kol; there is a small collection of rocks here, a cairn dedicated to the local Devi. A quick genuflection to the goddess here is advisable. The river turns sharply to the left  and soon towering, snow covered peaks begin rising above the pasture, 17000 feet high, completely shutting out the head of the valley. Another couple of kms and we could now clearly see the massive snout of the glacier, forty feet high, almost black with moraine. Two slender streams emerged from it and joined to become the infant Sainj. The ethereal magnificence of the landscape is difficult to express in words and even a camera can capture but a hint of it. The locals consider the stream on the right as the real Sainj and have a built a pretty little “jogni” there, a-flutter with colourful flags, which can be approached only on bare feet.

                 ( The sacred "jogni" at the origin of the Sainj river. Photo by author)

            We said our prayers there even as it began to snow. A big brown bear suddenly appeared on the glacier snout, reared up on its massive hind legs, peered at us short sightedly, didn’t like what it saw, and made off up the glacier at a good clip!

  (The massive snout of the Rakti Sar glacier. The bear was seen atop it! Photo by author) 

   There is an enchanting myth attached to Rakti Sar, which translates as “head covered with blood”. Folklore has it that a demon  named Raktibeej used to rule this place. He had obtained a “vardan” or blessing from the gods that made him immortal- each time a drop of his blood fell on the ground it would spawn a new Raktibeej. Secure in this invulnerability, he started terrorising the people and other gods, till they all appealed to Mahakali to do something. The Devi did battle with him: she caught him with two hands, chopped off his head with the third, and collected the flowing blood with a vessel held in her fourth hand. Thus was the demon vanquished, and to prove it, our local guides took us to a spot where the stream had turned a brownish colour- due to the blood of Raktibeej, they claimed ! It was probably a bit of copper ore but who were we to quarrel with a fable sanctified by the ages ? Nor did we want to, for this was the realm of nature and myth, not science; it commanded reverence, not scepticism. We were simply grateful for having been allowed to enter this timeless world for a few moments. Humbled by the mythology of the ages and the grim magnificence of nature, we made our way back before the snowfall turned into a blizzard. No one spoke for a long while -when God speaks, one can only listen.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LIGHTING FIRES AND THE SILENCE OF THE FIRE FIGHTERS

   Lighting or fanning a fire is a good way to consolidate power. Nero did it by blaming the Christians for the burning of Rome and persecuting them to to tighten his hold on the Roman empire. Hitler did it by arresting all Communists, Jews and "enemies of the state" after the fire in the Reichstag. The BJP government in Delhi follows this beaten track by its proven incompetence, if not worse, in the fires burning in Manipur, now in their sixth week. Of course, there is no proof that those who benefitted by these fires lit them, or at the least failed to douse them. But this is where the "smell test" comes into play, and my flared nostrils tell me that something here just does not smell right. And your olfactory sensory neurons, dear reader, should be telling you the same thing if Covid or "bhakti" has not destroyed your sense of smell completely.                                               .

  The BJP, as a party, suffers from pyro-mania on a psychopathic scale: it loves nothing better than to constantly light "big and small fires" (a phrase used by the RJD MP Manoj Jha in a recent open letter to the Prime Minister), and then dance around them like a dervish counting its votes. Currently, there are four big fires burning in this country, in Jammu and Kashmir, Kolhapur, Uttarakhand and of course Manipur. There are also innumerable small fires lighting up our darkening democratic twilight- the protests by the wrestlers in Delhi, the renaming of the Jawaharlal Nehru Museum and Library, the award of the Gandhi Peace Prize to an organisation which reportedly did not see eye to eye with Gandhi, the largesse shown to willful defaulters of public funds, a resurgent demand for a Uniform Civil Code, the rewriting of history text books These are as yet fires in a metaphorical sense only, but they can, and will, be fanned into flames at any moment by our elected pyromaniacs.

  Pyrotechnics I can understand; what I can't wrap my ears around is the deafening silence of those who should be speaking out, if not shouting from the rooftops, about the attempted ethnic cleansing in Manipur. Every constitutional authority which should have spoken out has been silent. The Prime Minister's silence is understandable, for he finds his (forked) tongue only at election rallies and Man ki Baat recordings. But should the Supreme Court of India not have said something, even though it is on vacation? Will the court speak only when Mohammad comes to the mountain, when a petitioner approaches it on a specific plaint, and not otherwise, even though every law in the book is being splintered in Manipur? But wait a moment- there was a petition filed in the Supreme Court to send in the army to that ravaged state; that was the moment for our judges to have given the Deadly Duo a nudge, if not a shove. Not only did the court fail to do so, it also refused to order the army in, showing touching faith in the police which, by many press accounts, could not prevent over 4000 automatic guns being looted by the incendiarists.

  And our revered President, should she not have spoken, not publicly of course, but in private to the Prime Minister or the Home Minister, or sent a note on that embossed letterhead? There are no reports that she did either. Did she not owe this to the people of Manipur, at least to the 150 odd killed and the 50000 displaced? Her conservative apologists will argue that she can only act on the advice of the Council of Ministers (read Prime Minister), and that the Constitution prevents her from playing a more active role. Being congenitally stupid, I'm confused by this argument.

  She has sworn to protect the Constitution of India, right? She needs no advice from anyone to do so, right? So when she sees the same Constitution being torn to shreds, the "union of states" being put in danger, an elected state government appearing to be involved in the violence, a complete failure of the rule of law, the Centre standing by as a mute spectator- is she not obliged to give some advice to the union government in turn? I find  farcical the suggestion that a constitutional authority can be constrained by that same constitution in performing her constitutional duty! Now, that is a non-sequitur, if ever there was one. It is also a paraprosdokian that should not take too much time to figure out.

 Finally, of course, there is the silence of our Prime Minister, currently performing yogasnas in Washington while a near civil war has broken out in one of his border states. I personally never expected him to say anything: a person who said nothing when millions died in a pandemic is not likely to be impressed with the small change of a mere 150 deaths. But it does make me wonder- is he always silent as a matter of strategy, or is it because he is completely lacking in compassion? What kind of heartless strategy is it anyway if it prevents a leader from reaching out to his people, the same poor sods who voted for him?

  Manipur has once again exhibited the two intrinsic characteristics of this govt.- administrative incompetence and inhumanity bordering on cruelty. This unusual twinning of traits has been very well explained by the Illinois Governor, JB Pritzker, in a speech he delivered at a convocation of North-Western university in the context of the Trump presidency. According to his theory, our humanoid ancestors were naturally suspicious of people who did not act, sound, live or look like them. This reaction was something rooted in fear or judgment, and was a natural survival response in an unsafe world. They survived as a species by being suspicious of things they were not familiar with. That was part of evolution. But evolution did not stop there. Man evolved further, learnt to shut down that animal instinct in order to be kind, tolerant of others, accommodative of differences. Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being, where the primeval urges are suppressed by an improved mental capacity. But some sections of society appear not to have followed this evolution pathway and have "weaponised cruelty" as a means to rule; they consider empathy and kindness as a weakness. They have not progressed beyond the primal animal instincts, and therefore lack imagination and creativity in problem solving- in effect, they have failed "the first test of an advanced society." Governor Pritzker's conclusion? Look for the kindest person in the room-he is usually the smartest too.

  I find this a fascinating thesis. It explains a lot about our present government, its leaders and their blind acolytes. It explains the regressive nature of the BJP's ideology, its constant fixation with the past, the distrust of scientific and rational thought, its hostility to progressive liberalism, the tribal instinct for cronyism, and the utter lack of compassion for the most vulnerable. It's a party which is not evolving but is retrogressing. Sadly, it is taking the nation down the same slippery slope.

THE CHARDHAM OF THE GREAT HIMALAYAN NATIONAL PARK- I THE TIRTHAN

 

        THE  “ CHAR DHAM” OF THE GREAT HIMALAYAN NATIONAL PARK- I

 

If there is one jewel in the crown of Himachal, it has to be the the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Kullu, spread over 750 sq.kms. of forested valleys, gushing mountain streams and snow covered mountains: it is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is a superlative repository of Himalayan flora and fauna, a trekker's Valhalla, one of the last undisturbed areas of the state. It is drained by four magical streams, all originating from glaciers or glacial lakes-starting from the east, the Tirthan, Sainj, Jiwanal and Parbati. Trekking to the mystical sources of these rivers is a once in a life time experience, and for the true nature-lover akin to a spiritual experience, the “char dham” of a naturalistic religion, as it were! I have been fortunate to have completed this circuit and would like to share a brief account of it with those readers who may want to learn more, or even plan to go to the GHNP. This is the first of four blogs.

                                          [ THE  TIRTHAN ]

The Tirthan is a typical mountain stream and one of the very few left in the state where the trout still run, thanks to the fact that most of its length is protected as it runs through the Park, and a later govt. decision also banned the construction of hydel projects on its mid and lower stretches. It originates from the Tirath snowfields at 4500 meters on the eastern fringes of the Park, and after flowing through pristine forests for about 100 kms joins the Beas just below Aut on the NH 21 (Mandi-Kullu highway). It requires four days of strenuous trekking and climbing to reach the source of the river, the Tirath glacier. The nearest road-head is Gushaini in the Banjar valley on the left bank. One enters the Park boundary at Ropa (8kms) but the first day’s camp site is at Rolla, another 4 kms away. It has huts, toilets and running water but from hereon one has to carry one’s own tents, sleeping bags and provisions for cooking. The original track to the Tirath glacier was all along the right bank of the river but a flood in 2005 washed away large tracts of the route, and now one has to climb high above the river immediately after Rolla, with night  halts at Nada thatch (3300 meters) and Majhauni thatch (3600 meters).

                    [ An ice bridge on the Tirthan above Majauni thatch. Photo by the author.]

A thatch is a clearing or glade surrounded by forests where shepherds camp: originally covered with a prolific growth of the rare high altitude medicinal plants and herbs, they are nowadays grazed over by sheep whose droppings further ensure that nothing grows there except weeds and coarse grasses. This used to be the case with Nada and Majhauni also, but ever since the govt. banned the entry of sheep in the Park, these thatches have now made a remarkable come-back: when I camped there in 2010 they were completely carpeted with a rich profusion of patish, salam panja and ratanjot , the rarest of alpine herbs. Nada thatch is a particularly mesmerising place, completely surrounded by a thick growth of cedar, spruce, kharsu oak, maple and dwarf rhododendron, with an abundance of bird life- in the early dawn we were privileged to be favoured with a veritable avian orchestra by the tragopans, monals, warblers, nut crackers and minivets !

                              [Moon over Nada thatch. Photo by author.]

The third day’s trek- from Nada to Majhauni- takes one down to the river and then up again into the forests. Along the way we noticed plenty of leopard scat, signs of bear and a troop of langurs in a grove of taxus baccatta trees. But the climactic moment came when, just below a watercourse, we suddenly came upon a Himalayan black bear! She was sunning herself on a rock and, perhaps because of the sound of the water, did not hear our approach. We had all of three or four minutes to enjoy this amazing moment before she became aware of our presence: in an instant she sprang up, bounded across the stream, scaled a ten meter wall of rock effortlessly and vanished into the thick forest. She appeared to be pregnant and we wished her and her cub all the best- may they rule this part of paradise for ever!

                    [ Black bear posing for us at Nada thatch! Photo by author.]

Majhauni thatch is on the right bank of the Tirthan, just above the river and very windy and cold- the Tirath glaciers are barely 8 kms. from here and the valley funnels the chilling winds straight down into the camp site. Fortunately there are three huge caves in which one can take shelter. We were now at 3600 meters, and parts of the river were covered with a thick deposit of ice- “ice bridges”, sturdy enough to walk on, but carefully, because the swift and freezing waters still flowed below them. They are useful while they last, because they provide the wild life an easy means of crossing the river. In the early morning a “kakkar”- musk deer- crossed the river on an ice bridge from the other bank, strolled through our camp site and disappeared into the undergrowth before we could photograph it !

            [ Blue sheep on the Tirath glacier, centre of the frame. Photo by author.]

It’s a four hour trek to the Tirath glacier from the campsite, sometimes on the ice bridges and sometimes high on the right bank of the river. After six kms or so the valley broadens out into a verdant pasture 500 meters wide, completely carpeted with alpine flowers of the most amazing hues. Straight ahead, to the south and south-east are towering, snow- covered peaks and ranges, behind which lie the massive Srikhand massif and Sarahan ranges. The flanks are covered with huge glaciers: their melt- off runs down in slender black ribbons of water, converging into two primary streams which join each other on the valley floor to form the infant Tirthan. To its right, however, is a circular pool about 20 feet across, bubbling with some gas or air coming from its depths. The locals believe that this is the real source of the Tirthan and it is customary to do a “pooja” here and take a dip in the stream, notwithstanding the freezing temperatures! Our real reward, however, came a little later when the sun broke through the clouds and lit up the white mountain slopes. Lo and behold! Straight ahead we could now see two huge herds of “bharal” or blue sheep, about 60 in all, slowly going up the flanks! It was an unforgettable sight: the blue sheep are rarely sighted, such is their mountain habitat and reclusive nature. This was a double “darshan” for us- the source of the river as well as its prime custodians. We could not have asked for more, and as we wended our long way back to Majhauni we were content in the knowledge that the wildlife of GHNP was doing quite well, thank you!

 

OF INQUIRIES, RESIGNATIONS AND DEFECTORS--IT'S THE SAME OLD STORY

  Mr. Modi is the original fisherman when it comes to hawking red, now saffron, herrings. Which is why the CBI inquiry into the Balasore train accident smells so fishy. Could the government not have waited for at least the findings of the investigation by the Commissioner Railway Safety before ordering the inquiry? Suppose this report finds that it was a signal failure, or an interlocking defect, or a human error? The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) rarely manages to catch even a common burglar, how then can it wrap its head around some of the most sophisticated and technical electronics involved in this derailment? It is only if the Railway inquiry concludes that it suspects sabotage that the police is justified in stepping in. There has been no such indication yet.                   .

  But the government appears to have made up its mind to play the national security card quite early. (It is the only card it has left in its deck after the Hindutva and Vishwaguru cards were trumped in the Karnataka elections, so a Balasore will serve as well as a Balakot, thank you!). The clues were there for the observant: when Mr. Modi visited the site, he said the guilty would not be spared and would be dealt with harshly- how did he know that there was any deliberate guilt or mens-rea involved ? Then again, on the day after the accident the Railway Minister told the press that the root cause of the accident and the people involved had been identified- this, even before the inquiry had commenced! 

  There is, moreover, another angle involved in this decision. By ordering the CBI inquiry the BJP has ensured that the matter is out of the hands of the state, or Railway police, and it can influence the investigations and findings any which way it wants. It's a trick it has played quite often in the past, with fairly good (for it) results. It will not want to be embarrassed so close to the crucial state elections. And it still has the NIA (National Investigation Agency) card up its sleeve in case the CBI does not deliver the goods. So, folks, expect a terrorist or Pakistan hand to emerge from this mess very soon.

  What is actually needed, but will never happen, is a judicial inquiry. An accident of this magnitude, involving three trains and resulting in 288 deaths (at last count) and more than a thousand injured, cannot be a stand-alone incident, it is the culmination of various causes and failures, and it is important to identify each one of them so that such a catastrophe does not happen again. The country is entitled to know whether the following has contributed in any way to the accident: drastic reduction in the budget for safety, including signaling systems and track maintenance (the budget for track renewals alone was slashed by Rs.3222 crores in 2022-23 as compared to the previous fiscal); shortage of staff at all levels, which according to media reports is as high as 20% of the sanctioned strength; outsourcing of crucial functions to private entities; excessive concentration on elite trains like the Vande Bharat even when funds are denied for routine operations and maintenance; overloading of tracks by running trains without regard to the safe carrying capacity of the entire system or convenience of lower class passengers (an RTI [Right to Information] query has revealed that between April and October 2022, the cumulative delays of passenger trains amounted to more than 24 years!). Earlier, some focus could be kept on these issues when the Railway budget was presented in Parliament, but now that this government has merged the Railway budget with the general budget it is difficult to penetrate through this deliberate wall of opacity. Neither a CBI inquiry, nor one by the Commissioner for Railway Safety, can be expected to look into these issues, only a judicial inquiry with a broad Terms of Reference is capable of doing so. The demand for such an inquiry is not politicisation of the issue, it is at best an inadequate reparation for those who have died, and for their devastated families. 

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  Mr Vishnaw, the Railway Minister, will be sacked anon. But not for the reasons you suspect. Let me give you a clue by narrating an incident concerning Winston Churchill when he was Prime Minister of  U.K. One smoggy London morning a senior Tory M.P. described the PM as an idiot at a press conference. He was promptly issued a disciplinary notice by the party and the matter came up for mention in Parliament the next day. Why was the government trying to curb free speech by punishing the Member, the Opposition demanded? Churchill got up and explained that the MP was being proceeded against, not for expressing his opinion about him, but for revealing a state secret!

  Get it? Mr. Vaishnaw will have to go, not for moral responsibility reasons, but for trying to upstage Mr. Modi in the TV visual stakes. We all remember those carefully choreographed shots of the Minister crawling out from under a wrecked carriage (getting to the bottom of the matter?) or sitting exhausted on a parapet with the hoi polloi after a hard day's night, in the same soiled slacks and tee shirt, or atop a carriage inspecting the overhead cables. How could he? This is Supreme Leader territory, intruding on the spotlight is a capital offence. So the Railway Minister must go, not because three trains crashed into each other, but because a dozen cameras were focused on the wrong guy. Even though he did not change his clothes between shots.

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  It now appears inevitable that Mr. Sachin Pilot will be severing relations with the Congress next week, according to all media reports. Frankly, I am relieved because this soap opera has been going on now for longer than the "Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" serial, and one is sick and tired of it. He belongs to a breed of entitled politicians who believe that they are bigger than the party and deserve a better compensation package, never mind if their company is deep in the red and is fighting for sheer survival. If their actions shove the nation a little closer to the dogs, so be it: it will not affect their life styles in any way- in fact it might make them even better, what with some handouts from the burgeoning Electoral Bonds in the BJP coffers. The Congress should let Mr. Pilot go- cut its losses now and re-strategise, rather than face a last minute crisis just before the state elections this year. A Judas will never reform. Look at Mr. Pilot's illustrious predecessors in betrayal- Amarinder Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ghulam Nabhi Azad; two of them are already non-entities and just unpleasant memories, the third will become one too after the elections. Mr. Pilot's departure may result in the Congress losing a few seats, but that would have happened anyway with the privileged scion putting up rebel candidates to counter the official ones. Now at least Mr. Kharge and Gehlot can fight the elections without having to constantly worry about the knife between the shoulder blades. The secret of handling excess baggage is to throw it out quickly. As the Bard said: Stand not upon the order of your going, sir, but go!

INDIA'S NEW COLONISERS AND THE NEW EAST INDIA COMPANY

  It's been a bad week for me, educative but disheartening, and I need to get it off my less than 56 inch chest. It began with a tweet by a retired DGP of the Kerala police, a Billy-the Kid type whose Twitter handle says he comes out "with all guns firing" in the defense of Hindus. He can't, of course, be bothered to explain why a community with an 82% majority population needs any protection (except from its own self-appointed leaders). Be that as it may, he goes on to tell our protesting wrestlers (whom he describes as "garbage"), that they can be shot with impunity and that he looks forward to seeing them on the post-mortem table. How this gentleman ever came to head a police force tells us a lot about how the law is enforced in India, but more important, it tells us even more about the state of the Indian society today. I'll come to that later.

  My second screamer of the week arrived via a close friend and retired colleague (from another service) who expressed the view that our lady wrestlers deserved all they got at the hands of the Delhi police. Refusing to express any empathy for them, he offered the explanation that actually their protest was a well planned strategy to enter politics in the 2024 elections. You see, he told me, they are all nearing 30 years, wrestling is a very competitive sport, and they have to now look for alternative vocations. Now, I was aware that this gentlemen was a Modi and BJP acolyte, but I had no idea that he had become so dehumanised by his political preferences that he would go to the extent of ridiculing victims of sexual depravation and wishing violence on them.

  The week of despair was nicely rounded off at a lunch I attended in Shimla at a friend's hotel. The folks at my table were all pillars of society- landed gentry, businessmen, a retired army officer and their wives. Tucking into their prawn cocktails and onion consomme, they were unanimous in their conviction that the Indian economy had never done better, that corporate bottom lines looked better than Jennifer Lopez's bottom, er, lines, and that those who criticized Modi should be hanged from the nearest deodar tree- if one could find a deodar tree in Shimla, that is. They dismissed inflation, unemployment, unequal income distribution, and poverty ratios as leftist propaganda meant to denigrate Mr. Modi.

  Do you see a pattern in these three anecdotal instances of the Naya Bharat? I do, and what they tell me is that India is being let down by its elite, its educated, well-off, urbanites, the 10% of the population who have cornered 75% of its wealth and control all the levers of power- the bureaucracy, the defense forces, its economy, its institutions of education, culture and sports, it media. They comprise the new East India Company , and their only concern is to preserve (and enhance) their own wealth, protect their own gated community life styles, retain their political relevance and their grip on power and policy making. They cannot be bothered with the remaining 90% of India which lives outside their privileged cantonments. This had evinced itself during the Covid years, which we mistakenly thought was an aberration, but has now become the very essence of our societal character.

  Which is why I see the current phase as one of post-Independence colonisation- but this time by our own indigenous, home grown politicians, capitalists, bureaucracy and social elite mentioned above. All the features of colonisation exist in abundance- a govt. which is arrogantly deaf to the public's demands, interests and even protests, a police as brutal as the pre-Independence force, laws which are bent to suit the ruling interest and personalities, the pillaging of natural resources to benefit a few individuals, the displacement of tribals and indigenous people on a huge scale (the project in the Andamans being the latest example of such rapaciousness), the jailing of dissidents on the flimsiest of pretexts. The Covid period provided perhaps the surest proof of this: while 75 million people were pushed into poverty, the number of billionaires rose from 102 to 142, and their wealth doubled to 720 billion dollars. The Gini co-efficient ( an internationally accepted indicator of inequality) rose from 74.7 in 2000 to 80.3 in 2021. We rank 123 out of 160 countries in the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index. And here is the final proof of our second colonisation: just like the British took the wealth extracted from India back to their country, so do the present colonisers- it is estimated that anything between US$ 500 billion  to US$ 4 trillion has been stashed away abroad by these Indians! 

  Presiding over this phase in our history of exploitation by the elite is Mr. Modi, who, incidentally, was crowned Bharat Samrat at the very moment we were having the lunch mentioned above and the sports persons were being brutalised by the Delhi police two hundred meters away. Because Mr. Modi too cannot be bothered by the minor nuisances of female Olympians being beaten up by his police, tribals being murdered in a distant state, farmers protesting for months on the streets, minors being raped in Kathua and Hathras by ideological bed-fellows. This govt. serves only the interests of the Directors and share holders of the new East India Company, whether it is by the ruthless denudation of precious natural capital/ resources, or a hypocritical foreign policy that ensures cheap Russian oil for buddies to reap whirlwind profits, or bank loans for those cronies who are not into oil. And, just in case the lucre is not enough to ensure everlasting loyalty, there is the additional super glue of religion, or more accurately, the rehashed brand of Hindutva.

  Which is why the format of the inauguration of the new Parliament building on the 28th of May was a perfect symbol for the new elite: the extravagance of Rs. 1200 crores on a new corporate headquarters of the ruling party, the blatant ritualistic domination of one religion, the pomp and show of a defacto transfer of power from a collective to one individual, the protection afforded to one individual while his victims were being brutalised outside. All pretences of democracy, of participation by the people in government beyond the ritual of casting their votes, of the rule of law or constitutional propriety, have been dropped. We shall now be ruled (not governed) by a coterie and its enthusiastic cheer-leaders, that 10% elite comprising the likes of you and me and ours. Seventy five years of political and social progress has just been flushed down the Yamuna like so much e-coli. 

  One cannot but be reminded of an earlier era, 1804 to be exact, when a French Emperor crowned himself, taking the crown from the Pope (Pius the Seventh) and placing it on his own head. The message was that he did not owe his victory and ascension to anybody, to any Constitution or convention; he had earned it by his own efforts and therefore did not have to share power with anybody. The Pope stood by quietly. Sounds familiar ? History does repeat itself, but whether as tragedy or farce, only time will tell.