THE CRUELEST MONTH.

    I respectfully disagree with T.S.Eliot's statement that " April is the cruelest month." July is always the worst time of the year for me. It's the month when one has to reluctantly abandon the sylvan beauty and quiet of the mountains and return to the toxic soup of Delhi where the humidity is so thick that even our Parliamentarians can stand upright for a change, supported entirely by the dense air. I have a feeling that Delhi's IAS lobby may soon have to depend on the humidity too to remain erect in their face-off with Kejriwal, now that the BJP is likely to withdraw support to them in the wake of recent and expected SC judgments. It is also that dreaded month consecrated to the Income Tax goblins when one fries one's brains deciding how much of that paltry income to hide from the tax man. My CA tells me that it is cheaper to pay the tax: ever since the Sixth Pay Commission decided to hike salaries exponentially by linking wages with incompetence, the cost of that other route ( "patli galli") has also gone up and is now unaffordable. July is also the month when I annually revise my will, primarily to keep my progeny on their Myntra adorned toes, but also because I never know when I may fall into an open manhole ( why do they call them that ? Shouldn't it be " person hole" in these gender neutral days ?) or drown under Minto bridge. It is also the time when I have to submit my " Life Certificate" to the Treasury Officer Shimla to convince him that I am still alive and entitled to my pension. Every year I have to run from pillar to post to find a gazetted officer to sign on the dotted line, which is beginning to look more and more like an arrhythmic ECG line with each passing year. So far no one has pointed out the obvious fact that I may be brain dead, perhaps on the presumption that any one who has served in the govt. for more than ten years is presumed to be brain dead, and so that can't be held against a pensioner.

  There's another reason why I'm sick to my stomach every July: it's the time of year when the press informs us, with a flourish of trumpets, about how much Mr. Mukesh Ambani's net worth is in pure Mammon terms. The Hindustan Times informed us on the 18th of this month that his worth is now US$ 43.3 billion ( Rupees 2,94,000 crores), having increased by US$ 3.4 billion( Rupees 23120 crores) in just the last seven months. This tells me a number of things. One, that Make In India is working fine for some people at least. Two, that the govt. may consider modifying this slogan into  "Make hay while the Sangh shines." Three, that Mr. Jaitley ( who apparently still calls the shots, if not the odds, in the Finance Ministry), may also consider nationalising Mr. Ambani- at one shot 30% of the NPAs of the banks can be written off with his wealth. Four, that if Ambani comes can Adani be far behind?

  But why, you may well ask, does this make me sick ? Now, I'm no card carrying Communist or socialite socialist of the IIC variety, but I can't help but look at some other figures- that 200 million in India are still below the poverty line, that 80% of our population have to make do with less than US$10 per day, that almost 40% of our children are either stunted or mal-nourished, that 51 million youth in the age group 18-25 years are unemployed, that more than ten thousand farmers commit suicide every year, that India is at the 66th rank ( out of 78 countries) in the UN Inclusive Index. And I can't help but feel that one reason for this dismal state of affairs is that people like Mr. Ambani are hoovering up all the wealth- they pocketed 73% of all the wealth created in 2016. The "they" are all Ambanis in the making- according to the Global Wealth Report, 101 billionaires, 200,000 millionaires and 137,100 HNWIs ( High Net Worth Individuals).

  These numbers fade into insignificance when compared to the USA ( 540 billionaires and 15.7 million millionaires) or China ( 594 billionaires and 1.3 million millionaires) but it must be kept in mind that these are countries far richer and more inclusive than India. Our per capita income ( on PPP basis) is US$ 5350 while those of the USA and China are 58030 and 15500 respectively. They are also far more inclusive in their economic growth trajectory and the gap in the standard of living between the average and the rich is nowhere as pronounced as in India. The rich may be getting richer, but so are the poor-unlike in India.

  Its not that the uber rich in India ( maybe barring a few) are getting richer because of any exceptional talent or acumen, or sparks of brilliance of the Jeff Bezoz, Bill Gates or Elon Musk variety. They prosper because of a vicious cycle: money accesses political power which generates more money. This was very succintly expressed by Angus Deaton, the 2015 winner of the Nobel prize for Economics: " the rich capture more than their share of political power, so that the state stops serving the majority of the people." A perfect illustration of this was presented to the nation last week by the Ministry of HRD when it notified the ( proposed) Ambani Institute as one of ten educational Institutions of Eminence. This would not have raised any liberal eye brows, except that even by our accepted standards of cronyism this took the cake- the Ambani Institute does not even exist! It is at the moment just a gleam in Mr. Mukesh Ambani's eye- no land, no infrastructure, no faculty, no students, zilch. And yet it was put on the same pedestal as an IIT and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore- bodies which have existed for years and have much academic and research work to establish their credentials. This is precisely what Mr. Deaton was referring to. Just the IOE tag would have enabled the Institute to make thousands of crores in higher fees, sponsorships, donations.

  Our billionaires and millionaires have battened on political power which has given them unlimited access to the country's natural resources and public funds. Take Reliance Industries itself: according to a Bloomberg report quoted in the Hindustan Times of 19th July, RIL has total borrowings of Rs. 220,000 crore, and this is expected to increase further. Guess whose money this is ? It is the nation's common resources which they are exploiting ruthlessly to garner riches for themselves- the recent Vedanta protests ( and killing of 11 people in police firing) in Tamil Nadu is an apt example of how this wealth is generated with the complicity of the administrations everywhere, regardless of which party is in power. Money is the new Esperanto or universal language. I find these atolls of opulence amidst an ocean of want somewhat obscene, and it is perfectly symbolized by the Ambani residence in Mumbai, Antilia, a 27 storey hulk surrounded by slums, an upraised finger admonishing the lakhs residing in them for their poverty. So okay, he IS very rich but does he have to rub it in our face ? Capitalism has run amock. As the wit remarked: Communism is the exploitation of man by man; Capitalism is the exact opposite.

  Welcome to the country which prides itself on the ease of doing business, even as millions of kids go to bed hungry each night. Come to where the flavour is, said the Marlboro man, come to Marlboro county. He died last year of cancer.

I don't like July. And forgive me if I'm not turning cartwheels at Mr. Ambani becoming the 15th richest man in the world.

MISSING THE WOODS FOR THE TREES.

   I am one of those who supports the " overreach" of the higher judiciary. When the executive under performs consistently, someone has to overreach, and since the citizens have been hammered into submission and most of the media co-opted, that leaves only the courts. But I do wish they would not abrogate all wisdom to themselves and would consult some experts once in a while. My specific allusion is to the Supreme Court's order last week banning the use of ALL FRHs (forest rest houses) for eco-tourism activities. This regressive judgement betrays a complete lack of understanding of realities on the ground. The original issue before the court was the pressure of visitors in Corbett- more than 200,000 every year. There were other ways to address this problem- restriction on numbers, closing off certain areas in a rotation cycle, keeping the core zones inviolate, prohibiting the entry of vehicles. The solution required a scalpel, not a sledge hammer, which is what has been wielded here. To the best of my knowledge this order was passed on the recommendations of the Central Empowered Committee and the MOEF. The former is composed mainly of forest officers and bureaucrats who in any case are keen to hang on to their turf, even as they have little idea of what to do with it except to  mark their territory in the time honoured canine manner. The less said about the Ministry the better: it will not share the FRHs with others even while it transfers thousands of hectares of forests for industries and allows tens of thousands of trees to be felled. It would perhaps have helped if the Court had also listened to the practitioners and experts in the field of eco-tourism, such as the Eco-Tourism Society of India. Locking up forests and denying access to tourists (which is what prohibiting tourists from staying in FRHs will do) is not the way to conserve forests or wildlife habitats, as experience across the world has shown. Eco-tourism is the most sustainable model of tourism for the future as it has minimum deleterious impacts on natural resources, and to divorce it from nature or forests is the surest way to kill it.  Let's try and break  down some of its prime objectives.

  Eco-tourism is a low budget activity and its purpose is four-fold. One, spread tourism beyond overburdened urban conglomerations to relieve the unsustainable pressures on them. Two, create awareness among the public, and educate them about the value and beauty of nature. Three, support rural economies and create employment in those areas. Four, make use of the huge infrastructure of the forest departments which is otherwise crumbling, and generate funds for their maintenance. States like HP and Sikkim are pioneers in this field, have framed sound eco-tourism policies and have been successfully implementing them for many years. It is disheartening to see the Supreme Court upsetting the apple cart for no sound reason. Did it give these states an opportunity to present their side of the case?

   Himachal has more than 500 FRHs, some of them of heritage value like the ones at Khanag in Kullu or Sangla in Kinnaur. Even more picturesque ones are in areas not connected by any road. They are huge attractions for the young, aware, nature lovers, including foreign tourists. They are all totally under-utilised, under- funded and are going to seed- the department doesn't even have funds to maintain them adequately. Forest officers (for whom they were primarily meant) rarely visit the off-road or remote FRHs. Now that every second forest officer is either a PCCF (Principal Chief Conservator of Forests) or an Addl. PCCF their touring (if any) is limited to the road-head. The lower level field staff are mostly posted in their home stations and have no desire to spend nights away from their warm beds at home. So much for the concern of the forest officers for their rest houses! This was one of the main reasons why Himachal, as far back as in 2002, decided to utilise these FRHs by linking them to nature and eco-tourism. Some have been tendered out to private entities (with severe stipulations) since the govt. obviously lacks resources and manpower, while others are being run by the forest department itself. I have myself been to some of the remotest valleys and forest areas and have found that this model of tourism is working very successfully, and is drawing tourists to nature in ever increasing numbers, especially the younger generation. Local economies are benefiting hugely. Just the Sairopa complex in the Tirthan valley has a turnover of Rs. 80.00 lakhs per year and provides employment to dozens of local youth. It will now have to close down (for tourists, that is).

   The Supreme Court order will put a halt to this positive initiative. It will also create a vacuum for accommodation in these pristine areas and all manner of illegal structures will come up (as in Kasol, Manikaran and Triund, to name just a few) at exorbitant prices, polluting and disfiguring these wonderful natural environments. Everyone, except these land sharks, will be a loser. Himachal, the first state in the country perhaps to have framed an Eco- Tourism policy in 2002 will be impacted adversely by this judgement. It had on the drawing board ambitious plans to tender out 113 sites under the PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode, and the HP Forest Corporation another 47 sites. I cannot help but feel that the Court should be giving greater  priority to saving the trees in Delhi, or staying the construction of the insanely conceived Char Dham Highway in Uttarakhand which will lead to chopping down of 45000 trees . If at all it must concern itself with the question of using Forest Department assets for eco-tourism, it should limit itself to laying down guidelines rather than banning it altogether. Forget about throwing out the baby with the bathwater, in these critical, water stressed times even the bathwater has to be recycled! I do hope the Himachal, Sikkim and Uttarakhand governments will come together and challenge this order in a review petition. 

A TIME TO SPEAK OUT, A TIME TO BE SILENT.

   It is ironical, but a sign of our dysfunctional and dystopian times, that those in public life who should be speaking are silent while those who should be silent are speaking out ( of turn). Leading the former pack is none other than our own alpha Sphinx, the Prime Minister. Although a voluble twitter denizen, he rarely addresses any issue of substance or provides any moral leadership in troubled times. He has not held a single press conference in four years and is usually heard only at election rallies, or delivering the ubiquitous " Man Ki Baat" where he talks about yoga, exam warriors, and other such arcane topics which are perhaps better left for Sadhguru. But he is not alone in his studied reticence. Mr. Kejriwal will not talk about what happened that midnight when Delhi's Chief Secretary was ostensibly roughed up, nor will he utter one gracious word of apology, one word that could have defused the confrontation in Delhi at one stroke. The Chief Election Commissioner will not tell us how the VVPAT votes tally with the votes actually cast in the last few elections: were he to do so, it would dispel a lot of the doubts that bedevil people like you and me, and perhaps even make redundant the many court cases on this subject.The UIDAI boss will not tell us how many Aadhar leaks have actually taken place and why they continue to happen regularly, even though the data is famously  "protected by ten feet thick walls". The RBI Governor will not come clean on the demonetisation figures, and it has been left to RTI activists to dig out the dirt- like the RS. 800 crores of demonetised notes deposited in the Ahemedabad Co-operative Bank ( of which Mr. Amit Shah is a director) in just five days. The Finance Minister will not tell us what happened to investigations in the Panama papers or how much moneys have been repatriated from Swiss banks, even though the deposits there have gone up by 50% in the last one year. Everyone maintains either silence or complete deniability. The public's right to Know has now become the right to NO.

   But guess who IS talking?- those who have no business to do so. Like our army Chief, General Rawat, whose soldiers continue to die while he waxes eloquent on human rights, the politics of Kashmir, the psychology of the Kashmiri youth and even on US sanctions! Then there is the IAS Association of Delhi, which recently held a number of press conferences to defend its stand vis-a-vis the standoff with AAP. Now,  IAS Associations are  known neither for their spines nor for their ability to organise anything more than a farewell dinner. The Press conference, therefore, had all the makings of a command performance, the command of course emanating from either the Delhi Raj Bhavan or the PMO. It is another step in the creeping politicisation of the civil services. Civil servants do not hold press conferences against an elected government or a Chief Minister, no matter what their grievances are. This is not only against the ethos of the service but also stupid: you fight on your territory where you have an advantage, not on someone else's turf. Press conferences and public oratory are the politicians' strongholds , and we expose ourselves when we venture out in this unfamiliar terrain . The Delhi IAS officers, by their silent non co-operation or " limited" co-operation these last few weeks were managing to get their point across and even had the AAP govt. worried. By their ill advised public posturing, however, they have now handed the initiative back to Kejriwal: having called off their boycott on the promise of a meeting with the CM, they are now waiting for him to convene the meeting. He, of course, is in no hurry. And now the Supreme Court has knocked the ground from beneath their feet: its judgement of the 4th of July makes Kejriwal, not the Lieutenant Governor, their boss. These chaps had decided to ride the BJP tiger in full public glare: dismounting now in the murky shadows will be a tricky affair. Continuing to ride the tiger, on the other hand, will invite contempt of court. A tactical silence may have served them better.

   The IAS has always thrived on the fringes of politics, but the judiciary? Whatever prompted the four Supreme Court judges to hold their press conference some months earlier? Yes, there are massive problems( of autonomy, government interference, nepotism, opacity etc.) in the Court, but the honourable judges should have tried to resolve them in- house. Failing in that, they should have resigned en masse and precipitated a crisis. In India significant changes only come about when there is a crisis, for stasis and somnolence is our normal condition. Instead, the Supreme Court is now worse off than before: the Chief Justice has got away by cocking a snook at his brother judges, Justice Chelameshwar has retired to obscurity, cases are being allotted as heretofore, Justice Gogoi will almost certainly lose the chance to become CJI in September, the govt's stranglehold on the judiciary has now become a half-Nelson , the media has lost all interest in the matter and has moved on to the next piece of carrion. The moral of the story?- if one chooses to tread a difficult path. do it out of the courage of your own convictions, not those of others. For the "others" cannot be relied upon.

   Sometimes it is best to work in silence, using the tools you are familiar with rather than picking up the tools of your enemy: fight on your own turf, not on that of your adversary. Second, a mistake both the Delhi IAS Association and the four judges committed was that they relied too much on the media, or on their peers, or opposition parties to take up their cases. They should have realised, wise men that they all are, that the media today is totally sold out, regurgitating the putrid offal the govt. feeds them; their own colleagues are more focused on their own postings and sinecures; and the public doesn't give a damn. Political parties, on the other hand, have no abiding moral or ethical values, and should never be relied upon for support: they use us as prophylactics and then discard us. Speak only when you are confident of being heard, otherwise work silently.

   Something, incidentally, that Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, the well meaning twitter queen, is now finding out the hard way. For the last two weeks she has been trolled mercilessly for intervening on behalf of the Muslim-Hindu couple in Lucknow who had been denied a passport because of their interfaith marriage. And the abusive trolls are her party's own hard core, right wing supporters! Only Mr. Nitin Gadkari has come out in her support; all her colleagues and peers- including, naturally, the Prime Minister and the party President- have maintained a significant silence. No one wants to rock the ideology boat or annoy the lumpens who have taken over the steering of it. The wheel is coming full circle slowly, like an auto immune disease: pumped up with the antibiotics of hate, communalism and arrogance the antibodies in the body fabric of the BJP have turned upon its own few remaining healthy organs: they will devour everything that is even faintly different and does not conform to their own DNA. Like Mrs. Sushma Swaraj. But she cannot complain. She said nothing when they were attacking others, she kept the faith with these " bhakts", she kept silent when she should have spoken out. The hunter has now become the hunted.

   There is a time to be silent, and there is a time to speak out.

FIVE YEARS THROUGH A BLOGGER'S LOOKING GLASS.

   This piece is a personal milestone for me- it's my 200th blog ! The first was posted  exactly five years ago, on the 1st. of July 2013, and it was titled, ironically in hind sight : "Why I shall support Modi in 2014." I must confess that my political allegiance (NOT my values) have changed considerably since then, for there is much in the present dispensation that I find disappointing, alarming and even sinister. Five years after all the hope expressed in that blog I am still having my moment of "deja poop"- the feeling that the same familiar shit continues to happen.  But I will not talk politics today and spoil the moment.

   A famous author once said that short story writers do not need to write autobiographies- their stories themselves contain all the elements of their lives. This, I feel, is equally true of bloggers: if you blog for long enough, and if you are honest, you reveal- or expose-yourself fully to your readers: your past, experiences, views, passions, likes and dislikes, concerns. There is also an unfortunate tendency to occasionally mount a pulpit and deliver sermons, but that too is okay- far too many people remain silent when they should be speaking out. This is particularly true today, when silence is not an option for anyone who cares about the nation. Social media- 140 characters on Twitter , WhatsApp and Instagram, or the ubiquitous emogee - is not enough, though it may be a beginning. The blogger is the new chronicler of today's events, a Charles Lamb or a Samuel Pepys, even an Anne Frank, for mainstream media has lost all credibility and the rest of the social media too is held hostage to fake news and trolls. Editors of newspapers and magazines today are more like censors, toeing the political line of their proprietors, dishing out packaged meals- the customer has no real choice. Television anchors are cacophonous megaphones of the powers that be but do not see. This is where the blogger comes in- not subject to any editorial restraint, or the tyranny of TRPs, or readership numbers, or commercial imperatives, he can record things as he sees them and speak from the heart. He may be right or wrong, but the reader at least gets a frank opinion, and can make up his own mind, not have it made up for him by a slanted news item or a mercenary advertorial, the type so valiantly exposed recently by Cobra post. The blogger is the last bastion of free speech in a declining democracy.

   A lot of muck has flown under the Yamuna since my first piece (the waters themselves have been held up by Haryana). I have had to relocate from my beloved cottage near Mashobra to a Delhi I detest, for purely personal reasons, but I have made my peace with this. My younger son has made a remarkable recovery from a horrific accident and today is the biggest source of strength and fortitude for me. My pension has doubled, and I am therefore not at all surprised at Mr. Jaitley not being able to meet his fiscal deficit targets. My older son has changed three jobs and two cars in this period- a sure sign of upward mobility ! Mr. Virbhadra Singh is being dragged into the sunset, screaming and cursing- he thinks it is a sonrise. During this period I have lost my father and at least three close friends, intimations of mortality perhaps. My proximate colleagues have all retired, though some continue to cling on to sinecures that have no meaning except to delay the inevitable. Never much of a religious man, I have now discarded even the traces of it, though I have not officially renounced the good Lord. Considering my age I have heeded the advice of Groucho Marx on his death bed: this is not a good time to make new enemies!

   I had initially thought that I would limit myself to writing on environmental matters(my first interest) but soon realised that, as a conscientious citizen, one could not stay insulated from all else that is happening around one. And so I also ventured into other areas: politics, governance, legal affairs, basic economics, social issues. Happily, I soon made two discoveries: one, that satire, sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek humour is a more effective form of criticism than a punch in the face; and two, that the bureaucracy is the mother lode of humour and raconteuring. So I have dug deep into my thirty five years of dubious public service and found quite a few nuggets to share with the reader, though I feel that it has cost me the friendship of quite a few erstwhile colleagues! Naturally, therefore, my blogging has been quite eclectic and all over the place. I have specialised in nothing, unlike, for example, my good friends Col. Ajai Shukla or Sanjeev Ahluwalia, who have specialised in defence and public economics, respectively, and have developed formidable reputations. I have been a Jack of all trades by contrast, which is quite appropriate considering that I belong to a service which too is considered a Jack of all trades and master of none.

  The reach of the blog, thanks to the net, is amazing. Through it I have reestablished contact with a host of school/ college friends after scores of years, even those who have emigrated to distant lands. As a consequence our school batch of 63 decided to meet up at India International Centre some time back. None of us could recognise the others, and it almost took a round of DNA testing before identities were established to the satisfaction of everyone! The blog also brought me in touch with editors of publications, and enabled me to start writing for them also.

   Through it all Mr. Ravinder Makhaik and his HILLPOST have been constant and supportive companions- all my blogs are first published on HILLPOST, without any editorial censorship or comment, thus ensuring a wider connect and readership. The blogs, amateurish as they are by definition, help me  make sense of a world gradually going bonkers.  We live in a world that can make sense only if we look at it through the looking glass of Alice in Wonderland fame. Sometimes I feel that I should be in a mental asylum, and then I look around me and realise that I AM in one ! So, while reading my blogs  (if you are so unwise as to do so), please don't confuse my personality with my attitude: my personality is who I am, my attitude, on the other hand, depends on who or what YOU are !
   Even though I'm not on Facebook or Twitter, I've received my share of criticism and flak for some of the blogs. In particular I've been targeted for my criticism of Mr. Modi and his government, my off-on support for that will-o'-the-wisp Arvind Kejriwal, and for my contribution to the OROP debate. Healthy dissent, disagreement and debate is something I welcome, for that is the only way forward intellectually. One's views should never be inscribed in stone; as John Maynard Keynes said: "When the facts change, I change my views!" That is the way it should be, and explains perhaps why I've done a 360 degree turn on Mr. Modi and find myself totally confused on which way to turn as regards Mr. Kejriwal! But then there are the "bhakts" too, a term I use generically to describe those dogmatic, oyster like minds who cannot debate with facts but instead dress their prejudices in abuse, invective and personal vilification. They are the flotsam and jetsam of social media. I was surprised to find that there are plenty of them in the uniformed forces too (ref. my OROP blogs). To them, all one can say is:

"Shaam ko bhi laut kar aayenge hum,
  Aap subah jaagne ki dua keejiye."

TAKEAWAYS FROM THE TIRTHAN

   The lemming instinct or phenomenon, the "herd instinct" as it is better understood, can be better appreciated in anthropomorphic terms such as "keeping up with the Joneses" or "when in Rome do as the Romans do." In north India it becomes most evident in the summers, especially during the school vacations, when tens of thousands of ordinary, hard working and harder swearing folks in the cities get into Bermuda shorts or pleated skirts from Fab India, dump their kids in the boots of their SUVs, and head for the hills. They come in locust like droves, unstoppable, denuding the landscape of all resources- water, electricity, road space- and though, unlike the lemmings, most will not die (though a few will drive themselves off precipices), they will not let anything stop them on the way to the promised land- Shimla, Nainital, Kausani, Manali, Mussoorie.

   As a long-time resident of Shimla and its environs I have never ceased to wonder at the primeval force that drives these urban lemmings to the mountains, to pay- in hard cash, plenty of it- for the tribulations and indignities that will be heaped on them in the next week or so. They will happily be stuck for hours in traffic jams, take seven hours (and three toilet breaks) to progress from Kalka to Shimla, spend half their holiday time looking for a parking slot on Cart road, be ripped off by every coolie, hotel tout or pony (disguised as a yak) owner, be shouted at by petite lady cops near Victory tunnel. They will be sold water at Rs. 50 a bucket, will have to wade ankle deep through horse shit in Kufri, will be groped on the Ridge regardless of their sex (we're next to Punjab, right?). And yet they keep coming- wave after inexorable wave, into towns that are beginning to look more and more like Govindpuri or Sangam Vihar with a few drooping deodars thrown in. Why, I have asked myself for years, should they run from one urban mess to another at such great expense? Do they have no wish to see the real Himachal (or Uttarakhand)- the dense forests, gurgling streams, sheep dotted pastures- or partake of the delicious "siddu", karhi-chawal, khatta, bhaturu or madra , all washed down with the soul awakening "ghanti" or "angoori", instead of the same urban trash food they've been eating for the last eleven months ?

   And so it was a pleasant surprise for me to have my answer last week on a visit to the Tirthan valley. I had gone with a few friends, (after a Pandava style "banwas" of seven years in Delhi), for a trek in the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP), invigorated by a few drams at the scenic new home stay of my old (but considerably younger) trekking buddy, Ankit Sood, bang on the banks of the Tirthan. We went via Ani and the Jalori pass to avoid the lemmings on the Bilaspur- Mandi route and were amazed at the number of delightful little home stays that had come up: we counted at least a dozen between Jalori/ Khanag and Banjar, and the Tirthan valley itself has more than forty. (There was only one, as far as I can recollect, ten years ago). They all appeared to be doing well, going by the number of cars parked outside. At the Sairopa forest rest house were another seven or eight groups of tourists. Inside the GHNP itself we met more groups in trekking mode- the Range Officer informed us that in these months about 30 people go into the Park everyday. We spoke to some of them, all youngsters (men and women in equal numbers) from Gurgaon, Bangalore, Bengal, Chennai, professionals and self-employed. They were mostly unanimous in their view that they had no interest in going to the towns and just wanted to spend a few days in the uncomplicated, tranquil embrace of nature, listening to the bird calls, wading in the pools and hopefully sighting a ghoral or monal. I was overjoyed, because this is what the goal, and face, of tourism in our state should be. It appears that the younger generation is finally treading a new path, discovering a nature that has been banished from their gated high-rises in the cities, and perhaps showing us a way to a more sustainable and less predatory form of tourism. It is now for governments to take up the challenge of channelising this nature tourism to ensure that it too does not morph into a monster of its own.

                                     [ At Ankit's home-stay on the Tirthan- Photo by Vinod Tewari. ]

  There was another aspect to this tourism that warmed the cockles of my fibrillating heart. Women's empowerment has come a long way in India- we have had (and still have) women cabinet Ministers, Chief Ministers, CEOs, leading journalists, writers, bankers; why, we even have a gang leader in Delhi who is a grandmother and has more than one hundred cases registered against her, including murders and kidnappings! (More power to her, I say!). But this is empowerment of the elite, as it were. What is sorely needed is empowerment at the bottom of the heap, where testosterone still rules. And so it was a revelation for us to discover at the Rolla camping site that a woman- a chit of a girl, actually- had breached another male bastion. Her name is Vandana, all of 21 years, and she is a trekking guide, who was escorting a party to Shilt meadow at 3200 meters. She is the only one of her type in GHNP, and perhaps in the whole of Himachal. Vandana told us she is from village Tinder, just outside the Park, and her brother runs a home stay in the village. She has graduated in science from Banjar college and now plans to pursue her MSc from Shimla. I found her bright, intelligent, confident, enterprising, holding her own in a man's world.

                                [ Vandana at the Rolla camp site.- Photo by Vinod Tewari. ]

  Further up, at Khorli Poi (3100 m.), we ran into another breach in the male fortress, in the form of another young lady- Mun Mun from Dharamsala, the daughter of an Air Force officer, a naturalist who is shooting a film on the Western Tragopan for National Geographic. She had made the expedition all alone, accompanied only by her porters. A truly remarkable young girl, with unlimited energy and completely focused on her assignment: while we were still wrapped up and fast asleep in our tents at 4.00 AM she was out in the cold darkness setting up her camera traps in the jungle. We discovered just in time that she had planned to set up one camera (unwittingly, of course) right next to our toilet pit ! I've always fancied my photo in the National Geographic, but not in these circumstances over a caption entitled " homo crapiens."

   Vandana and Mun Mun (she wouldn't give us her surname, but said it wasn't Sen!) made our trip doubly rewarding. I can only wish  more strength to their elbows- and knees. Girls like them make me proud, with perhaps a lingering regret at not having had a daughter.   

THE PRESIDENTIAL SUCKER PUNCH.

   All hail to the little big man from South Block! What Mr. Pranab Mukherjee delivered on the evening of the 7th. of June at Nagpur was nothing less than a haymaker that floored not only the pugilists in the ring but also the experts sitting ring side. For the last fortnight we had been given an overdose of puerile thinking by the Congress, BJP, RSS, eminent "analysts" and, of course, the  scavengers of the savannas- the electronic media- on his acceptance of an invitation by the RSS to be the chief guest at their annual function. While the former President himself maintained a dignified silence in the face of extreme provocation, the others regurgitated all their foul vapours every day: it was a betrayal of the party that gave him everything ( except the Prime Ministership, of course), it was back stabbing the ideology of Nehru and the Mahatma, it was a conspiracy by a bitter politician, it was an endorsement of the RSS ideology, it proved that the Hindutva route was the only acceptable path for the nation, it was an attempt to embarrass the Congress, it was a ploy to become the Prime Minister in 2019. Every time I feel our politics and our journalism cannot sink any lower I end up being surprised.

   Only a true patriot, a sincere Constitutionalist and an unbiased scholar of the country's history could have done what Mr. Mukherjee did. That he is also a politician makes it even more unusual, given the depths to which our polity has sunk. Anyone can sermonise from a pulpit to the faithful. It takes extraordinary courage, however, to quote scripture to the devil in his own kingdom, to beard the lion in his own den. This is what Pranabda did at the "passing out" function of the RSS cadets in the RSS headquarters, politely but firmly demolishing the very " raison-d-etre" for its existence.  His insistence on secularism, the " composite culture" of the nation and the values of the Constitution as the only framework on which India could be built, was nothing but a slap on the face of his surprised hosts. His definition of patriotism and nationalism was the very antithesis of the unitarian concept of the RSS. He preceded this with an erudite exposition of India's history and reminded the RSS of the obvious: that the country was an assimilation of all who came and stayed here- Caucasians, Dravidians, Muslims and even Mongoloids- and the country belonged to all of them. He reiterated a point made also by Ramchandra Guha in his book " India after Gandhi"- that India's nationhood is unique in the world. Whereas all other nations are built on a common language, religion or ethnicity India is the only nation built on the fusion of hundreds of languages, six major religions and multiple ethnic groups. Any attempt to reduce this glorious diversity to a mono- culture based on one religion or language would destroy the nation. His message could not have been louder. It does not matter whether the RSS or BJP or their splinter groups would heed it, the important thing is that the nation has heard it.

  If the RSS was calculating that the invitation to the former President was a marketing coup that would legitimise their ideology, they must now be very embarrassed at all the egg on their face. It was their own publicity over-drive( and the Congress reaction) that riveted the country's attention to the address of Mr. Mukherjee and has given it so much penetration. No other platform- not a dysfunctional Parliament, or a University convocation, or a vulgar political rally, or an interview on one of our untrustworthy TV channels- could have garnered the kind of attention that the address did. Now the whole country knows what a former President, highly respected and with 50 years' worth of political experience, thinks of the ideology that has taken the nation in its writhing coils. The RSS has outsmarted itself. 

  But the Congress too has no reason to be pleased at the discomfiture of the RSS, for it too has behaved abominably. Its pettiness, lack of respect for an elder statesman ( and an ex-President, to boot!), it s paranoic distrust of anyone who is not an ordained Gandhi, and total bankruptcy of any higher values was on full display in the manner it attributed motives to Mr. Mukherjee, practically dubbed him a Judas, and questioned his ideological integrity. It is so blinded by its antipathy to the BJP-RSS combine that it has forgotten the first rule of a democracy- engage with all shades of opinion. It is now praising the ex-President for " holding up a mirror" to the RSS in a blatantly hypocritical volte-face. It should instead be eating humble pie and some of its senior members like Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari should lose no time in apologising to Pranabda.

  What can one say about our electronic media which plumbs new depths of predatory avarice and discourteous arrogance every day ? Their speculative conspiracy theories- that Mr. Mukherjee was positioning himself as a compromise/ consensus candidate for Prime Ministership in 2019, that he was taking revenge on the Gandhis for depriving him of the post in 1984 and again in 2004- without a shred of evidence, can only make one agree wholeheartedly with Oscar Wilde: " By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community."

  And finally, there is a message in Mr. Mukherjee's address for all the politicians in this country: engage with each other, improve the level of public discourse, stop spreading hatred and intolerance, be civilised even in your disagreements. For a man who is practically walking into the sunset, the former President has done his duty by speaking out and reminding the nation of the founding values and principles that once made this country great. We need look for no other motive. Instead we should listen to what he said, for, as T.S.Eliot said: " Last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice." We have heard the next year's voice. Is anyone listening? 

BJP'S FINAL PINCER STRATEGY.

" Pincer movement": a movement by two wings of an army converging on the enemy. ( Concise Oxford Dictionary)
[In the India of 2018 The " army" is the BJP-RSS combine and the " enemy" is the country's own citizens.]

So you thought it's all about Aadhaar? That if we stop Mr. Modi's UIDAI led incursion into our private lives all will be well? Well, think again. Aadhaar isn't going away- the manner in which the Chief Justice of India has conducted himself so far indicates that the expected Supreme Court judgement will be in the government's favour. Oh, there will be a few caveats, crumbs for the civil libertarians, but rest assured: by this time next year they'll have you by the short and curly.

But there's a greater danger emerging, which makes Aadhaar just a side show, like the clown in the circus. The govt. appears to have planned a much bigger surgical strike  on its own citizens in order to ensure its return in 2019 and a lifetime lease of the nation thereafter. It has set in motion a pincer movement, the two claws being Disinformation and Surveillance.  If the govt. has its way on this one, then the whole country will be on an Irom Sharmila kind of drip, being force fed on disinformation designed, manufactured and shaped by the govt. itself. There will be no other information available .Over the last couple of years the more discerning among us had been suspecting that all was not well with the news business, that mainstream media ( including television channels) were doctoring news in favour of the govt., that prime time was being dominated by fake and paid news,that a lot of unfavourable news was being blanked out, that it was only the opposition parties who were generally the object of sting operations, that opinion polls ( especially election related ones) were slanted : in short, that the media had become the govt's and the BJP's megaphone. We were right. General V.K. Singh has certainly had the last laugh on this one. Remember how we all bristled when he called journalists " presstitutes"? Turns out he was dead right, as the latest multiple stings by Cobrapost reveals. Actually, they are a couple of notches below even prostitutes: the latter only sell their bodies, the media has sold its soul too. This is not a pact with the devil, it's an unholy miscegenation.

The investigative portal Cobrapost has just released a series of sting videos in which just about every major print and electronic news group has agreed to prostitute itself for fat payments from a purported Hindu organisation to promote the BJP/ Hindutva cause. The list includes the TIMES group, Hindustan Times, TV18, India Today group, Zee group, Jagran Star India, ABP, Sun group, Jupiter, Big FM, Open magazine, The New Indian Express, Lokmat, TV5, Bharat Samachar, ABM, Dinemani. Out of 27 news organisations approached, 25 agreed to be part of this illegal deal; only two flatly refused, both from Bengal: Dainik Sambad and Bartaman Patrika. The contract was in three stages: first promote soft Hindutva by showing/ featuring programmes on Krishna and Bhagvadgita, then malign opposition leaders through lampooning, character assassination, satire, and finally play the minority card and create polarisation by inserting fake news. The idea, clearly stated in the videos, is to give political benefit to the BJP ahead of the 2019 elections. The TIMES group even reportedly offered to develop a full campaign for Rs. 500 crores. Most of them even agreed to accept part payment in cash ( without any documentation) and even suggested how this money could be laundered to make it legit! Not even one organisation has denied that these conversations took place, and have only offered feeble alibis that test one's credulity. So much for our " free" media, that fourth pillar of democracy that has turned out be the fifth column.

The second pincer is a vast improvement on Aadhaar, and perhaps even on China- 24x7 surveillance on every tweet, post or e-mail that you send. This will not be done surreptitiously, as in Russia or China, but openly, as part of declared state policy! Believe it. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has just floated a tender inviting offers from IT companies to trawl social media, catalogue what people are saying, identify patterns and develop ideas to motivate more "nationalistic" feelings among the public. We know full well which party claims a monopoly on nationalism, and what this word connotes. With this Big Data the govt. can now target anyone who is critical of it or the BJP-RSS combine, using the coercive good offices of its various agencies. Not only does this move by the I+B Ministry violate the recent Supreme Court judgement on right to privacy and Sec. 165 of the IT Act, it comes at a time when the whole world is tightening up privacy laws after the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook revelations. Quite clearly, however, Mr. Modi and his cohorts cannot be bothered by such niceties on their march to a police state. In fact, in another sting released by Cobrapost on 18th May, a Sr. Vice President of PayTm has revealed that he was approached by the PMO recently to give them all the data on Kashmiri users of their app. so that possible and potential stone pelters could be identified! This was a blatant breach of privacy agreements between PayTm and its 200 million users, since the former is legally bound not to share its customer data with any third party. This one example ( I'm sure there would be many more we are not aware of) only underlines the complete amorality and ruthlessness of the central govt.. its contempt for the courts and international opinion, and exposes the lengths it will go to to retain power. It also demonstrates how all our institutions have caved in, one by one.The chaotic and vibrant social media is the one universe the govt. is mortally scared of but could not control. It has now found a way.

 Mainstream media has, as expected, completely blanked out these stories. But one is entitled to ask: what are our vasectomised Regulators doing- the Press Council of India, TRAI, RBI ( about PayTm), the Enforcement Directorate, the Editors' Guild ? No one's talking about this latest strategy, and even social media is muted. Have we just given up? Is Leonard Cohen's counsel of despair right after all?-

" Everybody knows 
  That the dice are loaded
  Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed...
  That's how it goes....
  Everybody knows
  That the boat is leaking
  Everybody knows that the captain lied...
  Everybody knows."

Everybody knows, but no one cares.