Dehradun, 24 Mar 2009
Uttarakhand began as a struggle of the ‘Highlanders’ versus the ‘Low Landers’. With the new delimitation in place now, the present Lok Sabha elections seem to defeat the very purpose for which a separate ‘hill-state’ was created.
“Ladh kay lengay, bhidh kay lengay, lay kar rehnegay Uttarakhand,” Atul Sharma’s battle cry spawned a mass movement for a separate hill-state, today he feels dejected and cheated for what seemed a promising future is today.
Of the 70 Vidhan Sabha seats, 40 were in the hills and about 30 in the plains, but today as per the new delimitation policy, there are 38 seats in the plains and 32 seats in hills, giving the plains an edge or unfair advantage over the hills.
“Iski sansktirit ek badey UP say bhin thi, isaliye ek kalpana ki gayee thi iskay alag hojaney say bahut sari bate ban jayegi. Lekin aise nahi hua aur is wajah say ek nirasha bani huee hai” Despite not reaching proportions, it has led to a battle-royal between the highlanders and the lowlanders. This hangs like a dark cloud over the very causes that lead to the creation of Uttarakhand. There is a feeling in the hills that the distribution of the Vidhan Sabha seats are biased towards the plains, as the new state was meant to look after the people of the hills something Kishore Upadhyaya, Congress MLA from Tehri reasserts.
Political parties are taking a cue from their varied areas of influence this election, the plains a strong vote bank
for SP and the BJP while Congress looms larger than life in the remote mountains.
As Vinod Barthwal, SP General Secretary put its, “Parvtiya kshatre ko mehtvata milrahi hai aur milni bhi chahiye. Par yeh bhi nahi hona chahiye ki maidani bhaag uunkay saath anyaya ho aur unhay yeh mehsoos ho ki pervitya rajya maine judh kar humarey saath insaaf nahi ho raha hai yeh bhi uchit nahi hai.”
The agitators who struggled for the creation of Uttarakhand never asked for Roorkee or Haridwar, nor did they fight for a state that was named Uttaranchal. Their ‘Utopian Uttarakhand’ has eluded them and it all boils down to scoring political brownie points with the electorate, as the dream of Uttarakhand lies defeated and dying. Just a pale imitation of Uttar Pradesh.
News Source: http://www.ndtv.com
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very true