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UP Hill Districts Need a Break

BETWEEN THE LINES

Kuldip Nayar writes from New Delhi
*** am told by Congress authoritative sources that the Narasimha Rao government may decide to form Uttarakhand, a little before the new election in the state. whenever that may be. This, they believe, may help the party win back at leant the hill districts and cut its losses in the rest of UP.***
f | FTUERE la or can lie I very little In common JL between the still nomadic inhabitants of the Garhwal and Kumaon Himalaya or of the hilly area# of Bundhelkhand on the one hand and the inhabit anta of lire fertile Oangetle valley on the other ' K M Panikkai wrote this In his dissenting note ap pended to the Slates Reorg finlsation Commission report nearly 40 years ago He was arguing the case for the bifurcation of Uttar Pradesh which has the highest number of seats, as many as 85. In the 546 member Lok Sabha
The proposal was considered mischievous' by Govind Ballabh Pant, then Home Minister from UP. who was entrusted with the task of processing the report. Jawaharlal Nehru, prime minister for 17 years, never entertained the reorganisation idea concerning his home state. UP Mrs Gandhi, also from UP. did not allow the subject to be re opened.
Although Charan Singh, home minister during the Janata rule, had suggested the trifurcaUon of the state before she came to power the second time in 1980. yet she let tl pass. Charan Singh was also from UP. But he did not buy the thesis that a large state In the gangetic valley guaranteed India's unity. He favoured UP's division into three states: a hill state, the state of Agra on the lines Panlkkar had proposed, and the rest. Incidentally. Panlkkar's suggestion envisaged absorption of four districts of Madhya Pradesh, including Gwalior, in the Agra state.
The Uttarakhand state comprising the eight hill districts of UP is not a bolt from the blue. The demand was there even in the fifties. The Congress governments were
consistently against it. But once (hey lost power, the pro-posal came to the force. The BharaUyk Janata Party under Kalyan Singh had a resolution passed in the UP state assem bly for the creation of Uttaranchal The Mulayam Singh government changed the name to Uttarakhand. But It was the same exercise: a unanimous resolution by the State assembly in support, both times, the central Congress government which was to pilot a constitutional amendment bill to reorganise UP look no follow-up steps.
II is unfortunate that the demand for Uttarakhand, supported by the Inhabitants from all walks of life, has got mixed with the 27 per cent reservation quota for the backward classes The two matters are separate. Whatever the views of i he Congress on Uttarakhand — the party Is conspicuous by Its silence — It Is In favour of reservation and has said so
The Inept handling by the Mulayam Singh government toughened the protest against the reservation quota in the hill districts, where the backward number only three per cent A provision could have been made to authorise the state governor to exempt a particular area under the Sixth Schedule of the constitution. But first, the government was in no mood for conciliation. Later, when It wanted a compromise. there was had blood between the state and the people. The stir has, in fact, heightened the sentiments for a separate state
The Allahabad Incident where the Bahujan SamaJ Party (BSP) and Mulayam Singh s men beat up the state chief Justice and many lawyers, has disturbed the focus. And the police Is to blame for looking the other way when the High Court was attacked Bui this distraction cannot affect the core issue, the creation of Uttarakhand. It will be difficult for New Delhi to use the pre text of administrative lapses to reject or postpone the de mand.
As for the stale-sponsored
bandh on reservation, the Mulayam Singh government cannot be singled out for the blame. This weapon has been used by both the Congress and the Communist governments on one count or the other. I was. however, amused to read the denunciation by Jaswant Singh, the BJP deputy leader in parliament, of the ever increasing reservation quota. I did not find him uttering a single word of criticism whtn the Lok Sabha passed unanimously the constitutional amendment bill to bar law courts from questioning the raise in reservation to 67 per cent in Tamil Nadu. Politicians wear two hats: one. to build the vote-bank, and the other.
to talk of principles to bam boozle the intelligentsia
All that the BJP is inter esied In is to have fresh elec Uons In UP. It believes that ii can come back to power But. even If the Congress decides to withdraw its support from chief minister Mulayam Singh. It will not commit political suicide of siding with the BJP to pull down the government. The arithmetic too does not work out favourably. The Congress has 32 members and the BJP 176. Together they are 208 in a house of 425 sit
ting members. They still need six members from other combinations which are firmly on Mulayam Singh's side.
UP Congress decision not to back Mulayam Singh Is meant primarily to win the upper castes vote. Narain Dutt Tewari. the UP Congress chief, knows that the prime minister will not endorse his line. Rao may keep the pressure on Mulayam Singh but not go to the extent of withdrawing the support. After all. the Mulayam Singh MPs supported the Congress, first on the GATT and then on the Action Taken Report regarding the securities soam.
Rao's problem is not Alulayam Singh, but the
Uttarakhand state What does the PM do to build a politic al response to an ethnic problem"’ How does he face the demand which has caught the imagination of hill districts population? He is not ready lor the creation of another state now. knowing well that it will open the Pandora s Box. It is obvious that once Uttarakand is formed, there may be no way of stopping Jharkhand. Gork-haland and even Bodoland.
Presently, the central government may offer the hill districts the Scottish pattern of administration What it means Is that the assembly members belonging to the hill districts will have a mini house of its own to vote on such subjects as are transferred to the area. Like the Gorkhaland. there will be separate funds for the hill districts, which will have their own government, headed by a chief administrator. At the same time, the members from the hill districts will be part of the state assembly, enjoying the same rights as other members do. This status Is swathed with more powers than those of autonomous districts under the Sixth Schedule of the constitution.
The drawback is that the concession is coming too late. Had this offer been made in the seventies or even early eighties, when the Congress was In power in the state, the demand for a separate state could have been headed off. But now the frenzy to secede from UP. perceived as a tyrant, has engrlpped the hill districts so much that it will be difficult
I Ml by Congreat, authoritative source* that the Naraslmha Rao government may decide to form Uttarakhand, a little before the new election In the state, whenever that may be. This they believe, may help the partv win back at least the hill districts and cut its losses in the rest of UP which, they feel, is difficult to retrieve (The Congress did far belter in the last assembly polls In the hill districts — winning 10 out of 20 seats - than K did tn UP on the whole)
Also. it is time that the Narasimha Rao government should think of splitting UP and Bihar which are unwieldy and where politics has got criminalised The mafia and the administration are two sides of the same coin. Corruption is so pervasive that even the highest in the states is not above board In the name of caste, the most heinous crimes are committed with impunity. In both states, tyrants have sprouted at all levels — tyrants whose ciaim to authority is based on the proximity to the seats of power.
On the other hand, the two states have stayed practically undeveloped and the youth have no stake in the society that has emerged: hence increase in violence. If parcelled out. some units of the two states may have a chance to make It Haryana and Himachal Pradesh progressed only after they separated from Punjab. Smaller units may efleet a closer link between the people and those charged with their governance. The administration will be more accessible and there will be appreciation of the local problems on the part of the government. Otherwise, both states will continue to be a drag on the country