Movement to demand Gairsain as Uttarakhand’s capital gain’s momentum in Delhi and NCR

The demand for Gairsain to be declared as a permanent capital of Uttarakhand, the state which came into separate existence after incessant struggle of years together that claimed 43 precious lives including the one of Baba Mohan Singh Uttarakhandi who died after indefinite hunger strike in support of the above demand has finally achieved a new momentum as people of Uttarakhand living in Delhi have also started tightening their belts across party and ideological lines to give fillip to this movement which has spread like wild fire in the mountaneous valleys and the interior villages of the Himalayan State for the last few months.

The higher reaches of the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand like Karnaprayag, Rudraprayag, Pauri Garhwal and the entire Kumaon region are in the grip of the ferocious movement for the declaration of Gairsain to be declared as the capital of Uttarakhand and the youths, students, the women power including the senior citizens are up in arms demanding ” AAJ DO ABHI DO HAME GAISAIN RAJDHANI DO” holding protest rallies, hunger strikes and mass demonstrations in various blocks and district headquarters of Uttarakhand and Gairsain.

In Delhi, too the intellectuals, journalists, social activists, organisations, women and youth have started holding corner meetings in various parts of Delhi to unify the Uttarakhandies living in various nooks and corners of Delhi and NCR. Recently a meeting of independent journalists, UKD and some splintered socio political groups was held at the Press Club of India and reached at a consensous to further this demand on a war footing attented by the representatives of different social organisations.

On 27th January an impressive meeting was held at Dilshad Garden, Delhi participated by good number of youths, women and representatives of various social and journalistic organisations prominently addressed by the senior journalist and renowned social activist Charu Tiwari, President of Uttarakhand Journalists Forum Sunil Negi, President of Akhil Bhartiya Uttarakhand Mahasabha Vinod Nautiyal, women activist Hansa Amola, veteran theatre activist Sushila Rawat, Amit Rana, representatives of Dilshad Garden Bhratra Mandal, Jai Singh Rawat and several other dashing young leaders.

Mr Charu Tiwari in his long and impressive address has blamed the Congress and BJP of betraying the trust of innocent Uttarakhandies during the last seventeen years and said that Gairsain being equidistant from both the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions is a most genuine and transparent demand which needs to be fulfilled and addressed at all costs. He appealed to the youth, students and the women power of Delhi and Uttarakhand to forgo and forget their ideological differences and come forward unitedly to make this dream come true. Charu said: relentless struggle is must to achieve any credible demand like that of Gairsain capital and therefore now time has arrived when we have to stand united to achieve this by all means.

Mr. Sunil Negi while exhorting the Uttarakhandies living in Delhi and NCR to give fillip to the Gairsain movement of Uttarakhand said that the way thousands of people of the capital have provided money, mass and moral support to the movement of Uttarakhand during 1994 till 2000, the time has come that we’ll have to come forward, similarly in a united fashion to compel the current BJP government kneel down under our pressure to finally acede to this long pending demand for Gairsain as UK’s capital. Negi said both Congress and BJP have betrayed the trust of the people of Uttarakhand during the last seventeen years and led the state towards anarchy with a fiscal deficit of staggering 40 thousand crores with literally no productive income from its own sources. He added: if the state has gained anything during the last 17 years, its massive unemployment, enhancement in the unholy nexus between the corrupt bureaucracy, contractors, building, land, mining and liquor mafia thus leading the state towards unending corruption and total bankruptcy.

He said: Gairsain capital is a symbol of decentralisation of socio political and economic development. Hence it’s a mandatory demand which needs to be addressed and conceded at all costs. A unanimous decision was arrived at the meeting to hold such corner and decentralised meetings in support of Gairsain in entire Delhi and NCR to finally make it a massive movement in capital in order to strengthen the simultaneous mobilisation in the hills of Uttarakhand as well.

In addition as a sequel to the ongoing mobilisation a meeting cum seminar has been organised on 3rd February at 2.30 pm at Press Club of India in support of Gairsain to be addressed by prominent petsonalities of UK in Delhi by All India Uttarakhand Maha Sabha.
Time has also become ripe for all the pro Gairsain ideological parties to give up their narrow vested political and other interests and come together under single umbrella unanimously on the Gairsain capital demand forthwith. They have already committed several deliberate mistakes and lapses in the past this giving handle to the national parties exploit Uttarakhand, its people and the natural resources but now its enough n the saturation point has come to an end. If not now it will be never in the future.
Sunil Negi, President, Uttarakhand Journalists Forum