Uttarakhandi social organisations gearing up for the massive HUNKAAR RALLY outside Parliament house on 6th May 2018

Various socio political organisations of Delhi active during and aftermath of the separate Uttarakhand movement during the nineties are planning to hold an impressive HUNKAAR RALLY outside the parliament house on 6th May to draw the attention of the union government towards the pivotal issue of GAIRSAIN to be declared as the official capital of Uttarakhand for which a massive movement is already going on at Gairsain’s Bharadisain area as well as in various other parts of the himalayan state since the last four months.

Several heads of various social organisations active in Delhi today gathered at the central park, Rajiv Chowk in New Delhi and devised a stratage to make the HUNKAAR RALLY OF 6th May outside Parliament House a grand success.

Majority of the speakers were of the opinion to organise corner meetings in various parts of Delhi on vast scale, inhabitated by the people hailing from Uttarakhand in majority in order to mobilise them towards the Gairsain capital demand and ensure that the 6th May rally becomes a grand success capable of impressing the union government and the PM Narendra Modi that declaring Gairsain as the hill state’s permanent capital has actually become an inevitability.

It may be recalled that few months ago two impressive protest demonstrations were held in Delhi, one at Press Club of India premises and another at the Parliament street from where memorandums addressed to prime minister were delivered at his office demanding Gairsain to be declared as the permanent capital of Uttarakhand as promised by the current ruling party leaders of BJP before the state elections but now literally backing out.

In Garhwal Uttarakhand hundreds of thousands of people had protested at Gairsain during the budget session of the state and courted arrests expressing their outrage against the state government for not aceding to their protracted demand despite the pre election assurances. The movement is still continuing though not with the amount of potential and enthusiasm it had gathered during the budget session of the state in the month of March.

The ruling BJP government had passed the state budget in the newly built state assembly building at Gairsain but not spoke a word with regard to the Gairsain capital despite so much of hullaballoo and arrests of hundreds of volunteers of various regional parties including the Congress. The government led by BJP had secured a historic majority in the state defeating Congress and other regional parties badly winning 57 out of 69 seats.

Being in more than absolute majority the BJP is least interested to fulfil this long pending demand. Since it’s not worried of getting dislodged from power the Gairsain capital demand has taken the back seat whereas the Trivendra Singh Rawat seems more interested in selling liquor in widespread sections of the state to earn maximum profit to bridge its fiscal deficit which has enhance to 44000 crores equalising the total state outlay of over 45000 crores.

The government of the state has through a new cabinet decision allowed liquor sales even in grocery shops of the state provided the turnover of the liquor license seeker is 50 lakhs annually. The licence fees of the prevailing liquor bars have been reduced from 5 lakhs to one lakh. The anti government and pro Gairsain protestors are extremely angered, annoyed and furious with the current BJP government and are bent upon pressurising the Trivendra Singh Rawat government fulfil their Gairsain capital demand which according to them symbolises the future decentralised socio economic, industrial, educational, agricultural and medical development of the state which the state is lacking completely resulting in mass scale migration of the village population to the cties, towns and metropolises of the state and the country.

In the first week of April several likeminded intellectuals, progressive writers, thinkers, journalists and socio political leaders opposed to both Congress and BJP gathered at Haldwani in the form of a conclave and devised a strategy for the future to not only achieve the Gairsain demand forthwith by pressuring the state government but also forming a united third front of the like minded friends a parties that may pose a direct threat and create an alyetnative to these two national parties who’d been exploiting the people politically but doing nothing for the peoples’ welfare and employment including the decentralised over all development of the state. Such attempts were made by people in the past too but failed as the anti BJP and Congress parties and their leaders too are very over ambitious politically, intellectually miser to compromise positions to accomodate others, lacking adequate funding and also leaders with charisma who can generate confidence and attraction amongst the hill electorates to counter these two mighty parties ruling Uttarakhand for the last eighteen years turn by turn and making fool of the people.
SUNIL NEGI