Delhi Goes Broom-Broom

For a change, it’s broom-broom, not vroom-vroom on Delhi roads (obviously not all) these days as theme cleanliness makes its way back to the national capital.

It all started from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Swachch Bharat Abhiyan” last year, when social media was abuzz with comments of his “masterstroke” that saw both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) virtually conceding their election symbols – hand or palm and broom respectively – to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

AAP's Safai Abhiyan in Delhi on June 13.
AAP/Twitter

Modi’s campaign became a big hit with the prime minister himself nominating celebrities from different walks of life for his #SwachchBharatAbhiyan. The opposition, however, rubbished it saying it was only a photo op for Modi and his party colleagues.

Somehow, Delhi’s cleanliness war has revived. In fact, it has not just revived, but has intensified. The fight is not restricted between the ruling AAP and its key challenger BJP, but even now insignificant Congress has also jumped into the fray.

A day after Delhi's sanitation workers called off their strike over their unpaid salaries, it was a battle for broom-upmanship when leaders of both the BJP and the AAP took to cleaning the streets as they also threw dirt at each other blaming for the garbage crisis in the city.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia led the AAP campaign on the city roads along with the party leaders Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Alka Lamba on Saturday morning.

Delhi BJP's Safai Abhiyan on June 13.
BJP/Twitter

It was then the turn of BJP to wield the broom as the party’s Delhi chief Satish Upadhyay also got into the cleanliness mode. As he led the cleanliness drive, Upadhyay blamed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the stinking mess, accusing him of only doing politics rather than focusing on governance.

Congress too is not sitting idle all this while. And, the party’s charge was led by none other than the party’s heir apparent Rahul Gandhi. The party launched a dual attack on the BJP-led government at the Centre and AAP's state government over the garbage crisis in the city after some sanitation workers visited the Congress vice-president to thank him for his support.

The Congress claimed that it was after Rahul Gandhi's meeting with the agitating workers that the matter was resolved and nearly 15,000 sanitation workers ended their 12-day strike.

Rahul Gandhi with Delhi Safai Karmcharis during their agitation on June 12.
@OfficeOfRG/Twitter

"Now when the strike has ended, those belonging to the party of PM Narendra Modi and AAP have come out on the streets for a photo op in the name of clearing the garbage. Neither AAP nor those belonging to Modiji's party spare any opportunity of photo-up," senior Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed said.

Whoever gets the credit for any good that happens in Delhi, let the city and its people benefit. Let the broom fight go on so that Delhi gets rid of that stink it has remained notorious for. Hope these Safai Abhiyans do not just end up as photo ops for these parties!

Maoists on forced induction spree, children flee Jharkhand’s tribal villages

Doanti (name changed), aged around 16, has been making desperate calls to her cousin sister Kalawati (not the one who shot to fame after Congress heir apparent Rahul Gandhi made a surprise visit to her house in Maharashtra about a decade ago).

The tribal girl, who so far was proud of her independent life in her sleepy village tucked away in dense forests of Chotanagpur Plateau, just wants to run away from the place now. Not that Doanti is in love with a boy with whom her parents would not allow a nuptial tie or she is being forced to earn a living as a condition to continue in their house. The red terror, locally dreaded as “party”, has forced her to look for avenues away from home to lead a decent life.

The teen is among the hundreds, if not thousands, of young boys and girls – aged between five and 18 – who are being driven by the extremists of Communist Party of India (Maoist) in herds to force them into their training camps as “comrades”.

“The situation was not that bad till a few months ago as the area commanders would only seek volunteers to join their outlawed outfit, asking each household to part with one young family member or would even spare them after having getting little contributions in cash, food or shelter. But the villagers aren’t given a choice these days,” says Mayanti, who also hails from Jharkhand and works as a domestic help in Gurgaon, after the telephonic conversation of her friend Kalawati with the latter’s cousin.

Probably Maoism is not a movement anymore, as it happened to be when it was still recognised as Naxalism, which fought for social equality, not through democratic means but with guns.

Though Prakash Jha’s Chakravyuh painted Maoists as ideologists, who even compelled Kabir (Abhay Deol) – planted by Nandighat SP Adil Khan (Arjun Rampal) as an informer – convert into Azad for locals’ cause to resist government-sponsored land grabbing leading to mass displacement, the reality seems to be far from the movie. Doanti, a resident of Jharkhand’s Latehar district, requested Kalawati find her a job of domestic help as she wants to run away from her village (name withheld) fearing she might be forced to become a Maoist cadre.

Doanti, who happens to be the daughter of Kalawati’s stepfather’s elder brother and dropped out of school after spending early years in state capital Ranchi, hopes to be rescued by her cousin.

Many other girls her age, who were saved from the tentacles of child traffickers so far, now want to be employed as domestic helps or labourers in brick kiln from this tribal-dominated state out of the Maoists’ fear.

The creation of Jharkhand has certainly not helped these people of remote area which have been under the influence of red terror. Things have rather aggravated. It would be an irony if the Narendra Modi government, which came to the power after a thumping victory on the promise of security and respectable life to women and girls, doesn’t take note of the disturbing trend in Jharkhand and other similar tribal-dominated states.