Malice towards None -
As I Feel
I retired from the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) on
December 31, 2010. We returned to India in January,
2011 from Minsk from my last station of posting as
Ambassador of India to Belarus. As a matter of
routine, I tended to keep track of the community
matters particularly of my home town Jalandhar.
Though we have a flat at the IFS Apartments in
Gurgaon to live in yet I thought of having a small
establishment in Jalandhar too and acquired a flat
at the Silver Residency Apartments at Nakodar Road (
renamed as Ambedkar Marg), near my native place
Bootan Mandi. The idea was to integrate and
associate myself with the community, as my post
retirement activity, in whatever small way I may be
able to do, in tandem and cooperation with my old
colleagues and friends who are living in and around
Bootan Mandi. I visited Jalandhar and as usual
stayed with my brothers in Bootan Mandi in February,
2011. I was totally disappointed, to be frank, with
the state of affairs and the behaviour of some of my
friends and fellow Bootan Mandians whom I always
held in high esteem. I tried to get in touch with
them and establish contact. But to my utter
surprise, the response was lopsided and rather
negative. The community leadership was divided with
their own personal agenda of either business
interests or family feuds. It was an unfortunate
situation which was detrimental to the interests of
the society and community affairs. Obviously, I was
not interested in joining the group politics but
could not help associating myself with the fair and
bonafide activities to some extent. One of the
groups assumed and decided to completely ignore me
and my presence on groundless assumptions. I could
not get the chance to sit with them and speak my
mind in spite of the fact i tried my best to send my
message across with a view to strive for unity and
togetherness. It was the height of self
righteousness.
The major event in February was the Gurpurab - Guru
Ravidass Jayanti. Bootan Mandi is considered to be
the hub of the celebrations in the area and rightly
so as Bootan
Mandi always acted as the torch bearer or the flag
bearer of the spiritual and social activism by the
community. Guru Ravidass Dham, a nicely conceived
project, was in utter neglect as the so called
Kartadhartas (leaders) were fighting for control of
the project for their selfish ends. The irony of the
matter is that the Guru Ravidass Welfare and
Education Trust which is headed by only one person
for about a decade did not do anything in the past
except chairing the functions arranged with public
money and has neither any welfare scheme nor it has
any educational project in hand. The name of the
Trust itself has no justification rather it is
negation of welfare and education.. It is some food
for thought of some of my educated friends who are
associated with the so called Trust.. The Dham,
naturally, is the property of the community and
shall be open to one and all. But I was told that
the Seths who control the project allow or deny the
access to the Guru Dham on their whims and fancies
and political orientations. It shall be totally
unacceptable. The Dham is not a personal property of
any Seth or his/her cronies. I think a
democratically elected Committee shall be formed and
the project handed over to it. It will be
unfortunate if the project gets stalled in the
process because of the selfish agenda of the self
seekers.
Even the great Guru has been divided।
The Gurpurab was fragmented. The respective groups
held separate functions including the Langar and the
Shoba Yatra. The public money collected for the
purpose by both the groups was spent mindlessly. The
sense of one-up was prevailing which tended to
increase heat and acrimony. I spoke at one of the
functions and pleaded for unity in the larger
interest of the society. But it seemed that the line
of divide was getting deeper and bigger. The false
ego and money power was getting stronger. The people
and the society is bound to suffer and the struggle
for empowerment of the dalit masses will get weak in
the prevailing situation. The movement and mission
of the Guru has been compromised by the so called
followers themselves. The image of Bootan Mandi has
been tarnished.May Guru Ravidass provide and grant
us sense and sanity.
हर
शाख
पे
उल्लू
बैठें
हैं
अंजामें
गुलिस्तान
क्या
होगा
(To be concluded)
By. Mr. Ramesh Chander, Retired Indian Diplomat
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