'Congress’ paanwala-cum-former state agitationist still longs for Govt job

By PRABEER SIKDAR
DEHRADUN, 12 May 2009:
Having contacts in high political circles does not always work to one’s advantage. One man who can vouch for this fact is 48-year-old Dilip Singh.
Since 1973, Singh has been supplying Banarasi paan (now out of fashion), gutka and tea (started in 2007) to well-known and lesser-known activists at Congress Bhavan from his modest tin shop on Nashville Road, which is a stone’s throw away from the Congress Party State Headquarters.
“The craze for Banarasi paan ended in 2007. Now, most them prefer Gutka,” says Singh, adding that he also makes a dozen rounds to supply tea to the Congress party workers at regular intervals.
Flashback
Just a hundred metres away from Singh’s shop, which is sometimes also managed by his son, is a full grown Tun (Red Cedar) tree. “This tree was a witness to what had happened to me on 3 September, 1994,” he says, while pointing towards the Cedar tree, just opposite the Congress Bhavan on the other side of the road.
“Influenced by the Uttarakhand agitation, I closed down my shop on that day, and joined my friends for a pro-Uttarakhand rally at the Clock Tower,” he reminisces.
After shouting his lungs out to voice ‘Uttarakhand Hamara Hain…’ the next thing Singh was being chased by a crowd of policemen. “I was mercilessly lathi-charged under the Cedar tree, and later bundled into the police van,” recalled Singh, who eventually spent 6-days in Bareilly jail from 4 September to 8 September, 1994, under sections 151, 107 and 116 of the CrPC. (The incident occurred just before the Rampur Tiraha incident.)
“In all, 48 people from places like Chukhu Mohalla, Dobhalwala, Mannugunj, Macchi Bazar, Bakralwala… were arrested and taken to Bareilly,” he recalls, adding that all agitationists had food in Bareilly jail only on 5 September, noon.
During his incarceration, Singh was severely thrashed on the soles of his feet and thighs. He says, “Before embarking for Bareilly, the policemen took away matchboxes from our possession, leaving only Beedis with us.” 2009
A ‘well-known’ figure among Congress workers/ politicians at the Congress Bhavan, Singh still makes a living by selling gutka and tea. “For the injuries I sustained during the agitation, the government gave me Rs 50,000 in 1996,” disclosed Singh, who now feels cheated.
According to Singh, during the tenure of the ND Tiwari Government (2002-2007), a GO was passed providing jobs in government departments (mainly in Group IV) to agitationists who had spent 7 days and above in jail, including the injured. “I have approached everybody to plead my case, but I did not succeed,” Singh lamented, while pointing out that some of his colleagues, ‘now work in the RTO, Excise Departments’.
Some 250 state agitationists got government jobs during the Tiwari regime.
Unfortunately, due to his failure to plead his case before those who mattered, Singh has unwittingly become a butt of jokes here. “He has been around here for a long time, but could not pull the right strings,” said a Congressman.
When contacted, Sushila Balooni, President of the Rajya Nirman Andolankari Samman Parishad, who was busy doing last moment campaigning, said that, post poll, there was ‘no likelihood of changing the existing rules for providing government jobs to agitationists’. “The 7-day jail requirement would remain the eligibility criteria,” she said.
However, though unschooled, Singh, who can lay claim for a government job under the ‘injury clause’, still hopes for a change to happen post election.
Keeping his hopes alive till this day, Singh has carefully kept all his agitation days’ memorabilia – jail entry, medical certificate and representations to the DM, etc. – neatly folded in a polythene bag.
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