no light Sonam Wangchuk, a developer from Shah Ladakh, has been fighting for good justice for the community deprived of democratic representation – coincidentally, on the 20th of October, a friendly meeting of various developers of Gujarat is being held these days. 'Charkha' known Sanjay Dave Adi's initiative has also got the support of senior colleagues including 'Ganatar' fame Sukhdev Patel. The new generation (rather, generations) of voluntary workers that we have seen there in the last fifty years are, at least to some extent, engaged, if not directly, in the fight for equality and justice-oriented development, either directly or indirectly. Even when there is a lack of direct political involvement in it, and even then, only civil movements have to be associated with politics somewhere. A clever invitation conveys the idea of expressing good esteem and gratitude to fellows over seventy years of age in the proposed affair. That is to say, going back five decades, the generation of students who came into public life from Navnirmaan to the JP movement, there is a kind of respect and hope-expectation (and therefore perhaps even criticism) about it. There is some historiography behind starting with the 1974 dividing line, the true watershed. A thought-provoking note of former Congress President Dhebarbhai during the period of Navnirmaan, even if we start talking about it in a personal way, attracted a lot of attention. He did not limit it to only Congressmen and delivered it widely. Nagindas Sanghavi was writing on 'Swarajdarshan' in Bhogibhai Gandhi's editorial Nigehbani in the Gnangangotri book series. If he was approached with the spirit of Dhebarbhai, a like-minded Rajpurush who writes, his preparation was almost to the extent of involvement in writing. Through Bhogibhai, Dhebarbhai also sent me that Navanirmaan note, opening the window of my acquaintance with him. Later, with his leave, I also consumed 'Vishmaanav'. In 1972, the Congress party won a decisive majority in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, but when an explosion like the Navnirman movement came to the extent of destroying the Assembly two years later, why was the same Congress party caught sleeping? It has become an election engine. To be an active Congresswoman in the early decades of Swaraj was almost invariably to be involved in some constructive activity. So you were in direct contact with the people during the non-election period, if not confined to the party office. With the 1969 split in the Congress, the new politics that emerged had lost that structural bond. Under these circumstances, where the majority of the explosion is coming from, was the question asked by Dhebarbhai. JP Janata Parva was in a sense a new answer to this question. Even if it seems a little far-fetched, you will see that the breed like 'Zholas' and NGOs came among us, there was a swaraj alliance of informal alliances that formed and fought. At the national level today, Kumar Prashant, chairman of the Gandhi Shanti Pratisthan, or Anand Kumar, who has a BHU-JNU background, can recall this reference. It's not out of place to guess that you'll find faces in the same category even in proposed courtships. Beginning with Sukhdev Patel, his entry came through contact with the Gandhi Shanti Pratisthan. A notable name belongs to Hasmukh Patel, who established an educational and service-oriented base in Amirgarh Panthak in Banaskantha. Rajendra Dave is not in the country but was among those actively associated with the Shanti Prestige during the Navnirman era – and was on both the Navnirman Samiti chaired by Manishi Jani and the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini formed by the JP. When the Lokswaraj movement took off with JP's visit to Gujarat, the initial coordination-work was done by Mandakini Dave and this writer played a leading role in the process of formation of the Janata Morcha. Today as Shatayu Ji. G. Bhogilal Gandhi was the name and work of Gujarat level which is working in coordination with Swaraj through Parikh, Yusuf Mehra Ali Center. The references I have made are fine on their own, but in order to capture a standard profile of the new cadres who have come in over the last five decades, a list of talents awarded by the Young Men's Gandhian Association-YMGA of Rajkot, besides the Arch Vahini as a whole, would be more useful. The list of Mahadev Desai Samman given every year among the graduates of Gujarat Vidyapeeth should also be helpful. From 'Seva' to 'Awaj' and other such organizations, the workers who have emerged are of course also in the picture. Sonia Gandhi's advisory committee in the new phase of Congress rule since 2004 after the short-lived JP Janata Parva (and the right-to-information-like provisions made possible at her insistence) should also be considered in this context, as should Rahul Gandhi's Bharatiyatra and the personalities emerging from Yogendra Yadav's association. Not that this kashaya has any agenda connection with the 20th October meeting, but no doubt that politics cannot be trusted only to politicians.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
The brilliance of history: Politics should not be trusted by politicians!
