It came as a surprise to the people of Himachal Pradesh when, last Friday, the state assembly passed a resolution giving the status of ‘Rashtra Mata’ or ‘Mother of the Nation’ to the cow. The resolution was moved by a Congress MLA, Anirudh Singh, and was backed by the legislators of both the Congress and the ruling BJP.
Himachal is the second state to seek this hallowed status for the cow. Uttarakhand passed a similar resolution on September 20.
Many Congressmen are appalled at the move. But the underlying question is whether the Himachal assembly can afford to indulge in this sort of politics, when it has more pressing issues to address in its short, six-day session.
The lone CPI(M) MLA in the house Rakesh Singha expressed his disgust saying, “The Congress leaders need to know where their core values lie. There are more important issues these parties need to be addressing instead of indulging in cow politics.”
Just a few days earlier, social activists organised a convention in Shimla to draw the attention of the government to some of these other issues.
Access to healthcare
A stark revelation on the state of the health sector came from Takpa Tenzing, of Spiti Civil Society. He described how pregnant women sometimes have to be transported 420 km to Shimla from Spiti, as even basic medical test facilities are not available in government health centres.
The people can only be angered when chief minister Jai Ram Thakur talks about heli-ambulance services in this cold desert area, he said. “We want basic services. Heli-ambulances can wait.”
Also read: The ‘Inequality of Access’ Across India
Even in the lower regions, the shortage of doctors in state facilities is a common refrain and people are regularly forced to have tests done at private laboratories.
“Many of the doctors in the public sector want to take voluntary retirement. Instead of their expertise being used to treat the patients, they have been reduced to just collecting and analysing data for useless presentations,” said one doctor.
Protecting forest rights
An issue that the government has been shying away from is the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006. As recently as December 11, a large demonstration made this demand outside the state assembly in Dharamshala, where the winter session is held.
It was the CPI(M)’s Singha and Congress’s Ashish Butail who took up the matter in the assembly, pointing out misconceptions about the Act and its applicability within the government that have led to delays.
Also read: There Are Ecological Limits to Growth – Just Look at Himachal Pradesh
Singha said, “If we, the people of Himachal Pradesh, are not ‘forest dwellers’ then who is, when 67% of the land area is under forest land here. Himachal should have been the best implementer of the Act. Instead, we are the worst compared to other states.”
Butail asked, “Why are we scared to implement this Act? When there is a thorough process in place to assess and verify the claims, when the law is clear on the three generations clause. There is no need to worry about misuse as these rights cannot be sold. They are inherited rights and pass on from generation to generation.”
Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur. Credit: Twitter/@ANI
Tribal minister Ram Lal Markanda reportedly said the implementation would be undertaken in a mission mode. He claimed that 17,500 Forest Rights Committees have been created at the local level and till September 30, 1440 proposals have been approved, under which around 660 hectares of land have been diverted to build schools, hospitals, anganwadis and roads.
Manshi Asher of Himdhara Collective recently pointed out that various forces have connived to create the image of forest dwellers as ‘encroachers’.
Pastoral rights
Activists working among marginalised pastoral communities also raised some very important issues where interventions are required. Pawna Kumari of Bara Bhangal related how revenue department officials do not go to the remote villages to certify loss of cattle heads and other losses. Her village is located 70 km from the road head and it takes three days on foot to reach there.
Also read: It’s Time Himachal Owned Up to Its Caste Problem
“Even a single buffalo or sheep is precious for the pastoral community but getting a Patwari to certify its demise is a big task. We have been fighting battles over the last two decades for survival as we face frequent threats of eviction whenever the government declares an area as a national park or sanctuary for tourist activity that has a lopsided impact,” she said.
Another activist, Akshay Jasrotia said that pastoral communities cannot be deprived of seasonal grazing grounds. “These communities have lived in complete harmony with nature over a long time. Even the British recognised these rights when they established the forest department. When the community is deprived of one grazing ground the pressure on others increases automatically,” he said.
Unfortunately, in Himachal Pradesh, the symbolism of cow politics seems set to override the interests of communities that raise and care for cattle, at least until the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Rajeev Khanna has been a reporter for the last 23 years, with a special interest in Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat politics, and has worked in print, radio, TV and online media