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The long and winding wait... .
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We rush past them almost unseeingly in our daily commuting routines. They have been there for years, awaiting justice with rocklike patience and determination. RANA A. SIDDIQUI meets these pavement dwellers of a different kind, activi sts sitting for years on dharna in various parts of the Capital... .
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Dharna as usual outside the UPSC building on Shahjahan Road in New Delhi. Photo: Sandeep Saxena.
JUSTICE DELAYED, is justice denied, said Gladstone but once you see people sitting on dharna for years outside the BJP Office on Ashoka Road, Jantar Mantar Building on Parliament Street or the UPSC office on Shahjahan Road, you will learn one thing: patience is the biggest virtue, whether it pays in the end or not!
Buffeted by hardships, these people reel out a harrowing narrative. Take the case of 45-year-old Urmila Varma, widowed mother of three young daughters and a son, a resident of Janakpuri, who has been sitting on dharma at Jantar Mantar since 1996. Urmila had bought three pieces of land from the Delhi Development Authority. On one she made a house in 1979 and rented it out to one Kishan, BJP's block president of Naraina in August 1982. The man allegedly tried grab the house by frightening and beating her. She was raped, her daughter kidnapped and sold at three different places from Delhi to Panipat. After nabbing and handing the culprits over three times to the police, she finally broke when her daughter was sent back eight years later, half-insane, raped and mother of three.
After repeated requests to all ministries, police and the court, she finally decided to sit on dharna till she is given her house back and employment to lead a normal life.
Then there is 75-year-old Shyamarao from Chinur, Maharashtra whose eight acres of land was grabbed by the land mafia. He went to Chanderpur Court there, wrote to the Prime Minister and President in vain. Hecame here in April this year. You can also find several primary to high school teachers from the coalmines of Jharkhand sitting here since 1993. They are paid a flat sum of Rs.2000 per month irrespective of seniority. "We are 5000 teachers from coalmines all over India who come here turn by turn. Why are we deprived when other officers and doctors etc. of coalmines are getting wage hikes?" asks B.K Singh, General Secretary of Koyla Khadaan Shikshak Morcha. Similarly, teachers from West Bengal Coal India who have not been paid salaries for the past eight years, are also sitting on dharna since November 2002.
Outside the BJP office, you will also find the family of Hanumat Sharan Gupta, consisting of a husband, a wife, their ten children and the aged parents of Gupta from Reeva, Madhya Pradesh, sitting here since April 1992. They had three shops, which were being demolished in the name of "navinikaran" during Sunder Lal Patwa's reign in MP. They also deposited one lakh rupees to the Government. "When new shops were made, we were neither given shops nor compensation. Each week we go to MP House, meet the CM. But to no avail," bemoans the mother.
An established businessman from Chandigarh, Naresh Chand Rattan Chand Dongaria was arrested for contempt of court in 1999 and left outside the UPSC office by police. His dharna for making English an optional instead of compulsory subject in the UPSC examination started by default. "Since I was not legally discharged, I can't leave. So I came here, started reading about laws that have multiple loopholes and initiated this movement three years ago." That's one side of the story. Interestingly, you might find many people at the dharna sites to share food and shelter with the activists. This segment consists of people coming from different parts of the country to seek employment in Delhi. And many are just gathered as a show of strength by the leader of a dharna!
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