A Window To Perceptive Journalism

Recalling Two Years
In ‘Footpath’ Varsity

S P Singh

Chandigarh

"It’s just not jobs we will be going back with, there’ll be lots of memories as well," a group of sacked panchayat secretaries muse, standing in front of the Sector 17 office of Rural Development and Panchayat director, enjoying the flavour of their hard-won victory.

This office, or rather the footpath outside it, will forever be etched into their collective memory, for it was their "near-permanent address," as one of them put it, for two years.

For two years, they waged their agitation from this address. And tomorrow when these 470 men walk up to Panchayat Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal to get their appointment letters, they will take along their memories.

Like victorious warriors returning home, they spent the day reliving their highs and lows. The shock of losing their jobs on a cold October 2001 morning, the agitation launched in December that year, the fast-unto-death when cops used to regularly swoop down on fasting men to haul them to hospital – memories flash fast.

Des Raj and Vishnu Parkash of the Pharag Panchayat Sakatar Union recalled with pride how Kuljinder Singh Nikka escaped from Sector 16 General Hospital and ran all the way to resume his fast in Sector 17.

"We swung between hope and despair as promises were made repeatedly and broken equally fast," recalls Kashmir Singh. Vishnu doesn’t trust anyone with his register in which he’s posted hundreds of clippings about the agitation, and the case file. "Nothing is more valuable than these files," he clutches the bunch more tightly.

Recruited during Beant Singh and H.S. Brar's regimes and sacked during Parkash Singh Badal’s they had been promised a job by many a Congress leader. When they threatened to disturb Badal’s rallies in Lambi, then Minister Nirmal Singh Kahlon dared them to do so. Provocation enough for them to swoop down on Kahlon’s village. "Sikander Singh, a sacked secretary, narrated such a moving tale of one Suba Singh who committed suicide after losing his job, that the huge gathering cried," said the secretaries, claiming credit for Kahlon’s defeat.

But they were forced to fight against the Amarinder government to get what they were promised, publicly and repeatedly. Success seemed to near when state Congress chief H.S. Hanspal offered them juice and a promise of jobs. But things didn’t move, and it was back to the footpath. In January, the police brutally lathicharged the protestors when they were marching towards the Assembly. Also on was their fight for survival. "Agitations need money and we had none. There were times when we did physical labour to eke out a living," said Baljinder Singh.

ADGP (Intelligence) S.S. Virk was throughout orchestrating a solution, but secretaries said that he and a principal secretary were trying to tie the issue with another batch of 909 sacked by the Amarinder government.

Vishnu’s eyes well up when he remembers comrades who died during the agitation. Rajinder from Mansa, who slept on the footpath for a year, died in an accident two months back.

Today, they don't forget to thank those who helped. It’s a long list, right from Sindhi Sweets, which gave them free power and water when the Panchayat Director denied it, Pushpinder Harpalpur of Teachers' Union and Swaran Singh Kalyan of the SC/BC Teachers' Union, who extended help throughout, he scooter-stand wallah who didn’t charge them, the news photographers who used to rush every time the cops tried to pull down their tents…

"We learnt about corruption, about politicians, about police, babus, and press-wallahs. We learnt how the system works, and how a few honest ones manage to survive in it," said Des Raj. "Footpath is a university."

He should know; he graduated well.■

November 17, 2003

See Also:
Travelling On Footpath Route, And Reaching Nowhere

Mr Fix-it Hanspal gets in a fix as sacked men swoop down upon his office

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