Babu Ji was born on 10th august 1932, to
late Sh. Jaggu Ram & Smt Matyan Devi; both of whom were deeply religious
souls, having deep faith in Sant Mat as expounded by Saints of Radha Soami
Satsang Beas .Village Sarore is largely in-habited by the followers of Radha
Soami Satsang, following strict norms of Sant Mat. This village like any other
rural villages has earned distinction to be the birth place of Baba Sant Rasila
Ram Ji the present Head of Baba Teja Singh Radha Soami Ashram Saidpur Distt
Amritsar (Punjab) Babu Ji was brought up in an
atmosphere full of spirituality, so he followed and practised principle of
"Love all, hate none". Babu Ji from his early school days was hard -
working, punctual, brilliant but poised boy. He had to travel a distance of
over 4 miles to go to his school bare-footed. But poverty and vagaries of
weather could not deter him from his determination to get educated. During
those days education was rare, particularly for rural Dalits, as only a few
lucky were privileged to go to schools, schools being only a few in number. His will to succeed brought laurel when he
passed his M.A. LL.B degrees with flying colures. Parmanand was perhaps, one of the first Dalits from J&K state to
acquire such higher qualifications before 1958. He also appeared in the State
Civil Services Examination1960, earning 9th position. During his
student life, he was taking active part in politics particularly as a student
leader. He was always ready to help and guide the needy students. His efforts
earned scholarships to many students from his area & community and a hostel
wing was added to GGM Sc. College Jammu Hostel exclusively for the Dalit
students. He was inclined from the very beginning to politics. His strong will
to become a public representative, won him his maiden elections from
Ramgarh (reserved) constituency in 1962, general election. This was his first
leap towards his chosen goal. He continued to win elections till 1990. He had
the proud privilege to serve as Minister for various departments including
transport, Local Bodies and Local Self Government, Housing, Power and Finance.
Babu Ji Served as Speaker of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly when
internationally known Sher-e Kashmir sheikh Mohd. Abdulla was the Chief Minister. Due
his qualities of head and heart Babu Ji
was appointed as Governor and he took the oath for the
same on 19th July 2000 in the Haryana Raj Bhawan
Chandigarh
on 6th May 1962 Babu ji got
married to Sudesh Kumari, daughter of Lala
Munshi Ram of Jalandhar town of Punjab Lala Munshiram was a well to do sports
businessman, who had migrated from Sailkot (Now
in Pakistan ) to India during 1947 turmoil. Babu Ji was blessed with two
equally brilliant sons.
Babu Ji served on
different political and social organizations viz. Organizer Depressed Classes
league, Founding President of J&K unit of Bhartiya Dalit Sahitya Akademi,
Indian National Congress, the National Conference and Bhartiya Janta Party etc.
He served as director to various banks. He had close contacts with Babu
Jagjivan Ram, Sher-e Kashmir sheikh Mohd. Abdulla, Dr K.R. Narayan and Giani
zail Singh both Presidents of India,
Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, General K.V. Krishna Rao ( Retd) ,G.C. Sexsena, Dr.
Farooq Abdulla Dr. Karan Singh and a host of other Indian leaders, administrators,
jurists, religious heads of different religions etc.
Babu Ji started fortnightly news paper
“The Voice of the Depressed”. He
wrote editorials which were acclaimed as best of his times. While launching the
voice of the Depressed Babu Ji wrote “The
voice of the Depressed will give coverage to programmes and schemes floated for
the benefit of people living below poverty line, welfare of Sc’s/ST’s, OBC,
small farmers, village artisans, landless, shelter less, unemployed, and living
in bad pockets. It shall work as watch dog to proper and full utilization of
funds earmarked for poverty alleviation, provision of employment and failures
of administration. The paper shall try to provide feed up of ground work and
ground realities so that the authorities can take cognizance and apply
corrective measures”.
Only
three points will do:-
While writing in
The Voice of the Depressed dated December15th, 1997, he elaborately dealt with
the developmental activities being carried on in India. He mentioned about the various
development programmers being carried by the Governmental agencies for the
intended benefits of the deprived and neglected section of the Indian Society.
Starting with the launching of Community Development
Programme (CDP) on 2nd October,1952 the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi,
Babu Ji counted almost all welfare programs launched till 1997. He narrated
that Indra Gandhi launched twenty Point Programme to remove poverty and improve the economic lot of the
common man. Indra Awas Yoj( IAY) in1983 and Jawahar Rozgar Yojna ( JRY) with great fanfare.
This was followed by Fifteen Point Programme welfare of the minorities formulated in May1983 and launched subsequently by Rajiv
Gandhi and V.P Singh. Then P.V. Narsimha Rao launched from Red Fort Social Security Schemes and Mid day Meals. When H.D. Devgwda held the Government of India reigns, he
decided to implement Common minimum
Programme consisting of 11 Points. He also announced
provision of the rations at half the rates to the families living
below the poverty line. Babu Ji further counted
other programmes launched like Panchayati
Raj Institutions, Hill Area Development Programme, Small farmers Development agency, Marginal Farmers
and Agriculture Labourers Programme, Draught Prone area Programme,Deseret
Development Programme, Applied Nutrition Programme, Land Reforms , Tribal Area
Development Programme, Pilot Intensive Rural Employment ProjectIntegrated Rural
Development Programme, National Ex. Rural Employment Programme, Training for
Self Employment Of Rural Youth, Development of Women and Children in Rural
Areas, National Social Assistance Programme, Intensive Jawahar Rozgar Yojna,
Million Well Scheme, Integrated Waste Land Development Project, Employment
Gaurantee Scheme, Revamped Public Distribution System.
While commenting on the
achievement of the set goals through these various programmes, Babu Ji expressed” But unfortunately all these
programmes and schemes have failed to remove poverty,
illiteracy,unemployment,hungerand disease, and the general view is that about
70 crores of the Indians are still suffering from economic slavery and are
denied proper education, proper food and clothing and reasonable
shelter.-------------------- none of the twenty points, fifteen points, eleven
points Programmes have removed the poverty and the common man is not in a
position to get even basic amenities of life much less true independence from
hunger, shelter and unemployment.”. Babu
Ji continued to further write in his paper “ The funds allocated for these programmes
and schemes are misused for want of impartial identification of the real
beneficiaries at the village level and major part of the these allotments is
shared by various agencies connected with the preparation and implementation of
these programmes and schemes. Only 20% money has reached the real
beneficiaries and the rest is pocketed by the government machinery,
banks/financial institutions and contractors/ favorites of the political bosses
in power”. Babu Ji in his write up gave thought to the causes of failure of
these programmes and schemes. The multiplicity of schemes by creating various layers of execution
often complicates the execution by making the system cumbersome. The same
invariably creates problems during the execution of schemes. The number of such schemes being directly supervised
or implemented through the office of the District Magistrate (DM) or the
panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) wherein DM has significant role in ensuring
proper implementation of these schemes is endless. This single handed supervision it self over
loads the DM’s work load. The DM’s remain involved in the law and order
problems and host of other functions assigned to them, so the implementation
of welfare and development schemes suffer. He wrote in detail in the same columns “ The lack of seriousness by political leaders and bureaucrats charged with the implementation of these programmes and schemes shows that these were meant only to boost the image of the men in authority rather than bettering the lot of the deprived, exploited and unprivileged population of India.. The talk of removing poverty through these points and growth rate has failed to rid the vast majority from hunger, disease, unemployment and poverty. He said. if it has not happened in fifty years, another fifty years may not also solve these problems. It is a common knowledge that Judging the futility of slogans raised and promised made during the launch of every new Programme and scheme, which ultimately failed to achieve the desired goals, he clearly mentioned only three points Programmes and gave the key to achieve the welfare goals for the deprived, neglected, diseased, illiterate, poverty ridden Indian population from the mess. He suggested these three points as
1)
Education to all by the end of this century (which has
already lapsed) with one syllabus for all irrespective of caste, creed or
religion and one rate of school fees for both public and private schools.
2)
Land and House to
the landless in rural areas.
3)
Job to jobless
Babu Parmanand Ji
also gave some guide lines for the success of these points stressing the need
to show professionalism by persons and
agencies engaged in implementation of schemes and programmes in dealing with
the problems of the masses which is ultimate problem of prosperity and wellbeing of India. He advises
to the politicians and officers to be true to the salt and prove by actions
true to the sacred oath to work for the wellbeing of all irrespective of caste,
creed, sex, religion, region of the beneficiaries. Babu Ji further wrote in his article “The poor man
has survived by dint of his physical labour and if he is equipped with
knowledge and means, he will improve his condition on his own. Merit is no
body’s monopoly and if equal opportunities of education are provided to all,
every body shall know his merit. He continued and wrote saying if a student of
Jehanabad District in Bihar and Kalhandi Distt in Orissa ( Condition of Jammu and Kashmir Rural area schools is no
better) to compete with a student of Covent School in Delhi or Bombay( Mumbai) is
a shear mockery and joke with the poor man apart from being inhuman and tyrant
“. Babu Parmanand wrote that to ensure the dignity of an individual in a caste
ridden society of rural India
is a moot point. He suggested that to achieve the dignified life style of an
Indian in the rural area, he needs to be given a minimum quantum of land
depending upon the fertility of land in each state. This should be done through
legislation or budgetary provisions for the purchase of the land or persuasion
of landlords. If not done at the earliest, nation should be prepared to hear
more tragedies like Jehanabad in Bihar. One
cannot absolve always under the cover of conspiracy. Babu Parmanand wrote that
the main hurdles in attainment of dignity and prosperity to lacs of Indian poor
are:
1.
Lack of education
2.
Lack of means of production ( and land is the
mainstay in rural India).
3.
Lack of Job.
While winding up
the article dated December15th, 1997, Babu Ji wrote “Unless and until, a family
is recognized as a unit of development in India, it will be impossible to
increase his income and make him self
reliant and truly independent”.
The above said
commentary of Babu Parmanand on the half hearted efforts initiated for the
poverty elimination can neither succeed nor have so far succeeded as the
required will, sincerity, commitment and professionalism of executors is
lacking. One can refer to the warning given by Dr Ambedkar while winding up
debate on adopting of the Indian Constitution. He has said that the quality of
the Constitution of a country is governed by the quality and commitments of
those who are to get it implemented. If the persons turn out be good even a bad
constitution shall prove good and if the quality of the persons (politicians,
administrators, policy planners included) happens to be bad even a very good
constitution shall turn out to be bad. In India administration is manned by
majority persons who are more committed to their respective projected religions than to the country. They
are pro status quo which goes against the spirit of Democratic governance. The
sooner we change this mind set the better it shall for the bright future of India.
Mahatma Gandhi has said “India
lives in Villages” realizing that villages are mine houses for supply of cheap
laborers and workers necessary for prosperous future of India. But his Political
descendents under the intoxication of political power visited village folks
during elections only to seek their vote blessings and to forget them there
after till next elections. Even communists and other political parties under
the control of vested interests including money minded upper castes did only lip
service to the poor and downtrodden. Dr Ambedkar realized Indian Labour
potentialities and so said in December, 1942 while
writing his broadcast speech for AIR
Bombay “The
country needs a lead and the question is who can give this lead. I venture to
say that labourer is capable of giving to the country lead it needs-----“.( Dr Ambedkar writings and speeches vol 10, jacket writing)
Babu Ji left his
mortal frame after a year long ailing on 24 th April 2008 leaving
behind in tears his lacs of workers, sympathizers, two equally brilliant sons,
four grand children and his wife. The best tributes to Babu Parmanand a Dogra
Rattan is to continue his crusade against the exploitation and deprivation of
the poor and downtrodden millions of this great country by providing them equal
opportunities and not alms of mercy. Treat them as equal citizens which are
possible only by getting implemented with open fair mind all welfare rules and
schemes framed for them.
This author
had association with Babu Parmanand for five decades.
Dated 14-09-2014 Words:-2330
Er. H.R.Phonsa
