Readers are well aware who is Rahul Gandhi !
I am recalling one of my encounters with him in real life.
Rahul Gandhi visited a tribal-dominated village named
Abaadipura near Kala Aakhar in Kesla Blocka area of Hoshangabad district of
Madhya Pradesh on 27th.April, 2007. The itinerary included meeting
with the locally-active non-government organization (NGOs) and some local
resident families of that area in order to know the ground realities of tribal
areas.
I happened to be a part of the delegation of the NGOs there.
The VVIP entourage arrived in the dusky evening time way
behind the schedule and drove straight to the house of one Mr Sukh Nandan a
tribal . We were sitting under a mahua tree and the evening was humid. After
shaking hands and brief introduction, Rahul settled down for discussions with
the members of the NGOs. He listened to everyone in the first round of talks.
In the reply to the presentation he was interested to know the the
implementation of the Centrally-sponsored programmes like NREGP, Tribal
Development Plans, rural development schemes like Indira Awas Yojna,SGSY, etc.
I presented him a set of two video films on the kind of work
we were doing at that time and gave him a 12-point agenda upon which the future
work could be expedited in that area. I expressed my eagerness to work with any
future team he might form to work in the tribal areas. The then State President
of Congress Party Sri Suresh Pachory also accompanied him. The meeting lasted
for about forty minutes during which we had three rounds of discussions and
Rahul enjoyed three glasses of locally made mango shake ( aam-ka-panaa).
He particularly responded on the question as how the State governments were
manipulating the names and funds coming to them from the Central Government and
the benefits were ultimately not reaching the rural and tribal poor. He
promised to change this by involving the local active NGOs.
In the second lap of his journey, he went further on to a
hamlet named Aabaadipura near Shaktipura where a small group of
less than eighty persons were waiting for him.The house of Srmt Urmila wife of
Sri Devesh Kumre was selected for this meeting. The VVIPs sat down on a wooden
bed decked up for them and all the villagers were sitting on a carpet spread on
the ground. The discussion started with a brief introduction by Sri Suresh ji.
The evening had become dark and LPG lanterns were providing enough light so as
to see the faces of the VVIPs and the villagers gathered there. Rahul Gandhi’s
queries here related to the tribal way of life, the farming methods, the
availability of electricity, PDS Rations, fertilizers, roads, conveyance,
supporting level of incomes, education for children and wage labour from the
NREGPs. The participants replied to all his queries with patience. The local
officials were not encouraged to join this two-way discussions and only the
local villagers were asked to respond. Women who were trained by a local
international-level NGO were present in a majority. They were trying to convince
Rahul that poultry and mushroom growing had changed their lives. However, Rahul
did not seem to be satisfied by these income generating activities for the
tribal people who were given loans, marketing federations and technical inputs
on profit-sharing basis. During these discussions something unexpected came in
to the attention of Rahul Gandhi. He abruptly asked one Smt Asha from village
Shaktipura ,What did you say about planning to start rearing of emu ? where did
you se this bird? who told you about this ?” and before Asha bai could start
describing her encounter with emu, Rahul turned to Pachoriji and asked him ( in
Hindi ) ,”Yeh emu pakshi kya hota hai ? ( what is this Emu
bird ? ). I am surprised how these tribal
women know about it !!? ”. Pachoriji was also surprised with
this question but he responded patiently and said,” Emu is an
Ostrich like bird found probably in Australia, let us ask her where did she see
this ?”
Asha then explained how PREHARI NGO ( incidentally this NGO
was started by me and had been doing the rural development work now with local
NGO-Partners and the self-help groups ) had organized a field trip to an Emu rearing
Farm near Khandwa and how the local Banks are still not convinced that poor can
also rear Emu-pakshi !!
blog .....to be continued................
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