“CHANGE WE NEED”......

Sandip C Jain

Barack Obama’s victory in the just concluded American election was a spectualar one, to say the least. The election itself was a unique one with, first a women being pitted against a black man and then the black man against a maverick. That, now for the first time, a Black man will occupy the White House, in what is the oldest democracy in the world, is in itself an irony. More than Obama, the man himself, my opinion is that his election campaign was more responsible for the stunning defeat that he handed McCain and Republicans. Media and Political analysts speak of this American Election more as a defeat for President Bush and his policies rather than an endorsement of Obama and his Policies. “CHANGE WE NEED” was the main campaign slogan that the spin-doctors of “Team Obama” conjured up and it worked wonders – it more than just said that the Americans were fed up with President Bush and his half baked ideas and ill conceived policies – it also said that in an democracy, the common man was the actual king – it is the “aam janta” which decides who it wants as its leader. The American elections this year once again reaffirmed the fact that however powerful, strong, charismatic or smart any political leader may be, he will have his nose rubbed violently against the ground, if he rubbes the “aam janta” the wrong way.
This is precisely what happened here in the Darjeeling Hill too – the people after being rubbed the wrong way for twenty -one long years finally realized that they needed a change – the “Change we Need” swept in the new political outfit, GJMM, and in the process the once all powerful GNLF, which dominated every aspect of our lives, from Politics to Religion to Football to Culture to Business, faded into obscurity. With the GNLF in its heydays, the common man in the Hills perpetually had a feeling of being watched over – a feeling of suffocation and a certain amount of fear seemed omnipresent – A change was needed and the public wanted to break free and so when the GJMM come along promising change- everybody in the Hills jumped in to support the newly formed party.

A year and two months have passed since that day when the all green flag of the GNLF was so decisively uprooted from the Hills to be replaced by the Yellow, Green & White flag of the GJMM. But the time has now come to contemplate whether or not the “change” that was promised has actually materialized or whether in the name of change only the colours of the flag has changed. The change that one had asked for was better governance, better infrastructures, freedom from fear, solutions to our water & traffic problems, better opportunities for our youths, a corruption less society, no GT in the name of Party Funds – The ending of another calendar year forces us to ponder if the change we asked for has really come. It may be too early to make an assessment of the full facts – After all the new party has only been in the helm of affairs for a little more than just a year and probably still to come to terms with the sudden taste of power, but then the thinking process must start now and a very rough trail balance has to be made now to assess if we are in the right direction. Of course, one area where Mr. Bimal Gurung and the GJMM has been very successful and has passed with cent percent marks is that they have managed to keep the agitation for a separate state a non-violent and a very peaceful one. Every single person living in the Darjeeling Hills wants a separate state – by whatever name it may be – several generations in the Hills have dreamt of it – but definitely our dream should not be at the cost of even a single human life. The GJMM has to be credited for keeping at bay, those violent instincts, that any agitation, any where in the world, has somewhere within itself.
Coming back to the American elections, one has to really appreciate how civil the Yankees behaved after the election results were declared. Obama was extremely quite in thanking McCain and his team –McCain on his part was so gracious in defeat. There was no torching of houses, smashing of vehicles or banishments.

We may be the largest democracy in the world but seems it will take us many many ages before we catch up with the oldest democracy in the world.

This is the “Change we actually Need” -

Speaking of having a fractured Political class where Political rivalry is taken so literally that it inevitably ends up becoming a personal rivalry, one very absurd and shocking incident come to my mind instantly- R. Moktan, the highly informed author of “ Darjeeling-Sikkim Compendium of Documents” and the President of the Sikkim National Front, during the course of a TV interview, which incidentally I was conducting, said before a stunned audience that during the early 1970’s, a son in Darjeeling did not attend his fathers funeral just for the simple fact that they belonged to different Political parties. On the other hand, when Bikash Ghose, the late Mayor of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation expired a few weeks back, political leaders from across the political spectrum paid homage to the departed soul.
While on the subject of Bikash Ghose, let me just point out one small fact- The late Mayor was a Bangladeshi by birth. He spent his initial years in Bangladesh and only in 1952 did he and his family cross over to India. Later in life he rose fast in the party hierarchy to become Siliguri’s “ First Person”. So is it not so hypocritical of them to call us “outsiders” despite we being in this part of the world since several generations??? The “Reds” sure need some lessons on history….
This is the “Change they actually Need”…..