My pleasure to be at the Punjab Raj Bhawan at Chandigah

 

My pleasure to be at the Punjab Raj Bhawan at Chandigah

During the course of my functional duties in the IFS and Ministry of External Affairs, I have had several opportunities to be at the first

house of India – Rashtrapati Bhawan at New Delhi since 1974 till my retirement in 2010 and even thereafter with regard to some of my social and public activities. But I did not have an opportunity to see and visit Punjab Raj Bhawan at Chandigarh till November 17, 2021. The occasion was a solemn function to release the Punjabi edition of the book “Babasaheb Dr. Ambedkar: Jiwan Te Chintan” – a collection of articles written by some prominent personalities and compiled by Hitesh Shanker for the RSS mouthpiece the Panchjanya and translated by Dr. Lakhvir Lezia and printed by Apna Sahatiya  of Jalandhar.  On approach and request by Scheduled Caste Ekta and Empowerment Forum (SCEEF) of which I happen to be the Chief Patron, Hon’ble Governor of Punjab Shri Banwarilal Purohit hosted the function and released the book in the presence of prominent members and office bearers and also the well wishers of the Forum namely; Dr. Varinder Garg, OSD to Hon’ble Minister of Health of India, Rajesh Bagha, a senior leader of the BJP, Former Chief Parliamentary Secretary of Punjab, Avinash Chander among others.

Prominent social and political activist Paramjit Kainth of National Scheduled Caste Alliance briefly explained the purpose and work of

Representatives of SCEEF honouring the Governor

SCEEF and welcomed the participants.  Prof. S.K. Deweshwer who supervised the translation work spoke and appreciated the initiative of Dr. Varinder Garg to get the book translated and released under the aegis of SCEEF and hoped that it would the wider audience in Punjab and beyond. Yet another eminent intellectual who also shared the dias, Padam Shri Dr. Digambar Behra, a distinguished professional in respiratory ailments also spoke and mentioned about the fact that Dr. Ambedkar was not only a constitutional expert or a jurist of caliber but also an economist and a social reformer of his own standing. He added that it will be wrong to consider him a dalit leader alone.  Hon’ble Governor Banwarilal Purohit, in his thoughtful remarks, was very candid in his assertions and termed Babasaheb Ambedkar as the ‘tallest man of the 20th century’ and referred the event of his

embracing Buddhism in October, 1956 at Diksha Bhoomi in Nagpur as a spiritual and cultural ‘Revolution’.  He also recalled Dr. Ambedkar’s warnings given in his last speech in the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949 and said that we were to ward off the dangers of losing our independence once again, as feared by the visionary leader, Babasaheb Ambedkar, if we gave preference to our political creed over the national interests. I and I think the discerning audience too was much impressed by the sagacity and vision of the Hon’ble Governor Banwarilal Purohit. As the Chief Patron of SCEEF, the honour of giving the Vote of Thanks fell on me. While thanking the Hon’ble Governor for hosting the function at the Raj

Bhawan and encouraging SCEEF and making a thought provoking speech at the occasion and also the dedicated participants and stake holders, I said that India was India, in the face of challenging times, only because of the Constitution of India so laboriously framed by our forefathers under the stewardship Babasaheb B.R. Ambedkar. It was a matter of great satisfaction that we could make good strides in the development and progress of India under the constitutional arrangements.  I further said that the legacy of Dr. Ambedkar was so potent that it had the potential of taking India to further heights in the years to come and added that, to my mind, there were three things which we must do. One, there was a greater need to ‘Recognize’ Ambedkar. It was a pity that the much needed recognition of the icon came late and that too half-heatedly. In this regard, I mentioned about the proposal to declare April 14, birthday of Babasaheb Ambedkar as International Day which was resting with the Government of India since June, 2015 and solicited support of Hon'ble Governor Banwarilal Purohit.  Second, it was time to ‘Reconcile’ the thinking of the mainstream of the society with that of the lofty vision of one of the greatest sons of India. There was an immediate and greater need to do that to bring about ‘Samrasta’ in the country and the society at large. Third, it would be good to ‘Appropriate” the legacy of Babasaheb by recognizing and reconciling and not by ‘Twisting’ for short term gains. It was all the more needed to meet the challenges of the future which could only be done with the cohesiveness in the society by pragmatic approaches and recited an Urdu couplet to make my point:

Zara Dekh Uss Ko Jo Kuch Ho Raha Hai, Hone Wala Hai
Dhara Kya Hai Bhala Ehd-e-Kuhan Ki Dastnon Mein

(Pay attention to what is happening and what is going to happen
What good there is in repeating the tales of the old glories?)

I concluded my brief remarks with Nazam of Allama Iqbal and wished to create an ideal society with the mantra of ‘Fraternity’:

Aa ġhairiyat ke parde ik baar phir uThā deñ

BichhḌoñ ko phir milā deñ naqsh-e-duī miTā deñ

Suunī paḌī huī hai muddat se dil kī bastī

Aa ik nayā shivāla is des meñ banā deñ

I also presented a copy of my book ‘The Bits and Pieces – Reminiscences and Reflections of a Novice’ to the Hon’ble Governor. A senior functionary of SCEEF, Advocate Mohit

Bhardwaj conducted the proceedings of the function ably as ‘Master of Ceremonies’. The function was concluded with the generous hospitality of the Raj Bhawan with hot snacks – Gulab Jamuns, Cocktail Smosas, Veg Cutlets served by the appropriately uniformed service staff of the ‘first house of the State of Punjab, the Raj Bhawan.