Shiv Kumar PADHA
These days some committed electronic and print media and the nation’s surveillance agencies have been unveiling the true faces of many of our politicians day in and day out. The covetousness and selfishness of our politicians and their links with the underworld, antinational, subversive and separatist forces, their nexus with the mafias, their involvement in the antinational activities and heinous crimes, their involvement in the country’s biggest multi crore rupees scams, their loyalties with enemy countries have degraded the prestige of our politicians to the lowest ebb of humanity. There is an infinite number of proverbs, definitions and our political leaders are addressed and defined with, like ‘Indian politicians are like double hood snakes where one cannot make out whether they are coming or going, ‘ politicians are sheer turn coats,’ politicians promise to make bridge where there is no river and dig well where there is no source of water, ‘do not believe police and politicians, the politicians always blow hot and cold with the same breath and the politicians always shed crocodile tears etc.’
The criminal behavior of majority of our honourable politicians have resulted in the breach of trust, faith and confidence of a common man in the politics where no person, with an iota of sense, will aspire to join the politics of the country at any cost. Nation has seen the kind of politicians during pre and post independence who were nationalists, patriots, honest to the backbone. They had an unshakable faith in the human values and were considered the apostles of tolerance, morality and truthfulness. The erosion of human, moral and nationalist values in our political system have brought the country on the cross roads where on the one hand these politicians have closed all the ways for the honest youth to join politics of the country and on the other there is no politician of the stature whom the future generations of the country can consider their ideal politician to imbibe and imitate the values of.
There has never been the dearth of the persons who, without any political post or assignment, have proved their worth in the field of politics, service of the mankind and for uplifting the needies and the down trodden without any selfish motive or gaining some political mileage. At the times when Tehsils of Basohli, Bani and Billawar were not only considered inaccessible but out of sight and out of mind also, Khushi Ram Padha, a son of poor village grocer came like an angel and proved a succour for the neglected population of these Tehsils who had been bearing the brunt of the atrocities inflicted upon by the non local MLAs who, instead of development, used these constituencies as their colonies. Khushi Ram Padha, hailing from a poor family always stood by the people of Bani and Basohli through thick and thin.
Pt. Khushi Ram Padha was a contemporary of Pt. Prem Nath Dogra, Rishi Kumar Koshal Tilak Raj Sharma, Badgotra Bhagwat Swaroop Th. Baldev Singh, Sheikh Abdul Rehman, Pt.Trilochan Dutt, Maj. Pyara Singh, Brig. Gansara Singh and many important personalities of his time. He was born in Dec. 1922 in a poor family at Basohli. He got education in a local Anglo Vernecular school upto middle standard.
Right from his early life he made service of the poor, needy, down trodden, development of the people living in the remotest corner of Bani, Basohli and Billawer, a motive of his life. He was a revolutionary by nature and always remained in the search of an occasion where he could prove a succour for the people. Being a revolutionary by nature he plunged into the State wide Praja Parishad agitation of 1953 for the abolition of permit system and for one Constitution, one flag and one Prime Minister ( Ek Nishan, Ek Pardhan aur Ek Vidhan ) throughout the country.
The State Police cracked upon the agitators and in order to escape from the police atrocities Khushi Ram Padha along with other agitators went underground.
He remained so at length for years. Lookout warrants were issued against him whereby he escaped every confrontation he had with the police. During the agitatation the business of his old father was destroyed and whole family came on the roads.
He remained always on guard of the innocent masses against the excesses and atrocities and corruption of the police, revenue, forest and the Block Development Department and saved them from their involvement in the fabricated cases by the police and other departments.
The incident of 1962 is worth mentioning here when his genius and inquisitive nature made him successful in unveiling the mischievous plans of National Conference before the country. After a thorough checking of the ballot boxes before the elections he noticed a concealed lever by which one could transfer the ballots from one box to other comfortably. The news spread like wild fire throughout the State and country.
Many assaults were made upon his life during his journey from Basohli to Jammu where he was to demonstrte the trick before the then PM and Sadr-e Riast of Jammu and Kashmir. He was awarded silver medals by the President of Akhil Bhartiya Jan Sangh in 1962-63 for his sincere and exemplary services for the party.
During late sixties the people of Bani and those living in the remote corners were faced with famine due to crop failure. Many people lost their lives due to starvation. In order to save the dyeing souls from starvation he spearheaded an agitation for ration for Bani. The agitation got good response from throughout the State. Khusi Ram Padha along with dozens of local workers was arrested and lodged in the Kot Bhalwal Jail where they were tortured by the police and were given poison in their meals which they luckily survived. He had many times confrontation with the local and district administration whenever they teased, framed fabricated and implantated cases for minting money from the innocent hilly people. Many times he was beaten before the public for no fault and was kept closed in the local jail but the daring soul never yielded befor the atrocities and the fabricated cases framed against him as a result of their revenge with him.
But it is regretted that the BJP unit of Jammu and Kasmir has totally forgotten the legendary veterans of the party and their families who spared no efforts to keep the flag of Praja Parishad, Jan Sangh and BJP high without gaining any personal benefits. The most capable, honest, dedicated and committed old workers have been lost somewhere in the crowd of the party organisation the foundation of which is based upon, favoritism, nepotism, Vanshvad, castism, money and muscle power.
No political party what so ever can afford to bypass and neglect the veteran politicians and their families because they are the true guiding spirits for the political parties to flourish otherwise the parties will have to pay heavy price for this neglect.
