Obscure Indians!
Asim Sarode, Jagdeep Chhokar, C K Anil & Ratn Sanjay and Manju Rajpal.
Don’t blame yourself if you haven’t heard of them. Even I hadn’t till today morning. But these are the people who unlike others are working relentlessly to make India what Nehru and Gandhi dreamt of without caring for an iota of recognition because they aren’t doing something out of the way. All they do is do what their occupational duties call for. You may say what special do they do if they perform their duties - they do it with a zeal not known to most of us, including me.
Asim Sarode, a lawyer works for justice to jail inmates especially those who have been implicated for wrongs done by someone more powerfull and better connected. He has been instrumental in release of more than a few people after final verdict has been pronounced. And this is not an easy job as the people implicated are poor and could not fight their cases forget appealing for their innocence and had therefore resigned to their fate. So in effect, Asim Sarode changes fate, for better.
Jagdeep Chhokar, an ex-Dean of IIM Ahmedabad has proved to be a nuisance for politicians by ensuring that they don’t bypass the Supreme Court’s judgements especially in regard to their criminal background. Much to his efforts the MPs were not able to get through with their plans to obviate the SC ruling on people filing nominations to declare their assets, criminal records. Presently he is trying to do an almost impossible task of getting internal democracy among political parties mandatory by way of internal elections among the party members for various posts within the party.
C K Anil and Ratn Sanjay, District Majistrate and SP respectively in Siwan (Bihar). They have been intrumental in giving the local populace respite from living under the will of Md. Shahabuddin, the don-turned MP. More so given the fact that anyone who tried to do this got transferred with not a hair of Shahabuddin being ruffled. The duo have successfully managed to nail the don with resolute planned & patient action which has bore fruits in form of freedom for the people of the district. They are the mini-Gandhis of Siwan.
And now Manju Rajpal the crowning glory in this list of neo-Indians. She has pioneered the NREG (National Rural Employment Guarantee) scheme in her district of Dungarpur where she is the Distrcit Collector. Nowhere else has the scheme which was launched with much fanfare by the PM and was mocked and looked with skepticism by all has been successful to this extent. I am sure even the PM would be astonished to see the success of the scheme in her area. Using very down-to-earth methods, like sending invites for registration for the scheme alongwith yellow rice which is a traditional form of invitation that makes attendance mandatory she has been able to rope in large number of poor people under the scheme enabling them to take benefits. Rare case of the welfare scheme really percolating down to where it is actually targetted.
These Indians restore my faith in India and shake me up to do something meaningful. They will be my inspiration for a lifetime.
