At times, it is in the most unexpected setting that the course of one’s life is charted. For senior Congress leader Hira Singh Bisht too, it was a stay in Dehradun’s jail with Gandhi-Nehru scion Sanjay Gandhi in the seventies that turned out to be his tryst with destiny. It was the time when Sanjay, the younger son of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had emerged as a powerful influence in Indian politics and was reckoned to succeed her as the head of the Indian National Congress but for his untimely death. Bisht then was an energetic working class youth, making a living in the audit department of Air Force and contented with his modest but secure future in a Government job.
And then happened the momentous meeting. In an exclusive interview with
The Pioneer, the former Minister and recently-elected Member of legislative Assembly went down the memory lane and recounted how his unusual rendezvous with Gandhi determined his fate. “These were the months before the 1977 General Elections. Sanjay Gandhi used to visit Dehradun in connection with a legal case against him and I along with my friends was a member of the district’s Youth Congress. So like the young men of my times, I would rally at the court compound to protest in Sanjay Gandhi’s support. On one such trip, we were around 1200 boys who gathered in court and I was leading the pack. Against my instructions some of the boys threatened to get unruly and the next thing I knew I was lodged in jail with Sanjay Gandhi” he recalled.
“During that time in prison, Sanjay Gandhi interacted with me like he were my peer and then suggested that I run for lok Sabha elections. I was very young, from a common middle-class family with no political experience or connections. I simply laughed it away. However, a few months later, Kamal Nath informed me Sanjay Gandhi and I were the only two youths to get Congress tickets for the general election. My first reaction was of disbelief.”
But it was as a teacher that Bisht had started his career working in a primary school to fund his M.A degree. He is highly qualified, holding two M.A degrees and an l. lB. On pointing out, he grinned and recounted how when he was a child, astrologers predicted that he would remain uneducated and he took it upon himself to prove them wrong. Now serving his third term as an MlA, he first got elected in 1984. The legislator is also an avid writer who keeps penning his ideology and observations. Currently, he is reflecting upon how India’s youth is fixated with becoming ‘overnight-billionaires’ losing sight of their responsibilities. He also lamented the lack of checks on haphazard mushrooming of private universities in Uttarakhand and the low quality and employability value of such education.
Wrapping up the conversation, Bisht outlined his other priorities- settling dues of `40crore to sugarcane farmers, strict enforcement of labour laws, ensuring that SIDCUl industries honour their obligation of employing 70percent workforce from among local youth, handling the problem of wild elephants destroying crops, promoting lal Tappad special economic zone to create job opportunities for local youth and implementing his development agenda by starting a new sports stadium, polytechnic, hospital and a huge water reservoir.