Mahuva's Mahatma

Vijaysinh Parmar | TNN
Bihar’s former chief minister Lalu Prashad ate up all the cattle fodder, but Gujarat chief ministra Narendra Modi ate up the entire land meant for fodder.” This harshly worded pamphlet was distributed at a Garib Kalyan Mela in Rajula that Modi was to attend two years ago. It was distributed by one of the agitators protesting against the proposed Nirma’s cement plant in Mahuva.
When Dr Kanubhai Kalsaria, a three-time Mahuva BJP MLA and the spearhead of the agitation, came to know about the pamphlet, he asked his supports not to do so and went on a two-day fast to atone for the act. “The anger was justified, but the expression was wrong. We are protesting against the state government’s policy and not against any individual,” Kalsaria told the protesters.
Gandhian-style fasting is not new for Kalsaria given that he is always walking in the Mahatma’s footsteps. When he decided to lead the farmer agitation against the cement plant two-and-a-half-years ago, he made it clear the tools would be truth and non-violence.
And just as Gandhi never returned to Sabarmati Ashram after starting the Dandi march in 1930, Kalasaria has not slept in his bed at home in Mahuva since January. His new home is a temporary shelter opposite the Nirma site.
Kalsaria, 57, is a practising surgeon who has been running a charitable hospital for the poor for the last 25 years in Mahuva. He has used the Gandhian values of t r u s t e e - ship, fasting and n o n - v i o - lence in both his public and private life. His hospital, for instance, has no special wards. There are no donation plaques on the hospital’s walls either. “We are here to provide lowcoast health-care. There are many hospitals for those who can afford special wards. We treat all patients equally, irrespective of their caste, religion and economic status,” he always tells his staff.
Because of his values, Kalsaria had become extremely popular in the region even as the BJP was growing in prominence in the 1990s. The party was looking for a candidate who could defeat Congress strongman Chhabildas Mehta in Mahuva in the 1998 assembly election, and zeroed in on Kalsaria. The doctor won by a large margin. He learnt about Gandhi’s trusteeship p r i n c i p l e from Dr Vasant Parikh of Vadnagar and late Gandhian Dr Dwarkadas Joshi. “I always wanted to work for the poor, but my ideas took shape when I worked under these two men. Kalsaria then established the Sadbhavna Trust
hospital in Mahuva on those principles.
Interestingly, Modi too considers Parikh, a resident of the chief minister’s hometown of Vadnagar in north Gujarat, his guru. Kalsaria began his career in 1982 in Parikh’s hospital which also works for the poor. Pravin Kathiriya, a close aid of Kalsaria, says, “The 1998 assembly election against Chhabildas Mehta was a tough one. On voting day, Kalsaria’s supporters found out that Congress workers had indulged in bogus voting and they did the same. When Kalsaria found out about this, he said he would rather lose than win through wrong means. He went on a two-day fast. No wonder many in the BJP believed he would not survive in politics.” When he was contesting his third assembly election in 2007, the only assets he declared were Rs 25,000 cash in his bank account and agricultural land worth Rs 95,000 in Vaghnagar village. “In 1999 his eldest daughter Sunita, who was studying at Cept University in Ahmedabad, was selected for an exchange programme in the US. But her father did not have enough money in his bank account for a US visa. Kalsaria’s friends credited some money into his account so that Sunita could go to the US,” says one of his aides.
The MLA takes only that much salary from his trust as needed for his family’s survival. He takes no MLA allowance from the government either. “People stand by him because he has stood by people all his life,” says one of his supporters.

Her father’s daughter
Dhruti, Dr Kanubhai Kalsaria’s youngest daughter, got admission to the Surendranagar Medical College in the OBC quota in 2001. But her father wanted a more needy student to get the seat. The girl backed her father’s decision even when it meant a much harder life for her. She studied for three years, got admission to the Kesar Sal medical college and completed her internship in 2010. “He believes everything would turn in your favour if you live for others,” says Dhruti.

National award for groundwater recharge campaigner

Vijaysinh Parmar/TNN/RAJKOT: Shamjibhai Antala, a resident of Dhoraji town, was recently honoured with the 'National Ground Water Augmentation Award' in the individual category by the Union ministry of water resources.

Antala (74) has been actively involved in water resource conservation and the movement to recharge ground water in Saurashtra for the past 25 years. He had to quit farming in the arid Saurashtra region due frequent and worked in various fields for survival. Since the last 25 years he has been tirelessly visiting villages, colleges and educational institutions across the state to spread awareness about the dire ground water scenario in the state and the need to recharge ground water using traditional methods.

Antala, who is a writer despite never having been to school, began his ground water recharge movement in the 1990s when it was evident that the water table had gone down rapidly. "The situation will soon become serious. We need to adopt simple recharge techniques and teach every farmer to use them,'' he said.

According to him, Saurashtra has been drought prone for many years and that had forced people to take up other vocations. It was a matter of life and death for them and people themselves started the water conservation movement, recounts Antala.

"But over the last five years, the people's movement has slowed down, which is a dangerous thing. The rains have been good but one drought can be devastating for the region if people stop ground water conservation,'' Antala warns.

Interestingly, Antala never started any organization. "Now, I want to take up another mission to clean and revive the rivers in the state. We have to conserve and protect our natural resources which are important resources for millions of people's livelihood,'' Antala says.

Antala hit the headlines when he took up the 'red water' issue in Dhoraji town, 70 km from Rajkot, and fought it for 15 years in the Gujarat High Court. Industrial units making sarees were releasing effluents into Bhadar river, the only source of drinking water of Dhoraji. He won the case.

Ironically, a man who brought smiles on the faces of many in the drought prone region is yet to get potable water for his hometown, Dhoraji. "I made several representations to the government about the poor quality of water in our town but no one has taken any steps so far,'' Antala said.