THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
RAHUL TRIPATHI
“Madame, may I have your email id? Or we can send the invite by WhatsApp in the meanwhile” was a message that I wrote on Dr Mridula’s Sinha’s number at 1.40 p.m. yesterday, wanting to send her an invite for a pre Constitution Day event we had requested to be part of in Siddharth University, Eastern UP on 25th of this month. There was no reply till the evening, which was surprising as we had been frequently discussing about her proposed book on her stint as Goa’s Governor, which was almost complete and she would normally not take so long to respond. By the evening came the news that she is no more. The State of Goa certainly shall have an official mourning. It is a personal loss for me, as a citizen and as a teacher of political science.
When I was given the responsibility of discussing a certain idea on celebrating ‘Indian Constitution’ that Madame Governor had three years back, I had my reservations. Hon’ble Governors are known to call you, talk for half an hour in monologue and leave the rest to be followed by their officers. But this meeting was different. Over a meeting that lasted for two hours, one saw a stateswoman, genuinely concerned that the magnificent document called Indian Constitution is actually a people’s document and needs to be taken to the people in a language that they understand, in a manner that makes it easy for them to realize the power it bestows on people. And then began ‘Samvidhan aur Hum’ (We and the Constitution) to be steered by Department of Political Science, Goa University, ably assisted by the two law colleges and half a dozen government departments in Goa.
For the entire month that would take to prepare for the event, which would culminate in a week-long celebration ending with the Republic Day, our department would become a war room, with students coordinating various tasks, including calling up MLAs under due authorization by Department to check their availability and formally send an invite. One MLA during one such query became angry at a student not following protocol and calling him directly and the student almost broke down. Protest letter was duly drafted and copy sent to the Governor. At the inaugural function that followed a couple of days when I sat next to her, she whispered in my ears “you did the right thing!”
“We and the Constitution” became one of the flagship programmes of the Raj Bhawan Goa, so well coordinated with her remarkable Secretary Rupesh Thakur and his team that Madam was proud to talk about it in every Governor’s meeting that would be held in Delhi. With the tremendous record she earlier had of working for women and her ideas being incorporated in social welfare schemes of various state governments, she was very keen that, the Goa event should become a national template. Manohar Parrikar, our late Chief Minister, during his one of the last public appearances before he was diagnosed with cancer at the valedictory of Constitution week 2019, was so impressed with the programme, that he said it should be celebrated during the entire year rather than just a week!
‘Pandeyji, we have to put our programme in a mission mode, “she would often say, and I would promptly remind her that I am Tripathi, not Pandey. “ So what, they all are the same she would reply with her characteristic humour, despite my protests that they are not. The depth of her scholarship and intensity spread to every other programme she became associated with, whether it was ‘Gandhi Samagra’ marking 150th year celebrations titled Jaano Gandhi Maano Gandhi (Know Gandhi, Follow Gandhi) or personally directing the village women at Guri Paroda, the village adopted by our Department under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, which incidentally became the first village she visited under UBA.
Mridula Sinha therefore leaves an indelible legacy in the hearts and minds of those who were closely associated with her, but also for the generation that follows. Her five vows, that show would often ask the graduating students to take during convocation, often created controversies in the liberal circles, but she herself was an enlightened liberal at heart. Even as I waited for her call, I wish the final call had come a lot later.
(The writer teaches at Department of Political Science, Goa University.
