Honest Citizens vs Divine Rulers

Divya Mittal

When 42-year-old Divya Mittal resigned from Indian Administrative Service yesterday, India got yet another case study on the venality of its politicians.

Ms Mittal didn’t blame anyone for her resignation. Instead she acknowledged the affection she received from the poor people whose welfare was her chief concern. In her farewell note on X, she wrote, “Today my eyes are moist with gratitude. Just one scene lingers in them. That elderly mother from the hill of Lahuria Dah (in UP), who said nothing upon seeing water reach her village for the first time, but with trembling hands touched my head and gave her blessings. The position may be left behind today, but that touch will never leave me in this lifetime.” [I’ve changed the spelling of the place to what’s more commonly accepted version.]

You should know the story of both Lahuria Dah and Divya Mittal to realise the intensity of the evil that lurks behind the country’s sociopolitical reality.

Lahuria Dah is a small hilltop village in Uttar Pradesh, the most politically vibrant state in the country with a Yogi as its chief minister. Perched on a rocky, semi-arid terrain, the village was a victim to a dreadful topography. Groundwater was out of reach, wells dried up every summer, and residents – mostly Dalits – were forced to survive on a meagre rationed quota of 15 litres of water per person a day, delivered by irregular government tankers.

The place was branded “tanker village” and was shunned by others. For 76 years after India’s Independence, systemic neglect and bureaucratic inertia kept Lahuria Dah in perpetual crisis. Then came Divya Mittal as the District Magistrate of the place. And everything changed for the village. And also for Ms Mittal.

The first thing Mittal learnt was that Lahuria’s water crisis wasn’t just a natural disaster: it was a human-created one. Politicians and the tanker business people conspired together to keep water away from the village.

When Ms Mittal came into the scene in late 2022, one of the first things she did was to get pipelines routed uphill and instal a dedicated pumping framework. A miracle unfolded in the village in just nine months. The women shed tears of relief; they didn’t have to carry water from long distance or queue up endlessly for water. They just turned a tap. It was a triumph of engineering and one woman’s commitment.

That woman was hounded, however, after that. That is the typical India.

The local MLA and his cronies were not quite chuffed. First of all, the MLA was not invited to the inauguration of the water supply project. Secondly, the tanker business collapsed. Thirdly, Dalits were benefiting.

Get ready for a shock, dear reader.

Divya Mittal was immediately transferred. And the water supply system was vandalised. The taps went dry. Just days after celebrating their independence from water scarcity, the poor residents of Lahuria Dah were plunged right back into staring at empty buckets and waiting for tractor-driven tankers.

Later, however, the water supply system was restored. But not Divya Mittal’s faith in the system. She quit. The reason she gives is that she wants to focus on her family. Well, the country’s loss will be her family’s gain. Let that be.

On the one side we have professedly religious people taking care of our country almost everywhere: a Prime Minister who claims to be an avatar of God Vishnu and chief ministers like Yogi Adityanath with much divine aura though understandably lesser than that of the Avatar. But when honest people like Divya Mittal have to move out of their realms, we the ordinary citizens are left baffled.