In the 1980s Dharambir Gaba was hailed in the national press as a ‘lone crusader’ in politics. Separated from his family, Gaba came to Gurgaon during the partition of India in 1947, having travelled, as had so many others, on the roof of a train. Starting in a refugee camp, he built his life with not much to go on. He graduated from university and embarked on a series of entrepreneurial ventures, while simultaneously getting actively involved in public service. In 1982 he was elected Gurgaon representative in the Haryana State Assembly. Remarkably, he has been elected three more times since. In the last election of 2009 he lost to Sukhbir Kataria by a mere 2,140 votes, amidst widespread allegations against Kataria of vote fraud.
Gaba stands apart from other candidates in at least two respects. First, even after more than 35 years of public life, he is one of the very few politicians, not just in Haryana but in all of India, who remains untainted by any allegations of corruption. Second, he has not tried to establish any political dynasty; none from his family is involved in politics – by choice. His wife, Sarla Gaba, retired in 1999 after long service as a teacher in government schools. He and his wife encouraged their children to be independent and to succeed on their own merits. Their son and two daughters are all married. Of the three children and their spouses, four are professors with Ph.D. degrees - ranging from Decision Sciences and Economics to Organizational Behaviour and History. His son, Anil Gaba, is a professor at INSEAD, one of the top business schools in the world, and the author of a best-selling book called Dance with Chance. As a global expert in decision-making, Anil is sought after by multinationals and public institutions all over the world. One of Gaba’s daughters is an entrepreneur and interior designer, married to an Air India pilot. All this is certainly unique for an Indian politician’s family. Looking at this family, it should come as no surprise that one of Gaba’s passions is education. According to him, education is the best means for the people of India to realise their potential and assure the brightest of futures for their children. In Gurgaon he has upgraded many educational institutions, especially in the rural areas. He intends to continue this initiative, while also pushing for the much-needed improvement in Gurgaon colleges, along with centres for sports training.
One of Gaba’s core beliefs and values is the importance of women in Indian society. According to him, India can fulfill its destiny only if it succeeds in unleashing the potential of women. This again in reflected in his family. All the women in the family are strongly independent. His wife continued her education after marriage and was a teacher all her working life. His vision is to build two new girls’ colleges. In addition, he would like additional resources to be allocated for various women’s organisations that are active in women’s development in different spheres - from education and health to employment. Beyond this, his core values are about diversity and inclusiveness. Although conventionally labelled a Punjabi, Gaba, the person and MLA, has been equally accessible and empathetic to people of all religious and ethnic identities. Closer to home, one of his daughters is married to a Bengali and the other in the Aggarwal community, while his son is married to an Arora. He is perhaps the only candidate who can move between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Gurgaon with equal ease. He has been responsible for the building of several community centres for ‘Harijans’ and foresees the need for more cultural and social centres in all of Gurgaon. Infrastructure, he argues, has to be a critical priority. He has played a central role in getting Gurgaon upgraded to an ‘A Class’ city status with a municipal corporation, the setting up a water treatment plant, and the development of many villages. He was also instrumental in the regularisation of over fifty unauthorised colonies, to bring them under a more formal governance system. Having played an important part in the extension of the Delhi Metro to Gurgaon, Gaba would like to keep his focus on mass transportation. His vision for Gurgaon also encompasses: zero tolerance for power outages, robust waste management facilities, greener parks, free Wi-Fi zones, cycling trails along well-maintained and brightly-lit roads, and a strictly-monitored safe environment for the young and old, men and women alike. ‘His Gurgaon’ could be a model for other cities to emulate.
Even after crossing the age of 80 years, Dharambir Gaba, Congress candidate from Gurgaon is giving more than a good run for their money to the comparatively younger opponents in the Gurgaon Vidhan Sabha constituency, which he has served a record four times as an MLA. There is a spring to the step of this leader as he moves from one meeting to the other – addressing people and reminding them of the times when he had served them as their representative. His accessibility, and a ready willingness to meet people, is much appreciated. People say that this leadership trait did not change even when even he was a minister in the State; they could always reach out to him for getting their problems resolved. The Congress candidate says that his primary agenda would be to upgrade the infrastructure and civic services in the Constituency, apart from ensuring that women feel safe, there is better Integration of the rural and urban areas, the quality of schooling in villages improves, and health facilities are upgraded across Gurgaon. "I would like to remind the people that the canal-based water scheme for the City, the Expressway, and the Delhi Metro were planned and brought into Gurgaon during my tenure," says Gaba proudly, adding that he would now like to see the City being transformed into a truly global city. To ensure that the people of ‘old’ Gurgaon feel that they are an integral part of this City (especially as they are the ‘original’ inhabitants), Gaba proposes to extend the Delhi Metro to this part of the City also - as has been the persistent demand of its residents. "We also need to develop a good local bus service to connect all the parts of Gurgaon, extending especially to rural areas, so that people of all classes can afford to commute safely and in comfort," he asserts. The former Gurgaon MLA is also not happy with the working of the police department. He believes that the police-working needs to more in sync with the local needs and sympathetic to local society - rather than behaving like an outside agency and looking at everyone primarily with suspicion. Gaba says that the police must deliberate on the fact that, despite a police naka being set up in almost every second chowk of the City, the crime rate has not come down significantly. When asked about the rampant corruption and the domination of builders in Gurgaon during his Party's reign in the last decade, Gaba agrees that there have been some transgressions by the realtors, but asserts that he has a steely resolve to fight against corruption in any form. "I have never taken a bribe and I have never given a bribe. When private builders came to Gurgaon I was the MLA, and they asked me to act as an ‘inter mediary’. My stock reply to them was, “I am the representative of the people and wish to remain so”. The culture of corruption and the poor implementation of real estate projects is a major cause of concern for the Congress candidate, and he plans to take up the issue with earnestness. He would also like to vigorously take up the issue of the discrimination against Gurgaon, which has been rankling the hearts and minds of the people of this constituency. Gaba says that he has the stature, as well as the access to the Congress State leadership, which has repeatedly kept faith in him, to ensure that development and growth is improved in Gurgaon. "We have seen that the constituency has fallen behind, and unfortunately this does happen when a public representative does not focus on basics like infrastructure", he says. The current MLA is an Independent. Another important focus area for Gaba would be to ensure that the local youth are able to get jobs in private companies, factories and industries, which lately have been preferring to hire people from outside the State. “We have to bridge the talent gap and also change the perception of the industry, in order to get the local boys absorbed in jobs. If this does not happen soon, we could find ourselves in trouble, as idle youth more easily take to anti-social activities and even crime", he says. To get the youth more positively focused, maybe the promotion of sports, for which Haryana is known, could have been an answer. Unfortunately, there are few sports grounds or stadiums in the City; in fact even the basic recreational facilities are very poor.
When asked about questions being raised over his age, Gaba smiles and says that age is no problem for him as he is young from heart and has no difficulty in working for 18 hours continuously in a day, and enjoys meeting people. Regarding his ‘identity’, he says that it would be wrong to dub him as a leader of the Punjabi community, as being focused on by the opposition, because he has been constantly getting the votes from all the 36-biradris of the Constituency. "I have worked for everyone and the people in Gurgaon can vouch for the fact that my work has always been above any caste or community," he asserts. Asked about the need to set up of a Gurgaon Development Authority, as proposed by many in civic society, Gaba says that it would be a great step forward. It will also ensure equal
development across all parts of Gurgaon, and the resources could be utilised in a more effective manner. Gaba cites a number of works that were completed when he was the MLA: including the setting up of a water treatment plant, qualification of the City as Category A, approval of pension for the employees of MCG, the setting up of a Shrine Board for the Sheetla Mata Temple, upgradation of urban local bodies, regularisation of unauthorised colonies and upgradation of power infrastructure. Gaba promises that once he becomes the MLA of Gurgaon he would work strongly in public interest and help end the rampant corruption, as also take errant builders to task. In his own way, he promises better days for the Millennium City.
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