Poll Wheels X

Faizabad was not in my original route-map. The plan was to go straight to Amethi from Lucknow. But I just couldn’t resist the temptation to visit the epicentre of contemporary Indian politics—Ayodhya— 110 KM away from Lucknow in Faizabad constituency.

The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) as we know today, owes its spectacular rise to become the largest political party of the country to the Ram Mandir movement which saw the demolition of Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in 1992. 

Dr Nirmal Khatri of Congress is the current parliamentarian from Faizabad who, according to his people, “hasn’t shown his face since the day he won”. 

Lallu singh of Bhartiya Janata Party, Mitrasen Yadav of Samajwadi Party and Babloo Singh of Bahujan Samaj Party are the other major contenders.

Not sure about the work but Dr Khatri has made some impressive promises to the people. For example, beautification of a pond called ‘Bharatkund’ near village Raithuwa at a cost of Rs 4.5 crores if he gets re-elected. How about constructing a room for these bright kids presently studying under a tree in the Aanganwadi of village Rampur Johan? Or a bridge over this monsoon river in village Rusia Mafi so that one doesn’t have to wait for a boat to do business?

“The fight in Faizabad would be fought very closely between BJP, Congress and BSP,” thinks Pawan Mishra, a jeweller at Kotwa sadak near Bhitariya village on NH 28. The Muslim voters, which are significant in number, will not want BJP to win. With poor governance of SP in the state, the majority of these will go to Congress. This will strengthen the grand old party. But the Dalit vote-bank of Mayawati won’t budge an inch. “They simply can’t see anything except the Elephant” he said. 

Elephant, for those who came in late, is the symbol of BSP.

His personal preference, though, is Modi because if India doesn’t get a “Dictator PM” this time, it might lose its sovereignty to Pakistan or China, he believes. Nobody talks about Lallu Singh here.

During this Poll Wheels trip, I have realised that although kids are not voters, they are one of the best weathervanes telling you which way the ‘wind’ is blowing. And the good thing about my cycle is that I don’t have to try hard to talk to kids or people in general; they come to me themselves, loaded with curiosity. All I have to do is take a break. My cycle managed to attract 8-10 children hanging out near a grocery store on the highway where I halted for some refreshments at 8PM, totally exhausted yet 17KM away from Faizabad city.

I asked them what their parents talk about these days. 

"Who do they think will win in these elections?" 

They all shouted back in chorus: “Modi.”

“ Which party does he belong to?”

“Congress.”

I had a hearty laugh. The innocence of these children was refreshing and their liveliness was infectious. This meeting worked like glucose for me. I was ready to cycle again till Faizabad, on the highway under full-moon light.

I would wave at every bus overtaking me and plead to take me to Faizabad in local accent and when it didn’t stop (of course, it won’t), would abuse in choicest of profanities. I made a game out of it. Loneliness forces you to find bizarre ways to remain occupied, sometimes bordering on lunacy. 

After cycling almost 30 minutes in the light of a Harvester’s headlamp, I stopped at Sher-e-Punjab dhaba. While chomping my dinner, I happened to enquire if there was a place to stay in nearby. “You can stay here if you want,” came the reply. For 100 rupees, I was offered a bed, a blanket and a washroom as big as a wheat-field!  Deal!

There is an old saying in Hindi— an Elephant has one set of teeth to eat with; another set to show. In UP, the colour of these showy teeth is Saffron. The phrase ‘kiski hawa hai?’ almost always elicits the response: “Modi”. Dig deeper, ask who their heart really beats for and you might see their response ‘Modify’.

Just like Lalji, who revealed his deep seated love for BSP after an initial Modi-chant. A fan of Mayawati’s administration, he is a Dalit by caste and physically disabled. Though UP government runs a pension scheme for people with disabilities, he never received any kind of aid, he told me. 

For a person belonging to Dalit community, 25 criminal cases against Babloo Singh— including murder, kidnapping, extortion etc— simply don’t matter. The Midas-touch of Behenji transforms a history-sheeter into a “Dabang.”

If Babloo Singh is ‘merely’ a history-sheeter, Mitrasen Yadav was a convict. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case in 1966, but was pardoned by the governor of Uttar Pradesh according to a PTI report. “A small kid was crushed to death under the wheels of his SUV few months back; he didn’t even get down to see,” Syed Raza Rizvi, a pesticide retailer in Bhadarsa village, told me. " I was a student union leader in Saket College, Ayodhya and am a Samajwadi Party member. But for Lok Sabha elections, I support Congress,” he concluded.

In fact, one of the biggest reasons of ‘mass-exodus’ from SP vote-bank is the abysmal law and order situation in the state. “Gundaraaj” is the commonest term used to describe its way of governance. Not only the Supreme Court but the people hold the UP government led by Akhilesh Yadav responsible for Muzaffarnagar riots too. “Without the permission of the government, even a leaf can’t flutter. They just gave a long rope to the perpetrators,” they say.

While Muzaffarnagar riots are the most talked about, those weren't the only one. Ram Shankar, a resident of village Bardaiyya almost cried while recounting the horrors of the fateful day during Durga Puja last year. The rioters hit his daughter with a brick so brutally in her face that she received a deep cut running from her forehead down to her cheek.

The religious fabric of Faizabad has never been weak otherwise. For example, Mannu (who happened to be a Muslim with a Hindu nickname) is a neighbour and almost a member of Ram Shankar’s family. Pandey Guruji, a Brahmin, whom I met at a tea shop near Dadera village, is a Hindi teacher in a madarsa for the past 25 years. 

Being a very senior teacher, Pandey Guruji was very balanced in his approach and didn’t take any clear side. However not all teachers were as reserved. Ms Shanti Verma, head teacher of primary school at Khevli village supports AAP and thinks that Kejriwal showed courage by standing against Modi. “Modi is only concerned about his chair. He simply changes his attire to woo voters but his speeches don’t make any sense,” she added.

If the ghosts of poor law and order situation and riots weren’t enough to haunt SP, there’s ‘induced anti-incumbency’. i.e the extension of anti-incumbency sentiment of people against Congress to its allies.

What’s the use of voting for SP? There’s simply no chance of Mulayam Singh becoming the Prime Minister, people say. “Vo jaa ke Congress ko samarthan de denge aur phir se Manmohan Singh gutt-se baith jaayenge (Eventually, he will end up supporting Congress and Manmohan Singh will once again firmly sit down on the PM's chair),” said a young man during one of the many ‘chai-pe-charcha’ sessions I had during this trip. I bet even Manmohan singh would love his enthusiasm and animation when he demonstrated the “gutt-se” part of his comment.

Zaid, a young flower-trader in Bhadarsa villager was also an SP supporter. He plans to vote for Modi this time. “He will do something,” he chirps. BJP’s Hindutva agenda doesn’t come in his way while making this choice. 

Muslims leaving SP and siding with BJP (or Congress) is ironic because SP is accused of “pampering Muslims excessively”, even by Yadavs who are one of the core voters of SP.

Some People, in fact, are so bullish About BJP that they even say that if it can’t form the government this time, it won’t ever in its life.

But a hard core Congress supporter issues a friendly-warning. “Jo ke bare main jaada baat ho(va)t hai, oo haar jaat hai (One who is talked about the most often ends up losing),” philosophised a farmer cum micro-kirana-store owner near village Khevli. “What’s in a name?” he said Shakespearishly when I asked his name.

Well, I would say, “Pretty much everything.” To name or not to name, was, in fact the toughest moment of my entire trip across Faizabad. In the village near Darshan Nagar on the outskirts of Ayodhya, I asked a woman, a labourer working on daily wages, which party does she think is going to win in her area.

She responded with a question. “You tell me whom should I vote for? I am illiterate; don’t know who is right and who is wrong. You must be knowing.”

I was gagged. What was I supposed to do? Should I tell her whom to vote? But wouldn’t that be influencing her opinion? 

‘Dharmsankat’, as they say in Hindi.

“Sorry. That’s one decision you have to take yourself,” I told her apologetically and left with several opposing questions wrestling with each other in my mind.