Ground Reports
Hridayapath, Dispatch #12: Old Ghosts Stare From Samastipur And Saran
- Samastipur Lok Sabha election is all about beta-beti politics.
Saran and Samastipur districts.
The first time I had heard about Samastipur was when Bharat Ratna L K Advani was arrested during the Ram Rath Yatra.
His fellow awardee this year, Bharat Ratna Karpoori Thakur, belonged to Samastipur as well. He is one of the harbingers of the actual subaltern revolution in Bihar's politics.
The picture of him in a torn kurta is arresting. A self-made man, rising from the grass-roots and maintaining simplicity should have been the ideal for Bihar politics.
That is why it is frustrating to see the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) fielding Shambhavi Choudhary.
She is fighting on a Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP(RV) ticket. In short, she is the daughter of a minister, married to the son of a famous ex-IPS officer, contesting from the party of a ‘nepobaby’, Chirag Paswan.
Irony does not end there, another ‘nepokid’, Sunny Hazari, is expected to get the ticket from the Congress. He is the son of a JD(U) minister, Maheshwar Hazari. (His official nomination came through yesterday).
Let us drown in irony now. LJP (RV) members are upset that "the family" is not contesting from Samastipur. The sitting MP is Prince Raj, a cousin of Chirag. He has been denied ticket, since he is siding with Pashupati Nath Paras, Chirag's uncle. The cadres are upset that the ticket has been given to someone from the Pasi community and not the Paswan community.
I did not bother to ask people on who would win from here. But did ask about the colourful and beautifully arranged biscuits in the roadside shops. In exchange for Rs 20, they gave me a ton of them.
Saran In A Sorry State
Bihar broke my heart on my last day in the state. Chhapra in Saran district in Western Bihar is stuck in the 1980s. The roads leading up to Chhapra bore resemblance to the pictures of Chadrayaan landing site.
We tried getting into it from all three directions (Ganga is in the south) and finally managed to get past 20 kms in 1.5 hours. I stayed the night in Chhapra. Ram katha was playing all night in the loudest of speakers and I was unable to get even a wink of sleep.
I say hello to Jiten Kumar, a local youth at a chai shop, in the morning. He works as an office assistant. He says that he likes people from the South (How I wish people from the south, especially Tamil Nadu, reciprocate). There is a sense of despondency in his voice when we start chatting about development in the city. He says that the water supply is inconsistent. Power cuts are frequent (there were a couple of power outages the previous night).
Dangey (riots) big and small are not uncommon. He admits that things have become slightly better compared to the past. He craves for a strong-man that could keep the law and order intact. "How can there be tarakki without suraksha?", he reasons.
Given that the government machinery seems to be absent here, I ask him who he is going to vote for in the upcoming elections. He says, "Modi ko". I ask him for the reason. He says that there is no one better and still hopes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will sort out the mess. I felt for the guy. I really hope PM Modi fixes Chhapra, at least for Jiten's sake.
Saran has been one of Lalu family's addas. Lalu Yadav won from here in 2009. Rajiv Pratap Rudy, former Union minister of skill development won in 2014 and 2019. In 2014, he defeated former chief minister Rabri Devi. This time, Rohini Acharya, daughter of Lalu Yadav is contesting against Rudy. The Yadav community dominates this constituency. But the counter-polarisation due to gundagardi tilts the scale in favour of the NDA.
But it is a matter of shame that the constituency of high-profile politicians is in a shambolic state. I check the poverty stats. I am surprised to learn that Saran is one of the better districts in Bihar, with poverty reducing from 43 per cent in 2015 to 28 per cent in 2023. I should not trust my eyes, perhaps?
I speak with Ramjeet for my last chai in Bihar. He is chatty and funny. He is upset with darubandi. He says that it has caused a huge economic setback for the state. The police is in a full-on rent-seeking mode in the pretext of checking. "They harass people for nothing," Ramjeet says.
He is going to vote for Lalu Yadav's daughter. He says that people vote jaat ke adhar par and all the vikas is secondary. He said that Nitish Kumar has made a bewakoof out of them by jumping camps.
There are way too many level-crossings in this part of Bihar. I thought that overhead passes were completed in almost all places, especially near urban agglomerations to reduce accidents. The Rail Ministry should take note.
The train from Chennai Central passes through. A cool waft of wind hits me. Was it carrying sea-breeze from the Marina?
We say "bye, bye" to Bihar as we cross the Ganga into Ballia. The magic of democracy produced a leader from this corner of Uttar Pradesh that went on to become the Prime Minister of India. Former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar came from Ballia.
Fun fact on him, as we conclude. Chandrashekar walked from Kanyakumari to Delhi for six months in 1983. But, he lost the next elections in 1984, spending the next five years in the wilderness. He had never been out of Parliament since 1962. And in 1990, tides turn and he becomes prime minister.
#Fate!
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