In the early mid-portion of April, we set out to discover Elections. What we did discover was poverty. Such is the piteous situation here in Orissa’s remote areas. The poorer villages of Kandhamal hide in their lucid squalor, people having surrendered to fate. Elections mean only one thing – a choice of their scavengers, since they have lost faith in their leaders. As they put it, “the leaders come, smile, ask for votes. Usually they come with bottles of alcohol and promises both fantastic and fake”.
The tribal locals are innocent folk, easily led, simple and for that reason, exploited and deceived. There are copious funds being provided for them, but such is the system that the money reaches all except the ones it is sent for, the ones who really need it. Poverty is so rampant here that people are reduced to eat dried Mohua (a plant used to prepare local liquor) seeds and fruits. Many die of food poisoning. Here, even the cattle seem bare-boned and people are bound to nature – depending on rain for the crops.
And yet, what does all this have to do with elections, one might ask? The rains, the conditions of the animals are all independent factors. But the funds that come for the people – for better roads, electricity, irrigation facilities (unseen in that are, mostly) and so on – all the funds dry out along the way.
I tried to analyze the violence that shook the entire country – the Hindu-Christian violence in Kandhamal – and discovered that the murder of the Swami was just an excuse. The real reason lay in the poverty and conversion. Here, the Christian missionaries convert people by deceiving them in to taking medicinal pills in the name of God and offer facilities so as to convert the people into the fold. Once converted, the truth comes out, that tribal people who are now Christians are now not entitled to any of the reservations that are meant for them as SC/ST. Yet the converted ones use their old certificates to get the job and this caused discontent. Here I must say that I do not blame the converted, for tribals are, as I said, simple folk. But I do blame the missionaries who fool these folk for their own ends.
Secondly, the murder of the Swamiji here. I went to his Ashram and witnessed education in progress – the Swami was running a school for the tribal children. And so far as his murder is concerned, I will echo the words of a friend of mine, “whatever the case, killing of an 80 year old man was wrong and I think the murderers themselves should be ashamed of such a deed”. No more shall I say about this.
Lastly, I will come to the good things here. People are warm and kind-hearted, even though their manners may be slightly coarse at times. They do not understand the deep complexities and most people in the inner reaches (like the Chakapad village) are illiterate. If only for this reason, I like the education setup created by the Swamiji. And I hope that the region gets a genuinely good leader. At the end of the day, it needs it. And deserves it.
BIHAR (Supaul, Madhepura, Kusaha Dam) –
Bihar is my vibrant home away from home. I have always regarded this particular state with undeniable fascination. The people here are in equal measure trustworthy, almost ferocious upstarts and love to chatter about politics especially. Not just this, the sheer brilliance of the people makes it a place fascinating to be in, if you can get along with them.
Well, to get on with it. Poverty here is so deep an issue that it has scorched itself into the skin of the people. Or perhaps it would be more accurate if I said it has been gulped down the throats of the people. I refer, of course, to the floods that devastated Bihar sometime back. I mean, the floods occurred sometime back. And as my grandfather said, in the face of a natural disaster there are certain steps that have to be followed – first rescue and relief, then temporary rehabilitation, then rebuilding and finally rehabilitation in which people basically get their new homes and begin life anew. And while this is in progress, the government also has to ensure that the dam does not break again and the areas are planned to respond adequately in case the disaster occurs again.
What struck me as interesting was that the dam is being strengthened but only where it broke. Although I hope otherwise, methinks the dam shalt break again quenching the blood-thirst of wild Kosi. Secondly, I realized that there has been no rebuilding. People are still living in their temporary residences with poor facilities. There is water crisis, food crisis and mainly – job crisis. Because Kosi left the land barren. So again our greatly responsible government leaders look at each other with sidelong glances and say, ‘time out, please’. In any case, I only wish the government’s glance to fall gently on the people and to work for their needs. The NGOs have done their bit, so why not let the government take up the mantle as is its duty?
The dam, the damned dam, the Kosi disaster. All of it was like a nightmare. A few days’ worth of headlines and the dam was gone. But one cannot deny that the media were wrong. They called Kosi a natural disaster. It is not. Kosi was a man-made disaster. The Nepali government turned the direction of Kosi and the ancient dam was not repaired since a huge amount of time. The engineers there warned the people when water had come, but no-one imagined the possible magnitude of the flood. All that I can say is that it was a plethora of irresponsibility on the part of many, and the only ones that died where the ones innocent of the blame.
Finally, I would like to raise my hand in salute to the courage of the people and their optimism. Just like there are tales of corruption and decadency in my Bihar, there are many unsung tales of bravery, of selfless service, of dedication and most importantly, of humanity. Many lives were saved by these people (UNICEF, NGOs and other people) and they deserve respect that few politicians could claim to. Jai Hind.
GUJARAT
A rich land with rich people. And people rich not just in their pockets, but in their hearts that gently welcomed us to explore their land, to understand their territory and to fall in love with their great leader Modi. In any case, this portion of my trip was unlike any other. We had better fixed plans and great Gujarati food (Maharaja, thank you for that) and the entire trip was more of a meeting-people kind of trip than a survey of erstwhile disaster or even a plain glorification of the land of Gujarat, which has really progressed in terms of water supply, industries, electricity and other factors.
In this trip I realized many things and among them was the rising presence of youth in politics and the many dedicated people amongst them. Arguably the smoothest part of the trip yet, the only bother (if any) was the problem of heat. And what I loved about Anand (AMUL’s products are manufactured here. Btw Amul = Anand Milk-Producers Union Limited) is the fact that people seem genuinely fond of trees.
And yet, in the shade of Godhra’s events, it is really hard to reconcile myself about the events that occurred and it is equally hard to imagine the knives and swords in the hands of many people. So I do hope that someday the entire state will be thoroughly studied and people would love peace, rekindling Gandhiji as a true leader and not just a dust coated statue.
HARIDWAR
Haridwar, the city of holy men (and women, though they are rarer) was the last stop in our project. After almost a month of wanderings, we were looking for the perfect finish. Perhaps we found it. I know that the word ‘perhaps’ is the most exasperating one in my vocabulary, but it has to apply when you look at each edge of the complex structures.
In Haridwar, we went around looking for the Swami, the Sanyasi who was, incredibly, standing for the elections. The incredible thing about it is simply that any holy man (Hindu, as in) practices Tyaag. He attempts to slowly go beyond materialism and to detach himself from love, hate and greed. A Swami we met articulated his thoughts in the simple words, “how can it be correct for a Sadhu/Sant to enter politics when it is almost completely about love and hate (not to mention greed)”. And yet, my derision wavered when I talked to the Sadhu and he told me his desire was to eliminate corruption and such impurities from Politics and to serve the people with more tangible power.
I do not know whether to believe him or to turn a scornful face and put him in line with other politicians who are also quite vocal about their genuine intentions to help people and have assets (declared only) around a couple of crores. Perhaps I am too suspicious. But I fear that his intention, however noble, could well worm its way to the other side of the coin (polluting religion) than what he wishes (religion purifying politics). And yet, I hope that he is genuine, if only for the challenges he has put himself against.
The action of putting the Swami there was a cunning political move from BJP, and yet it could be good for the country too, depending on how it all finally turns out. But going beyond this obvious ‘both sides of the coin principle’, it suffices to say that religion and politics should not be mixed. If the Swamiji wishes to stand for elections he is welcome to do so but not as a representative of religion but rather as a common man just like another. Because by his choice he puts a lot at stake and if he wins this election, next election we’ll probably see another Swami contesting against him, standing from Congress.
