How much do you think this man might be earning in a day?
Let me provide some hints: he is the owner of the departmental store where he is sitting and also a licensed retailer of fertilizers.
Rs 1000? Rs 2000? Rs 3000? Or did you say more?
Wrong.
According to the government records, he earns less than Rs 28.
Yes, officially he is Below Poverty Line (BPL).
If you check out the list painted on the wall of the government ration shop in the village Mau Deeh you will find his name바카라 Banarsi Lal, son of Bhagauti바카라along with that of his brother, sons and other family members. Together they have almost a monopoly on the village market place.
바카라There are 40-50 names on this list (of 170 entries) which don바카라t deserve to be here by any standards. They have hundreds of bighas of land, own tractors, have shops and bungalows and yet have a BPL card,바카라 Phool Chand, a farmer in the village, says.
It바카라s not a story of this village alone. It바카라s also not a 바카라disease바카라 endemic to Amethi. It바카라s an epidemic which has taken monstrous proportions across the country; just that I found documentary proofs of its existence in Rahul바카라s backyard.
While rich are made 바카라poor바카라 in Amethi, poor are made 바카라rich바카라 in his neighbouring constituency바카라Sultanpur바카라where his cousin is contesting on a BJP ticket.
Irrespective of their different political ideologies, the brothers seems to be complementing each other perfectly.
Meet Ms Rohana of Pali village, a landless labourer who works on other바카라s fields at an abjectly low wage of Rs 60 per day. She is a widow with the responsibility of two daughters and a toddler son. Her house is in shambles.
That바카라s all right. But does she still qualify to be called officially poor? Montek Singh Ahluwalia of Planning Commission might ask.
Well, my eyes may falter and so can my understanding about poverty but there can바카라t be a more accurate metric than an earnest verdict of an entire village. 바카라If there is someone who is poorest among all of us, she is the one,바카라 said 15-20 people who were present at the shop where I stopped for some refreshments. An old man, himself a BPL card holder, confessed that she is poorer than him.
Most of the welfare schemes of the government are targeted towards the poor (obviously!) and the BPL list serves as the most important criterion to decide who is poor. But when the list itself is fudged with half of the deserving people left out, with the rich figuring on it, how will schemes like MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gaurantee Act), Indira Awas Yojna, Nirmal Bharata Abhiyan etc ever be able to achieve their avowed targets?
Subaalak, of Deegha village asks for a full-fledged inquiry in to this whole 바카라BPL Scam바카라. 바카라The rich have bribed their way to get a BPL card while poor are high and dry for ration,바카라 he said.
The concept of journalism is based on the assumption that a reporter would report and the policymaker would earnestly take note of it and act. But if that were the case, India would not have been languishing at the bottom on the Human development Index. (Rank: #136 among 187 countries)
Let's move on to education now. Most바카라sorry바카라all the schools of Amethi lack basic facilities like toilets (even for the teachers), are severely underequipped and understaffed. To add insult to injury, the teachers, especially the ad-hoc ones called shiksha mitra (literally, education friends), are not paid for months.
Parmanad Yadav, a Shiksha Mitra at a Primary School in Manerika village wasn바카라t paid for the past 9 months i.e. the entire session of 2013-14 until March. His dues have been cleared only in April with the salary from Jan-April still outstanding.
How much is the government paying him by the way, you ask? A bomb바카라 Rs 3,500/- 바카라My children don바카라t believe that I am actually not paid for all these months. I can바카라t even take a loan from someone and promise to pay back the next month,바카라 Parmanad complains.
But he simply can바카라t vent out his frustration against Rahul Gandhi, such is his love for him and his family.
Krishna devi Maurya, a vegetable vendor on the outskirts of Amethi city sums up the predicament of citizens of Amethi succinctly: 바카라Ghar ka sadsya kitna bhi nikamma kyun na ho, usse ghar se nikal thode hi dete hain (howsoever useless a family member may be, do we kick him out?)바카라.
People are convinced that whatever good happens to their village or city is solely because of Rahul Gandhi but if development hasn바카라t reached them, it바카라s because of the corrupt Gram Pradhans, secretaries and other intermediaries.
In fact, village Saruava, my entry point to Amethi from Sultanpur, even went on to hold Mr Clean, Manmohan Singh, responsible for all the corruption in UPA government to exonerate Rahul Gandhi.
바카라Rahul Gandhi is our Sarkaar, how can we not vote for him?바카라 said Kusum near village Pashchim Dwar. She later corrected 바카라sarkaar바카라 with 바카라Neta바카라. A lot of others will choose him because he is too big a tree to fall (oops, did his father say something similar?) and there바카라s no point wasting one바카라s vote in experimenting.
He doesn바카라t even need to do any rally here, people believe. 바카라Agar unka poster lag gaya hai, matlab unko vote paana hai (if his poster has been put up, it means he will get votes),바카라 says Dashrath, a labourer working on a road project under Mahatma (MGNREGA). The letter 바카라G바카라 in the acronym stands for Guarantee, a guarantee of at least 100 days of employment. But he tells me that even that is a farce.
Till 2009, Rahul Gandhi's candidature from Amethi used to be virtually unopposed; not any longer. This time he faces stern competition from a poet바카라Kumar Vishwas of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). A late nomination from the National bahu바카라Smriti Irani of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has made the scenario even worse for him.
Because people of Amethi, like a fairy-tale princess, were just waiting for a knight in shining armour to come on a white horse and sweep them (and their vote) off their feet. Anjni Kumar Mishra of tehsil Salona says: 바카라We want to overturn Congress, defeat Rahul, but until we get a good alternative, we won바카라t.바카라 If they come to us, tell us what they stand for, what they would do if they win and ask for our vote, we will surely give them a chance, he adds.
People who are looking for a change but are not too confident about AAP after it resigned from Delhi within 49 days, are banking on BJP. In fact the Pradhan of Naseerabad, Mohammed Miyaan is a hard core BJP supporter and member and getting other Muslims to join the party, given his influence.
People are gradually realising that it바카라s the work that matters, not the name (Gandhi) or the 바카라VIP constituency바카라 tag that comes along with it. The voice of dissent is audible if not ear-drum shattering. The Gandhi scion would do good to pay heed to it if he survives this election.
바카라I don바카라t want to give vote to Rahul Gandhi. He is simply good for nothing. My vote goes for Aam Aadmi (party),바카라 says Hemraj of Argwan village. Leave alone ration, I don바카라t even get any pension meant for disabled people. Finally, I have started a business of poultry and fish along with my friend, this young man, showing some traces of innovation in his wheel-chair, says.
The road may or may not exist but you simply can바카라t miss a shining black marble stone telling the world who is the 바카라father바카라 of this road. All this tamasha for a 660m road; a simple steel board would have served the purpose. Do they include the cost of stone and the stone-work in the project cost? Hang on. Rs 12 lakhs for a 660m long road? Isn바카라t it too much? Well, who am I to comment on that? Therefore, I asked a road contractor and he peeled the layers off the onion one by one.
Guddu Singh (man on extreme right in the above picture), a road contractor who builds roads under Public Works Department (PWD) said two things
- The maximum expenditure for this project should have been Rs 7 lakhs and
- The road is not 660m long!
Moreover, the road hasn바카라t been constructed from scratch. It already existed, only the top layer has been laid.
바카라A road and a bridge have already been passed till Argwaan, where you are heading but nothing exists till date,바카라 said the man standing on the right of our road contractor. In the absence of the bridge, I had to cross the monsoon-river with my bike on my shoulders; a little adventure for me but a daily nightmare for these people.
The man is miffed for this neglect and holds Rahul Gandhi squarely responsible. But it doesn바카라t shake his faith in him. If human beings were easy to understand, the world would have been such a boring place to live.
When I asked K.L. Verma, a welder having a shop near the Amethi bus stand, if Kumar Vishwas has some footing in the area, his response was: "Not 바카라some바카라 but 바카라a lot바카라." 바카라Amethi kisi ki Bapauti to hai nahin (Amethi s not someone바카라s inheritance),바카라 he added. He questioned the absence of industry in the area. The Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAL) factory doesn바카라t count; hardly anyone from Amethi works there, he added.
Dildaar khan, in the business of waste-recycling (kabaadi), frustrated with the level of unemployment in the region said, 바카라Yahaan MA, BA kar ke log jhaadu laga rehe hain, FIR jhaadu hi na dekhi jaaye is baar (people are forced to sweeping streets even after studying till MA or BA, so why not try the broom in the elections as well?). He is a high school graduate. Youth are particularly very excited about the disruptive politics of AAP. Kumar Vishwas is banking heavily on them to create history.
Sriram of Bhartiya Kisaan Union (BKU) in village Bhetua asked why a farmer has to face long power-cuts while Banks and tehsils have 24 hrs power supply. I also met Rajdhani Yadav in Lehanga village who has a fertilizer agency. Fertilizer, especially Urea has always been a very politically sensitive subject which is why no government has dared to change its price substantially since 2003.
The MRP of a 50 kg bag of Urea in UP is Rs 311.50 but he himself buys it for Rs 325-330. It바카라s virtually impossible to sell at MRP. Even if he wants to do business honestly, he simply can바카라t. The system is such. You simply can바카라t go against or circumvent it. If you do, you are out. Your supplies stop, he said.
A farmer is made to beg even for a costly fertilizer, says Kumar Vishwas. 바카라The moment a farmer reaches his fields with seeds, fertilizers vanish from the market,바카라 he adds during the interview at his recently bought residence. I enjoyed the interview. When I asked a question in Hindi, he replied in English, but when I asked in English, he would switch to Hindi.
Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi바카라s performance, Kumar Vishwas quoted a common saying among the people, 바카라People of Amethi are fed-up of two things바카라Neel Gau aur Rahul Gandhi, one eats up the fields, and the other eats up Amethi.바카라
Vinit Agrahari, a Chemist in the city believes that Kumar Vishwas deserves to be congratulated irrespective of the result on 16th May. 바카라Usne kam se kam ghanti bajane ka kaam to kiya hai (he has at-least rung a bell in their ears). Earlier, he (Rahul) would come in 5-10 years, wave his hand to the people and the job is done,바카라 he said. Now he has to sweat for every single vote, he added. (exact translation not printable!)
The battle of Amethi is basically between two visions. People who compare the present Amethi with what it used to be 20-30 years ago give all credit to Gandhi family. However, the younger lot, who compare it to cities like Delhi, Ahmedabad etc are able to see the stark differences in growth and hold Rahul Gandhi responsible for their backwardness.
Would Kumar Vishwas or Smriti Irani (backed by Narendra Modi) be able to show the people, who are looking at the past, what바카라s in store for them in the future?
May 16 will tell.
