The UP voter's angry, and not afraid to voice it

Traveling through Uttar Pradesh, one is struck by the wisdom of the voters who see through one and all, and yet know they have to cast their vote as democratic and discerning citizens of India. One is also struck by the political class’ disinterest in the state’s development, where towns have become dumps of garbage and sewage.

Development is the issue in most parts of western UP as voters are busy sizing up political parties and candidates. Be it Jat, Muslim, Dalit or Brahmin, they are clear that the only way forward is development without corruption. So they are looking at which party will stay the course and be available when required. In long discussions at tea stalls, roadside shops and mohallas, voters share their concerns.

Look at us, there is not a single industry here, they point out. The candidate is not concerned, the political powers do not bother, and now they are coming back for our vote, making the same promises they are not going to keep.

We look around in Meerut, Moradabad, Bareilly, Bulandhshahr — all big towns and cities. The roads are, without exception, broken.

The pavements are full of garbage as the municipality does not exist. Electricity remains a luxury, with power available in the best case for six hours a day. The sewage is overflowing. There are no red lights, no traffic policemen. Hospitals are filthy and overflowing with patients. Education is more private than primary, with not a single industry in most of the belt. Employment avenues are non-existent, with schemes remaining only on paper. An old wise man tells us how he has been running from pillar to post to claim dues owed to him, and is now going to move the high court as all the officials were demanding huge bribes.

Bulandhshahr is as it was when I visited it 15 years ago, remaining untouched by economic reforms. In fact, it has become more of a dump than it ever was. Badaun has not seen a single industry come up in the area for decades now, with glitzy boys like Saleem Sherwani contesting, winning and leaving without making an iota of difference.

The people are left to fend for themselves until elections, when the campaign meetings take on the hue of a carnival, and voters rush from one to the other, in an effort to recognise the right candidate who will stay and make a difference to their lives.

Parties have sensed this and the issues being raised in the campaigns are to do with employment, livelihood and a better future. The secular parties are no longer using the communalism bogey to bring together the Muslim vote, or caste to isolate a particular community. The scramble in this very tightly contested election is for all possible votes, so Rahul Gandhi insists that development can be possible only under a Congress government; Mulayam Singh is busy announcing various waivers and schemes for the youth and the farmers; Mayawati is listing out her achievements; with perhaps only the BJP still a little confused, as it vacillates between communalism, which its leaders admit is not working, and development.

In a significant development, not often seen in the past, voters are quite happy to denounce or praise a candidate for the work he or she has done regardless of the party. In Badaun, Muslim voters were full of praise for the local BJP candidate who was described as a ‘good man’ and as they put it, ‘a leader who will rush here on his cycle within minutes if we call him.’ Their dislike for the BJP will prevent them from voting for him directly, they say, but they will be quite happy if he wins on his own as he did last time. In Moradabad, Muslims and Hindus join hands to denounce Azharuddin, who did nothing for the people. He betrayed us, was the common consensus with the people exhibiting a strange bonhomie for these parts. On a crowded Moradabad street, Sikh residents spoke of the Punjabi part of the street, and the Muslim part of the street, and while embracing a Muslim shopkeeper — clearly a friend — the Sikhs laughed, ‘Well we fight when they (political parties) make us but we love each other.’

The tension and fear often palpable among the voter before an election is missing. Dalit and Muslim voters are quite vocal about their preferences. Close to Baghpat, where the Dalit voter has always been at the receiving end, it was interesting to find the BSP supporters quite vocal in public. A group of rickshawallas pointed out that the BSP’s Dalit base was intact. Why? Because Mayawatiji has done so much for us, was the response. Others who were critical of the BSP gathered around and there was a debate with the BSP supporters, who turned out to be Jatavs, not yielding ground. Earlier, the Dalits were always reticent about their voting choice. The Dalit vote has definitely acquired a voice, at least in the towns of UP.

The writer is a senior New Delhi-based journalist