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A village in Rahul Gandhi's Amethi where no one watches TV

Interestingly, even though Rahul Gandhi represents this Nehru-Gandhi bastion since 2004, he never paid a visit to Aitha village of his parliamentary constituency Amethi, situated just 7 kms from district headquarters on Gauriganj-Ateha Road.

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Rahul Gandhi during a campaign rally in Amethi, Uttar Padesh
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While the Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi talks of giving boost to information technology for taking the country to 21st century, there is a village in his parliamentary constituency Amethi where not a single household watch Television. The Muslim-dominated Aitha village is almost cut off from the rest of the world as no one knows what is happening around the globe.

Interestingly, even though Rahul Gandhi represents this Nehru-Gandhi bastion since 2004, he never paid a visit to Aitha village of his parliamentary constituency Amethi, situated just 7 kms from district headquarters on Gauriganj-Ateha Road. "He (Rahul Gandhi) might not be knowing about existence of this village in his parliamentary constituency," claims Ashgar Naqi, a local scribe.

Having a population of about 1800, Aitha has about 130 households. More than 95 per cent population of the village belongs to the minority community. Economically, the village is well off. About 65 men from the village are working in Gulf countries and majority population has good chunk of farming and pucca houses.

The Aitha village has roads, power and all other basic facilities which make it different from other villages of Rahul's constituency. Youth proudly flashes their smartphones, brought to them by their relatives abroad. They vroom around on their mobikes. Majority households in the village have gas connections, Fridge, Coolers and other modern gadgets. It has a madrasa imparting religious education to youth. But what is missing is a dish antenna on their rooftop?

Some of them have televisions too. But they are not installed in their drawing rooms but lying in a pool of dust in a corner of the house. A few families which had got these TV sets in marriages of their sons as gifts never used it. Some of them are lying in a corner of their drawing rooms as a showpiece, others never opened the pack.

For keeping themselves abreast with what's happening around, some village elders gather at tea shops in the morning to browse over newspaper headlines or else they have no interest in why the Chief Minister Yogi has launched a crackdown against slaughterhouses or why Modi government is keeping a mum on the Alwar lynching incident.

The triple talaq controversy has no relevance here. "We are devout Muslims and strictly adhere to tenets of Islam, Hadis and Quran. We religiously follow it and pay no attention to controversies surrounding any of our personal laws which are sacrosanct to us," says Hafij Ali, a teacher at the village madrassa.

But why the Aitha village Muslim population is averse to watching television news, entertainment shows, cricket and other sports for the past many decades. "It is against Islam and Shariyat. Anything which has ill-effects on our women and children is prohibited in Islam. So our forefathers had never allowed TVs in any home in the village," explains Maulana Mohammed Naim, head of the Madrasa.

He further explains that anything a devout Muslim doesn't see directly through his eyes is considered "haraam" in Islam and Television, Radio and other such musical things fall under that category which is prohibited in Islam.

"Besides television, we are also against DJs, music bands, firecrackers and any other ostentation during nikah or any festivity. We don't allow such things in our village Aitha," claims another village elder Furqan. "It a religious matter and we have been following it since the days of our forefathers," adds he.

Interestingly, girls, boys and even women have full support to the ban on small screen in the village. Majority of them have never watched any movies either in cinema halls. They don't regret that something is amiss in their life. "When our religion does not permit it then why will we even have a look at that," says Shanno (name changed), a mother of six.

However, a few of the young boys surreptitiously watch cricket matches on their smart phones without elders getting to know about it. "We, however, refrain from watching any movie or entertainment shows," says 20-year-old Arif.

Irfan (27) do agree that TV, internet, mobile etc are necessity in today's word but when it is linked with our religious then no one is allowed to break laws made by Allah. "We do get to know happenings from people of other villages or from newspapers in the morning then why should we do a thing which against our religion," points he.

Aditya Shukla, a local journalist, told DNA that no amount of reason or logic works on the residents of Aitha village on this unheard practice."When I talked to few village elders and told them that Muslims in rest of the world watch TV they why you have put a ban on it. He shouted back saying that our village has nothing to do with what Muslims are doing in other parts", confides Shukla.

The local journalist hopes that he scion of the Gandhi family and three-time MP from Amethi will pay a visit to Aitha village and try to convince villagers to join the mainstream and revolution in the information technology for the progress of the village and the younger generation.

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