Politics with folded hand

Tamar bypoll: Pouncing big cats and clueless monkeys

Vijay Deo Jha Tamar Monday, December 29, 2008
Bad news and reports of unending violence are seldom strange coming out of Tamar. For long, there has just been the "Naxal problem" to cope with. Now, to add to it, arrived the "Election problem."

A week before when Tamar is slated to vote on January 5, the area has already begun to fill up with would-be claimants of the ballot but those that would hand the mandate are as ever silent in suspicion. People are not so vocal on the development agenda - it is the territory of the candidates to rant about.

What stops them is anybody's guess, though, as they are neither shy nor lack in political awareness. The problem lies somewhere else which nobody wants to discuss.

But there are a few who can still speak about this. "Election?" mumbles 60-year-old Basuki, a native of Nabadih village. "It is not campaigning but management that matters here…nobody wants our vote." And what the management means is a concept well known to villagers of Dulmi, Peraidi, Jaundih and Ulilohar and Arki, Pundiri and some other places where they live under the specter of Naxalite terror.

After a brief pause, Basuki clarifies how election is a problem to them. He quotes the "cats and dog" debate generated out of the statements of the UPA candidate and Chief Minister Shibu Soren. To him, the Naxalites cannot be ignored as a deciding factor. "Nobody wants to be vocal fearing Naxalite backlash at least in the villages where the outlaws have a free access," says Bhuvneswar Kumar, a villager of Nabadih and a free lancer who gained notoriety for his vitriolic pieces in the magazine ‘Kolhan Ki Tezab’. "The cunning monkey in the story of the two cats had the luxury of distributing justice between cats, here we have too many ferocious big cats pouncing and we, quite truly, are clueless monkeys.

For this election they have at least one foregone conclusion -- this time, too, the Naxalites will do their best to scuttle the election and if they do not, the leaders would do their best to influence them to tilt the electoral scales in their favour.
Comments a primary school teacher who did not want his name be disclosed: "Earlier the naxals used to paste red notes to boycott the pole but this time they have not done it…but they are certainly going to send us their farman whom should we vote."

Where lays the development agenda: perhaps in the party manifesto or in the words of the candidates- not in the dry and parched canal which one's used to be the life line of the agro-economy of that area. The canal passing through three constituencies once supplied water from the river Kanchi to the fields situated on its flank is now serving another purpose- a play ground for the village kids and for sometimes a racing ground for wanton school boys who are in no hurry to go their home.

However the supporters of Soren claims water would gush in the canal after the election. "The canal project running worth in crores would soon be revived", said Samta Party candidate Harisingh Munda who withdrew his nomination in favour of Soren. But for Dhneswar Pramanik a school teacher, the politics of canal took its toll on the agricultural prospect of the area- nearly 50 thousands acre of land has turned barren.

Political promises failed to bring electricity in these villages and people would tell you some chilling dark stories of their life sans lights. "There is no life after sun set…we pack in our home fearing a naxal might be lurking in the chaos, about to spring a manic surprise on you", Yasodhar a native of Gurbati village said.

Here in Nabadih the resourceful villagers use solar lamp which they use to lighten their tinny dwelling besides earning money through this by charging five rupees for charging of the mobile sets which are many in numbers. This is a blessing in disguise for them; but how many resourceful people live in the village. Most of them, including doctors, engineers and many more left the village.