Ghazipur/Varanasi/Prayagraj/Gorakhpur: Dusk was setting in Shahbazpur village in Zahoorabad, 115 km north east of Varanasi, last Friday when Sharada Devi came out to greet visitors. A gracious hostess, the octogenarian wouldn’t let them discuss their business until they had had water, tea and biscuits.
That done, she came straight to the point. “Haraam ka naa-naa khai…jeka noon khaate hain, jai dait baa, okra vote deb (don’t eat free…will vote for one whose salt we eat, who provides for us),” she said. Each of her family members gets 10 kg rice or wheat and a 1 kg packet of salt each, as well as chana and refined oil every month from the fair price shop.
Sharada Devi didn’t know the names of candidates in Zahoorabad. But she was grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing free ration during the pandemic. A hundred yards away from her house, a group of Chouhan Rajputs (an OBC or other backward class) echoed similar sentiments. Their young neighbour, Anil Yadav, was, however, dismissive: “Tell me how many people have got jobs in the village. Can you name one?” He called it an election for change. He was outnumbered though. Two masons working nearby also joined the Chouhans.
ThePrint travelled across Ghazipur, Varanasi, Prayagraj and Gorakhpur. People have a host of complaints. Stray cattle eating up farmers’ produce is a common grouse. A young man in Handia’s Bankat village in Prayagraj district said: “Earlier, people used to say Mulayam mausi aa rahi hai (Mulayam aunty is coming) when they saw buffaloes. Now when they see stray cows, they say Yogi baba jaa rahe hain (Yogi baba is going).”
But will farmers vote against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for banning illegal slaughter houses and taking tough action against cattle smugglers, the genesis of the stray cattle menace? The answers varied from mumbles of confusion to assertive affirmation, depending on which caste one belonged to.
The young man of Bankat village, who was working in Mumbai until Covid-19 struck, was forthright. “It depends from people to people. I am probably the only Yadav in this village who will vote for Modi ji. All others of my biraadari (Yadavs) will go with Akhilesh.”
He had a reason for being a dissenter. “Did Mulayam Singh ji or Akhilesh ever bother about us living in Mumbai?” he asked
At a dhaba a few kilometres away, a villager from the Nishad caste looked at the Yadav dhaba-owner as he spoke his mind. “These people have the land and the cattle. I have neither. How does it matter to me?” this villager asked.
Also read: Hungry cows, hungry farmers — UP govt policy has led to cattle menace Yogi didn’t see coming
‘We are watching’
Shahbazpur villager Anil Yadav’s anger over lack of job opportunities might have sounded coloured in a caste-dominated poll discourse, but he seemed to speak for many others.
Talk to youngsters anywhere in UP. They have the same grouse — no jobs.
Students in Allahabad University campus were agitated. When they ask for jobs, the police use lathis, they said. Last month, Prayagraj police had barged into students’ rooms and hostels and beaten them up. The students had been protesting and demanding recruitment in the railways. The incident was reverberating in the Allahabad University campus when ThePrint visited it.
Gopi Gaurav and Ravi Patel, two B.A. second-year students, were agitated about police highhandedness. Students were making “legitimate” protests, they argued. They were circumspect when talking about elections: “We will vote for a party that cares about students and their future. We are watching.” They wouldn’t say who.
Come outside the university campus and the discourse changes. It’s about the Yogi Adityanath government’s bulldozers that demolished illegal constructions by ‘bahubali’ (muscleman) Atique Ahmed. People spoke about the reign of terror that the Adityanath government has brought an end to.
The bulldozer dominated the discussion in Ghazipur, too, where another muscleman and history-sheeter, Mukhtar Ansari, and his kin ruled the roost until recently. The BJP’s campaign song, “ek haath mein shaastra hai jiske, shastra doosre haath hai (the one who has weapon in one hand and scriptures in the other)”, and the image of Yogi holding a gun seemed to make sense.
The BJP has made the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor in Varanasi its poll plank. The Adityanath government’s actions against Atique Ahmed and Mukhtar Ansari seemed to add a sub-text to that narrative. By and large, the people seemed to endorse these steps, regardless of their identity.
“Hinduon ke liye toh achha hi kar rahe hain (he is doing good for Hindus),” was the common refrain. But these responses came when their views were sought. Temporal issues seemed to weigh more on their minds when they sat down to discuss their assessment of the government. And free ration seemed to be their immediate concern.
2022 election discourse is all about day-to-day life
Namak or salt was unmistakable in the Mandal-Kamandal electoral marinade. It came in many forms — Rs 1,000 for e-shramik card holders, Rs 2,000 (one of three four-monthly instalment) under PM Kisan scheme, and Rs 500 per month to women Jan Dhan account holders, and a host of other schemes. But the degree of appreciation and satisfaction seemed to vary, depending on the caste of the beneficiary.
Ravin Kumar, a Dalit at Ghazipur’s Asmanichak village, was very upset. He got nothing in his e-shramik scheme and said he was given just 3 kg wheat or rice by the fair price shop dealer. He wouldn’t say which party would set things right for him. “Will vote for Modi ji in 2024, but can’t say in this election,” he said.
Half-a-dozen women gathered around him nodded in agreement as he vented his anger against the ‘system’. When asked “aap log kis biraadari se ho (which caste do you belong to)”, one of them replied “Baspa (BSP)”.
Unlike the 2017 UP election when Modi, demonetisation and surgical strikes against a terror camp in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) had dominated conversations in villages and towns, the 2022 election discourse is all about day-to-day life — free ration, unemployment, stray cattle menace, law and order, and Narendra Modi, of course. They wouldn’t talk about Ayodhya, Kashi or their biraadari (caste), unless prodded. But the fact was even the salt-loyalty seemed to be influenced by their identity — say, Sharada Devi (a Brahmin), Anil (a Yadav), and Ravin Kumar (a Dalit). How much Ayodhya and Kashi would influence their decision is anybody’s guess.
As for Covid-19 and the bodies swelling in rivers and buried on their banks, it was a thing of the past. Ask Sharada Devi how she coped with the pandemic when the government or public representatives were nowhere to be seen. “Humra ke corona-forona naa baa, naa hum zaabi lageli. Humra ladka Dubai mein daily zaabi badlai la (I don’t have any corona nor do I wear any mask or muzzle. My child who is in Dubai changes his muzzle everyday),” she chuckled.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: Can’t learn, can’t work, can’t even cross river: Life in 3 of India’s 4 poorest districts, all in UP