JABALPUR: Dashrat Prasad Shukla owns a pucca house-perhaps the only one in that part of Maliya village which lies across the railway track. He looked annoyed as he came out to meet this correspondent.

Shukla and members of his family and many others in the Village had voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly elections Today he is a totally disillusioned man

He has four sons and they are without jobs. The promised employment is nowhere in sight. His four acres of land has been acquired for the Defence vehicles’ factory. The family is on the verge of starvation.

The BJP member of the dissolved Lok Sabha Mr Baburao Paranjpe had been saying on his visits to the village that the prices would be brought down but the prices had only been going up. There had been no change in the attitude of the bureaucracy even during the BJP regime.

Sitting on the floor in the semidark room Mr Shukla got worked up and almost shouted: “Why should we support the BJP candidate? Has the party been able to provide us the means of subsistence? He added almost with vehemence that there was no temple issue in this village. The people wanted only rozi-rou and nothing else. Whether it was the Congress or the BJP the poor continued to suffer he philosophically added.

What was the impact of the loan waiver scheme of the State Government in the village?

What Scheme?

Shukla said that he had no knowledge of any such scheme having been implemented in the village.

Virendra Kumar Patel a young farmer of Mchgavan village was more specific. He claimed that the loan of not even a single farmer had been waived by the Government either in his village or in the neighboring village of Pipariyaor in Maliya or elsewhere in the neighborhood. All these villagers he said had overwhelmingly supported the BJP last time. This time he added the people had little enthusiasm for the BJP.

The people of Mehgavan village are unhappy with the BJP for another reason also Mr Paranjpe and the BJP MLA from Panagar (under which village falls) Mr Moti Kashyap had been to the village and announced that sanction for building a bridge over the Panyat river as well as for constructing the road had been accorded by the Government but the work was yet to start on these schemes

The people appeared to be more interested in their immediate problems than in the construction of the temple. Mr Ishari Prasad Rajak observed in an almost conspiratorial tone that it was the BJP on the surface but beneath the surface it was Congress (I). The ever-growing prices and unemployment were the major concern of the people who believed that the “lotus” was not much interested in these issues.

Immediate problems

Rajak said that during electioneering for the 1989 poll it was announced that the ban on recruitments for the ordnance factory would be lifted but that had not been done. On being told that the power to do so lay with the party ruling at the Centre and the BJP had never been a ruling party at the Centre Rajak pointed out that the people did not distinguish between the Janata Dal and the BJP. After all the two had sought the votes jointly he added

Abdul Rafiq of Maliya village and Ambika Prasad of Maliya Mor village echoed similar feelings. They said that the people were turning to the Congress (I) as they felt that the BJP was notinterested insolving the immediate problems of the people like providing a road and electricity or reducing prices.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 31, 1991