Last week, I visited Bhadohi and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh (UP). I try to
visit my ancestral place, Bhadohi, regularly as there are still many people who I know
personally and it is always a pleasure to interact with them personally. There
are many sweet childhood memories associated with this place and my visits bring back those sweet memories. The last time I visited this place was in 2010, so it
was four long years after which I visited again. This time I was also
curious to know what people think about the current government of India as
this is the first government after 1984 that has won an absolute majority in
parliament and UP is one of the major reasons why this things happened (BJP+
won 73 seats out of 80 in this state). I did not expect to see any
drastic changes as it is just five months since this new government came into
power but was mainly interested in the mood and expectations of people.
The City of Varanasi was as
clean (or dirty) as it was during my previous visits. The airport of Varanasi is in very good shape but the roads of the city are in horrible condition. There is
garbage lying around in many places and cattle (especially cows and buffalos)
roam on the road freely creating a nuisance to traffic. When I asked people around me
why they were not participating in the "Swachha Bharat Abhiyan" (clean India
movement) started by our PM Mr. Modi who also happens to be the MP of their city
they just laughed at me and called me too naive to expect such
movements will work. I literally tried to remind people about this movement
whenever I saw anyone throwing litter on the street but every single time I was
welcomed with a cynical smile or why don’t you mind your own business
look. My son was shocked to see his cousin tossing chip wrappers on the street while traveling on a cycle rickshaw, when he asked her
why she did that she innocently replied, “Everyone does that, it’s not a big
deal.” But after a couple of days when I saw him spitting right in the middle of the street and asked why he did that he gave me the same answer, people pick up bad habits very easily. I have to remind my son
that it doesn't make wrong things right just because the majority of
people do it, wrong is still wrong and don’t try to mend your ways just
because you are a minority. It was really sad to see the lack of interest of people
in the Clean India drive; they were not at all passionate about such a good initiative that too in the constituency of a man who started this movement just a few weeks back. Some roads of this city were wide enough for two-way traffic
and in reasonably good condition compared to many others, when I asked people
about who did this work? They all replied that it was because of the district
magistrate Mr. Pranjal Yadav. There were also a few roads which were newly paved
and smooth when I asked about them people told me that they were repaired
recently as our new PM Mr. Modi was supposed to travel on them. I really wish
that Mr. Modi chose a different road every time he travels in Varanasi so that
every road gets a nice makeover because of his travel.
In my village things were
even worse, there was no electricity, and out of two days I stayed there we
received power only for 8 hours that too in-between 10 PM to 6 AM. I wonder how
young kids will study in such poor infrastructure, people have cars and good
houses but no electricity. One good thing I saw this time was that every home
in my village has a toilet now, I was very happy to see it. At least some good
work has been done by the current government. The situation of roads and electricity
was really pathetic but people seem to have learned to live with these
conditions. Another incident that shocked me was when I saw a huge traffic
jam during one of my road
travel in Bhadohi (my village is a part of this town). The entire side of a
major highway (Grand Trunk Road or GT road) was blocked by police and people
were forced to use only one side of the road creating huge chaos and a very long
line of trucks as this road is the main transport road for this part of the state. I
have seen many traffic jams in my life but this was utter chaos. I thought
what if someone falls seriously ill and needs to go to the hospital urgently how
they can navigate in such a mess as there is no one to control this chaos. But I guess I
was the only one who was having this stupid question in my mind, everyone else
around me was fine with this mess. When I asked people what happened? Why do police block the entire side of the road? I was told that there is a Bharat
Milaap ceremony (a function celebrating the meeting of Ram and Bharat) that is
going to take place on the road and that’s why it is closed. I really couldn’t
believe my ears that they could block a major highway in the middle of the day for
such a stupid reason but it was true. I wondered why they were doing this show on a main highway. Why can’t they do it on some school grounds or open fields
where everyone can watch it comfortably and which won't result in such huge
traffic jams and inconvenience to so many people? Why all these people stuck and
suffering for no fault of theirs are silently watching this
stupidity? When I raised some of these questions to people around me they all
agreed with me but they said "Kya kare, ye aisa hi chalega, abhi kuchh
bologe to Pakistani kehake marne lagenge" (what to do, this will go on
like this only, if you object to these things they will attack you and call you
a Pakistani). It took more than 12 hrs to clear that jam and then someone told
me that there would be "Bharat milaap" functions performed by different villages on
different days and that's the moment I remembered the slogan "mera bharat
mahan." These people really deserve a round of applause for tolerating such plain
stupidity with so much grace and patience. I salute their patience but also
feel sad about their compulsion to tolerate such nonsense regularly.
I hope things change
for good in this amazing place. I love the people of this state, they are really
good, kindhearted, and very welcoming. They definitely deserve better
infrastructure and opportunities than what they are getting now. They need more
job opportunities as the youth of this state are forced to move out of the village and
even out of state in search of better job opportunities. There is a lot of work
that needs to be done and it can be only done with honest intentions and
strong political will which seems to be lacking in all parties which ruled this
state so far. People here have huge expectations from this new government
and its head (Mr. Narendra Modi). Many people from this state seem to be in
love with Mr. Modi as they don’t want to hear any word against him, I hope
he fulfills their expectations and brings that change in
these people’s lives. Mr. Modi has the power and all the resources that are required
to bring that change. He cannot offer any excuse for failure to
do this, it will be a huge betrayal if he doesn't do that. These people
are used to these types of betrayals but I hope Mr. Modi changes that
trend and fulfills his promises of development and job creation.
Thanks for reading and
please share your views on this topic.
[Copyright: Vinay
Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]
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