When the Koyna dam was constructed four decades ago in the rugged Sahyadri ranges in western Maharashtra, it was called, in Nehruvian parlance, a temple of modern India. One which would usher development in a region otherwise gifted by nature.Today, the picturesque dam site is a cosy retreat for weary politicians. But the backwaters of the Koyna are home to a people forgotten by time, living in villages accessible only by boat and on foot. Many in these villages have spent a lifetime without ever visiting a big city, people who think Delhi is a far-away land where rulers and their courtiers have time only for intrigue and deceit.In one of these villages, called Kharoshi, lives Dashrath Ambaji More, a boy who, like his father and his father before him, works in the paddy fields. Unlike their fathers, Dashrath and his friends do take the boat to the marketplace across the reservoir. It was on their last visit to nearby Tapola, sometime in January, that they learnt people were preparing forelections.``Why have new leaders again? And why so soon,'' they asked. Someone in Tapola market explained that there had been some ``confusion in Delhi'' and, therefore, they had to decide on a new leader again. Elections do not grip Dashrath and his friends. They shrug disinterestedly if they are asked to name the party of their choice. Alien queries, these invite no answer.The last time they saw a political leader here was when paddy growers, demanding the return of their land, decided to knock down the markers erected by the State Forest Department. On January 30, when major political parties were busy finalising their alliances and manifestos, paddy cultivators were protesting for the return of their land that had been ``needlessly acquired'' by the State.It was then that a ``leader'' surfaced, emerging as if from the backwaters. Sanjay Pawar, deputy chief of a Shiv Sena shakha in Bamnoli, came in to Koyna to invite the village heads to ``the chance-of-a-lifetime'' meeting with the local ShivSena MLA Sadashiv Sapkale. ``Don't miss this opportunity. There are special launches to take you to and fro,'' the Sainik kept shouting. The idea was to gather all the villagers at one spot for a meeting with his chief. ``Otherwise, it is all very time consuming. I would have had to go all around,'' says Sapkale. But elections are another matter.Seventy two-year-old Shankar Jadhav, who hardly leaves his field, says there are not many who bring news about the elections. According to him, there can be no justification for spending huge sums of money only to elect a Khasdaar. ``Didn't they elect one not very long ago?'' By that remark Jadhav means Prithviraj Chavan of the Congress since the villages along the backwaters fall under the Karad parliamentary constituency.To a people who have seen a health centre at Kharoshi being inaugurated with much fanfare never to open, it is difficult to drive home the importance of exercising their franchise. The villages have never had a road link, one which could linkthem to the rest of the country. There are boats but they too can be used only when there is enough water. In the months when the water levels recede, the only option is to trudge miles on foot. There is word now that the Maharashtra PWD has finally begun work on a 80 km road to the Koyna villages. For the first time in 37 years this Nehruvian temple of modern India may see some stirrings of development.
