Sati uncovers a blot on Cong’s MP poster boy Digvijay Singh

What happened and how it happened depends on who you are speaking to. Some say that people came with agarbattis—and in what appears improbable—they add that they lit the pyre with these. Some say that they tried to stop her, some say they couldn’t. Whether she sat on it and burnt herself or whether she died of shock isn’t clear.

What is clear is this: Her family is a BPL (Below Poverty Line) family. And for the last five years, she and her husband lived separately, their 1.5 acres barren because of the drought.

Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, his party’s poster boy for rural development, said that action should be taken against the entire village, that everyone there was the accused. Here goes what he didn’t say:

• Patna Tamoli in Panna district seems to have fallen off his map. In his much-touted Human Development Report, it ranks 40th out of 45 districts with female literacy as low as 19%.

• Bimla Chaurasia is the Sarpanch of the village since the seat is reserved for women. Her father-in-law held the seat for 15 years, now her husband runs the show. ‘‘When I heard about the sati, I could not go to the spot because I had to prepare food for the family,’’ said Bimla.

• The Zilla Parishad president’s seat is reserved for SC/STs. So a local busybody Rama Kant Sharma has appointed his daily-wage labourer as the president and himself as the vice president. There are 20 cases registered against him.

• Rs 38 lakh was sanctioned for the village under the Gramin Nal Yojna. Its aim: to provide water in every home. Seven years later, a tank capacity of 140,000 litres of water has been built. But the pipeline leaks in several places, the 30 tubewells installed are mere show pieces. Women trudge long distances to fetch water.

• Take a walk after sunset you will know which house belongs to the rich Chaurasias—those who own acres of lucrative paan fields. There is power in almost every Chaurasia home. Others are in the dark.

• The sarpanch, Bimla Chaurasia’s home has eight rooms, more than one TV and a cordless phone.

• Another of Digvijay’s pet schemes advertised in his HDR report is setting up of eight samitis per village to monitor a range of issues, from education and justice to security. Each of these is supposed to meet every month. In this village, besides the education samiti, there are none. ‘‘Nobody comes for these meetings, there is no money to do any work, so what is the point,’’ asks Ram Saran Chaurasia, former chief of the health samiti.

• No development work has been taken up by the panchayat for the last five years. A Panchayat member says bureaucrats’ palms need greasing. ‘‘Last year, at least there was Rs 1 lakh per year available under the Jawahar Rozgaar Yojna which used to come directly to the village but even that has been terminated,’’ he said.