Opinion Good news and bad

When a village ‘pradhan’ gets used to seeing more money in his bank account than he has ever dreamed of,he is unlikely to pass it on to the unemployed unless they happen to be related to him. He has to pass on some of it though and even when he does,MNREGA works badly. It is treated by those who get it as dole and not real work and this is creating in one of our most backward states,a worrying sense of lazy entitlement. The damage could be permanent and incalculable.

Now for some really good news. In a state that has remained mired in misery and poverty mainly because of an unhealthy obsession with caste and creed,temples and mosques,the issue in this election is development. If Mayawati wins again,it will be because people believe that she has brought real change to their lives. If she loses,it will be because they believe the opposite. Both Hindus and Muslims I encountered on my rural wanderings told me that what they wanted most were roads,electricity,water,jobs and a roof over their heads. Unemployment remains the biggest problem and this is another sign that MNREGA has not worked.

In Rae Bareli and Amethi. I did run into some older people who said that they would vote for the Gandhi family because they always had but I also ran into those who said that the Dynasty’s vaunted charisma was losing its appeal. In the words of a school principal,“We like to say that we are proud that we live in Rahul Gandhi’s constituency but look at my school,it has no walls,no proper class rooms. There are 200 children who pay Rs 30 a month and some come from families who do not pay even this for months. I can barely afford to pay the teachers. I have tried to get help from the MLA and failed.” Frankly,the horrific poverty I saw in the villages of Amethi and Rae Bareli left me quite mystified.

Thanks,though,to Mayawati’s Ambedkar village programme,there are villages that have changed dramatically for the better in our two most VVIP constituencies. Mayawati appears to understand that what very poor people need most are tools to enable them to rise out of their poverty. So instead of distributing dole and cheap food,her welfare programmes provide for electricity,roads,water and homes. If a village has a Dalit population that exceeds 75 per cent,it can apply to be registered as an Ambedkar village and this brings a road,electricity and water. It also brings what is called a ‘ka-loni’ (colony) which is a one-room home for those who do not have a pucca house. What is intriguing about the Ambedkar village scheme and her Mahamaya urban housing scheme is that there appears to be almost no corruption. What is she doing right?

The other bit of good news from our largest state is that Lucknow looks magnificent. I have known this town since my school days in Uttar Pradesh and seen it deteriorate from one of India’s most beautiful cities to a squalid slum. Socialist governments under Congress and the Samajwadi Party were directly responsible. How interesting that it should take a Dalit woman from a very poor family to restore this city to a semblance of its former glory. She may have spent more money on those memorials than she should have but she had the sense to build monuments that are aesthetically pleasing.

As someone who believes India was ruined by forty years of ‘socialism’ may I remind you that every monument we built in that time copied Soviet boxlike architecture. Mayawati has not made this mistake.

Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @ Tavleen_Singh