| Wednesday , July 10 , 2013 |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130710/jsp/frontpage/story_17100892.jsp#.Udy8LDswevc
Left with an ant-eaten promise | ||||||
| PRONAB MONDAL IN JORAM | ||||||
Pipilikar pakha gojaye moribar tore (Ants grow wings before death) Subhendu Adhikari, Trinamul MP at a campaign meeting in West Midnapore on Tuesday, predicting the fate of the Opposition in the panchayat polls and moving on to target state election commissioner Mira Pande. Trinamul speakers take care to say what their leader wants to hear on the campaign trail but “ants” need not be an apt metaphor, certainly not at Joram in West Midnapore that votes on Thursday.
Back in 1994, Mamata Banerjee had sat under a tamarind tree in the middle of this village of tribals, sharing a plate of fried ant eggs with them as she listened to their tale of wretched deprivation. Madan Sabar, who fried the ant eggs and served them to Mamata, is no more. Little else has changed in Joram since that day 19 years ago when Mamata, then a young Congress MP, promised the villagers that if she ever came to power, she would see to it that they had a better life. The nearest health centre is 15km away. The nearest ration shop is three hours away by foot.
When the rice bought from the ration shop runs out, roots are plucked from the forest and boiled. A solitary well is the lone source of drinking water. Yes, they still fry eggs, mash them with onion slices and green chilli because that is one of the few — if not the only — sources of protein. A sharp observer such as the chief minister may notice one more change: the villagers have also started selling the eggs to people in nearby villages who cannot afford other providers of protein. There is another reason for the trade in eggs: the village cannot plant crops more than once in a year because of lack of irrigation facilities — a telling statement in a state ruled by a party that puts farming and fertile land above everything else. So touched was Mamata in 1994 that in a book she wrote the following year, Upalabdhi(Realisation), she referred to her experience in the Jungle Mahal village to highlight the failures of Left rule.
Two days before the village votes in the first phase of the panchayat elections, Rupchand Sardar, 69, stood under the same tamarind tree as he recounted what he remembered of Mamata’s visit 19 years ago. “I sat next to her and told her how difficult it was for us to eke out a living.” The Left Front government had done “nothing” for them. “She listened. I got the feeling that she felt our suffering.” Sardar said many in the village had expected matters would improve when Mamata became Bengal’s chief minister two years ago and spelt out her promises for Jungle Mahal. He pointed to a house. “That’s Madan’s house. That is where Madan fried the ant eggs and served them to Mamata. Madan is dead and so it appears are Mamata’s promises.” Little has changed, he said. “There is hardly any farming here, only one crop a year, because there is no irrigation system. If anyone falls ill, we have to hire a car for Rs 300 to reach the nearest health centre in Belpahari, 15km away. We are poor people, with hardly enough to eat, from where will we get this money?” In the nearby Chakadoba village, too, expectations from the Trinamul government are no different. But the only paribartan she has seen in the past two years, said Rekha Murmu, standing at her doorstep, was that some moram (red gravel) had been sprinkled on the mud path in front of her house. “We had a lot of expectations from the new government,” said the 28-year-old. But except the change of guard, nothing much has changed. “We still have to go to ponds to collect water and, in the hot, dry season, the water becomes so thick with mud that it’s virtually unusable.” Rekha feels she has been “betrayed twice”. “We voted for the communists but they did nothing for us. Then we voted for Trinamul but, so far, we have not seen much (of a change).” The scene is no different in other villages in the area like Dhangikusum, Simulpal, Shakhabhanga and Jamaimari. “There are no roads leading to Dhangikusum,” said Gurupada Sabal, a villager. “The panchayat elections are here but we still don’t know who to vote for.” |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130710/jsp/frontpage/story_17100892.jsp#.Udy8LDswevc