In the searing afternoon heat in Dehri town under Karakat Lok Sabha constituency, Eqbalul Haque, 64, is sitting in front of a fan at his shop that sells steel almirahs. The streets are empty and without any potential customers.
He watches a woman distributing pamphlets and seeking votes in favour of a candidate and says, “Vote kisi ko bhi de denge, lekin Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) ko nahi denge. (I will vote for anybody, but not for Modi). He is anti-Muslim.”
We ask why and Eqbalul says: “He is anti-Muslim. His words, speeches and entire poll campaign are always against us. He should have concentrated on development and employment instead. Businesses have gone down and everybody is suffering.”
His neighbour across the street — Alauddin Ansari, with a shop selling coolers, hand pump, and other durables — joins in to say that the government in this country should change every five years if there is no development.
“See these hand pumps, I used to sell around 400 pieces per month but it dropped to 15 to 20. The reason is the tap water scheme for every household. However, the demand is again picking up, because the water supply scheme is failing at several places in the area. This is the development and the waste of money in its name,” Alauddin added.
Rashtriya Lok Morcha chief Upendra Kushwaha is the NDA candidate and is pitted in Karakat against CPIML’s Raja Ram Singh and Pawan Singh — the independent contestant.
The neighbouring Lok Sabha seat is Sasaram, famous for the magnificent, three-storied octagonal tomb of Sher Shah Suri, the ruler of the Afghan dynasty who defeated Humayun to establish a well-administered, economically sound empire. Built in the middle of an artificial lake in 1545, the monument could make it
to the Unesco world heritage
list someday.
We talked to a group of people, which included Hindus and Muslim youths, near the mausoleum and floated the question at them.
“Earlier we used to celebrate all our festivals together. We used to roam all night during Durga Puja and went to idol immersions, shoulder-to-shoulder with our Hindu friends. We used to play Holi with equal enthusiasm. Today our guardians worry if we are out for a few hours during these festivals. They keep calling us frequently to ask us to return home,” said Taufiq Ahmad, a hardware shop owner at Makrani in Sasaram.
Sasaram is a seat reserved for the Scheduled Castes. The BJP’s Shivesh Kumar and the Congress’s Manoj Kumar are slugging it out here.
In Buxar, which is seeing a triangular contest between the BJP’s Mithilesh Tiwari, the RJD’s Sudhakar Singh and Independent candidate, former IPS officer Anand Mishra, the people from the minority community hesitate in discussing elections with unknown persons.
“Why are you asking about Modi? We are peace-loving people. My life has been devoted towards ensuring a good education for my children. One of my sons is studying at AIIMS Deoghar. I hope he treats people of all religions with affection and sympathy when he becomes a doctor. Tell me what wrong I have done to be made to feel like an unwanted, demonised citizen in this country,” said Muhammad Wasim, a poultry farm owner at Kathkauli village in Buxar.
In Patna Sahib constituency, Muhammad Aslam, 51, runs a footwear shop at Dariyapur, which caters to people of all religions. He keeps listening to his customers discussing the election and joins in sometimes.
“Sab theek tha Modi ji ke saath. Kaam karne wale hain, imaandaar bhi hain, strong image bhi hai. Lekin, mazhab k naam par bhedbhav nahin karna tha. Unke chele toh aur unse do kadam aage hain. Dil tod diya (Everything was fine about Modi. He takes an interest in his work, is honest and has a strong image. But he should not have discriminated based on religion. His disciples are two steps ahead of him. My heart is broken),” Aslam said.
The footwear seller did a ‘namaste’ when we parted, but not before revealing that he started doing so after a few of his customers objected to his gesturing ‘salaam’ to them.
