After an hour’s drive on a dirt track, backbreaking for all five of us in the SUV, we reach Jorakat village in Barkagaon block, about 40 km from Hazaribagh district headquarters. A motley group of villagers garland their MP as he gets off. A campaign song, borrowed from a popular Hindi film, plays out, calling upon everyone to vote for Jayant Sinha and Narendra Modi. A little distance away, a group of men and women gather to hear the Union minister of state for civil aviation speak. Mantriji is losing his voice and so a speaker and mic are put up. It’s a rechargeable bluetooth-enabled set that travels with Jayant, who is smart enough to know that power connections in remote Jharkhand villages are unreliable at best, the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana notwithstanding.
Jayant talks to them about being part of a government led by Prime Minister Modi, he speaks of electricity in every village, and when someone fishes out a health card he holds forth on Ayushman Bharat, a national health insurance scheme. A woman points out that she is thankful for her gas connection (Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana), but is unable to afford a refill to which the minister explains the kind of benefits the use of LPG can bring, assuring her of the savings she would accrue if not now, at least in the near future. The woman nods in approval but doesn’t seem convinced.
“My communication to my voters in Hazaribagh is about teen sha (three S). Suvidhay, sushashan, suraksha. Suvidhay is about bijli, sadak, paani, gas cylinder, toilets, health and education. Everywhere you go in Hazaribagh you will see roads, you will see electricity in every house, you will see gas cylinders in every house, you will see jal minars,” says Jayant, who is aiming to cover at least 20 villages a day. The next sha stands for sushashan, which he pitches as the work of a government that serves the people as opposed to the earlier one that did everything to enrich itself. And suraksha is to stress how the country “has many enemies” but is now much safer in the face of constant threats from terrorists, leftwing extremists and infiltrators. A dig about a certain “Pappu” wraps up his 15minute speech and he is off to the next village.
Jayant Sinha, touring his constituency of Hazaribagh with 17 lakh voters, exudes a sense of confidence. Among BJP candidates in Jharkhand, he is on the strongest wicket. Even rivals agree. He is also among the crorepatis (declared assets worth Rs 77.07 crore). The BJP may have won 12 of 14 seats in the state in 2014 — Jayant defeated the Congress’s Saurabh Narain Singh by over 1.5 lakh votes — ground realities indicate it may not be able to maintain that tally.
“It’s very much a game of numbers and the numbers are in our favour. A Modi victory is a forgone conclusion,” Jayant, however, insists. The Congress, which found it difficult to finalise a candidate against him, reliable sources in the gathbandhan have told The Telegraph, ultimately zeroed in on Gopal Sahu, an old hand.
On the way to the next village of Gondalpura, another 30 minute drive down an undulating, crater riddled mud path, Jayant opens up to questions.
The Telegraph: Why is this road in such a bad state? Must say the people of Jorakat let you off easy.
Jayant: Hazaribagh is a vast constituency with more than 2,000 villages and 400 panchayats. Not every village has been covered in terms of fixing roads. But now we have changed the terms of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna. Previously, we had to have 500 people living in a village before roads could be built. Now, even with 250 people we can build roads.
TT: Hasn’t the BJP’s strident Hindutva campaign vitiated the political discourse?
Jayant: That’s a completely wrong and unfair characterisation. In politics around the world identity is always important and when you interact with people you realise issues of identity are extremely important. Our party’s guiding philosophy is sab ka saath sab ka vikas. The Prime Minister has said over and over again that his religion is to serve India and his only holy book is the Constitution. We are committed to all constitutional norms and principles. We are here to serve all Indians.
TT: Tell me about the controversy over your felicitation of a group of men accused of lynching.
Jayant: That chapter is closed. But I want to clarify three very important matters. One, I am completely against mob violence and lynching, and I stand for the rule of law. In fact, I have been somebody who has seen, first hand, the 1984 riots, and I myself as a student in IIT Delhi saved an elderly Sikh gentleman from being lynched by a mob. To think, therefore, that I would in any way support anybody taking the law in their hands is completely untrue. Two, I have total respect for the rule of law and for the due process of law. Three, the people who came to my house are actually innocent. The high court order giving them bail made it crystal clear that the six people who came to my house, of the seven people who were released on bail that day, were actually innocent and that to call them “guilty” is a travesty of justice.
I studied the matter very carefully, consulted with a number of eminent lawyers and realised that this had been a miscarriage of justice for these people…. Then, having been jailed for one full year, they came to my house for a private event with their families, and because I had assisted their lawyer in being able to appeal for bail their families fell on my feet and said: “Thank you very much for saving our lives.” And then their parents said to me, “Please, you have given them a fresh lease of life (so) please welcome them back to normal life by garlanding them.” So, I did it because their parents were asking me to do it. And in no way does it mean that I was supporting anything which is a violation of the rule of law.
I feel terrible for what happened in that incident. And I have made an effort to ensure that the victim’s family get the support they deserve from the local administration.
TT: How are things at home with your father Yashwant Sinha’s open criticism of the party and government?
Jayant: I always have the blessings of my parents. And one thing we have consistently done as a family is to separate our personal lives from our professional and public lives.
During the 2009 elections, Yashwant Sinha had told The Telegraph how he was tired of being greeted by complaints about blocked drains and accumulated garbage. He felt voters were unaware of an MP’s role in Parliament. Five years later, Jayant took over from his father, and while on a similar SUV campaign in localities on NH33, he had told me how he would have to figure out a way of doing both. “Fix the drains and address your core competency areas. If I win, I will have to find a way to do this.”
He won. Now in 2019, Jayant indicates he has been able to do that. With a focused approach, not surprising given his background in fund management and global finance, he runs an efficient office. He talks of having benchmarked all the blocks in his constituency and developing a district score card to track performance in ODF, maternal mortality rate, and nutrition for children. “Hazaribagh and Ramgarh have consistently been among the best in Jharkhand and India because we have been working very closely with BDOs, mukhiyas, district collectors and SPs to get things done.”
If in 2014, Jayant’s campaign was about a newbie introducing himself to a constituency nurtured by his father. This time, his canvassing has the swagger of a sitting MP. So, when we reach Gondalpara and the village headman sounds out an appeal loudly, Jayant doesn’t budge. Pointing to the vast expanse in front, that is actually a surveyed coal block, the gram pradhan wants the MP to promise there won’t be any mining in the area.
'Aap ke iccha ke virudh yahan kuch nahi hoga (Nothing will be done here without your consent),” Jayant declares immediately while standing underneath a large tree, going on to point to the solar lights erected there courtesy his MP’s fund. He also walks across to a nearby water tower equipped with a solar powered pump and washes his hands to highlight the benefits of modern science. Never mind that the inscription on the jal minargives credit to its installation to local Congress MLA Nirmala Devi.
A systematic campaign centred around no-nonsense talk, Jayant is doing it his own way. Addressing local issues helps him steer clear of, say, a jobs crisis or agrarian distress. And it seems to be working.
