IT is what they call the boondocks. There is nothing — absolutely nothing — striking about this place, right in the middle of nowhere, except its benumbing penury. There are 200 people to a tubewell and 99 per cent of the households do not have even a toilet. There are simply no drains and, therefore, the streets are like a stinking puddle even without any rain. No electricity for days and no water to irrigate the surrounding farms where standing stalks of wheat and sugarcane seem to be on the verge of wilting. And yet the denizens of Harora, Mandebansh, Sayed Majra and other poverty-stricken villages of this assembly constituency — peopled by mostly Muslims and Dalits — share a dream. A dream that borders on fantasy. That in less than a fortnight their nondescript constituency would find a prominent place on the map of the country and soon enough their problems would vanish — choo mantar. That the whole region would have electricity for 22 hours a day, enough water to irrigate the parched fields, maybe a doctor, perhaps a high school, add to that a bus that would stop on the Roorkee-Saharanpur highway so that they do not have to walk for miles to go to the nearest town. The Muslims of Mandebansh don’t seem to mind that Mayawati is planning to jump into bed with their worst enemy, the BJP. They do not see it as a contradiction or rank opportunism, or even compromise with secularism. ‘‘It is all politics,’’ says Irshad. ‘‘Well, look at Sonia Gandhi; she wants Mulayam Singh Yadav to have a Muslim chief minister in UP. How many Muslim CMs does she have among her team of 14?’’ Even those who are sceptical of the BJP have enormous faith in her ability to assert herself. ‘‘Mayawati can tame the BJP. If she enters an alliance, it will be on her own terms, and she will push her own agenda,’’ argues 20-year-old Sharbat from Sayed Majra village. Sharbat, who has studied up to class eight since there is a junior high school in her village, considers Mayawati as her role model. Her entire family votes for the BSP because of three reasons: first, because they come from the same community of Gada biradari of Sunni Muslims that the local BSP MP Mansur Ali Khan comes from. Second, they all believe claims Sharbat, that ‘‘under Mayawati’s rule electricity was available in the area for 22 hours a day while today it’s not available for even 22 minutes.’’ Finally, as Sharbat’s uncle Shamim Ahmed, a local teacher, points out: ‘‘Mayawati is a strong personality — she had four Muslim cabinet ministers in her council despite the BJP’s support, Mulayam had only one.’’ Forty-year-old Noor Jehan, a mother of six, looks at the possibility of such an alliance positively. ‘‘It is the only compromise available, the only feasible alternative, the only possibility of aman chain (peace and respite) between communities which are today at each other’s throats in Gujarat.’’ Salma Khatun, 55, a mother of nine, agrees that what is happening in Gujarat is ‘‘tragic’’ and the US bombing of Afghanistan which she heard about from her children indeed sounded like ‘‘pillage and plunder’’ but ‘‘we need to take care of our immediate problems — scarcity of water, no electricity, no doctors, no drains.’’ Salma believes that Mayawati ‘‘being a woman will have a solution to our immediate problems.’’ Whether Mayawati can solve their problems or that remains a mere dream will be the test of her leadership once she comes to power.
