Thanera is an average village in an average constituency, where none of the main contestants has an appeal outside party affiliations. So like any Madhya Pradesh village, it shows precisely why Digvijay Singh’s biggest boasts over the past five years—achievements in the social sector such as increased literacy, improved primary education and more powers to the gram sabha—just don’t seem enough to erase discontent over the most potent weapon working against him: the power crisis. Over a 1,000 voters, almost equally divided between the upper castes, mostly Brahmins, backwards and SCs, reside in this village lying in a constituency that borders UP in the Gwalior-Chambal region. Everyone here, even a Brahmin, is a farmer, or works as agricultural labour. The monsoon this year was the first good one after three years of drought. The drought work undertaken last year just about managed to prevent large-scale migration. A new building is under construction for the old primary school, two new primary schools under the education guarantee scheme have come up in the village, nearly 100 pattas of land have been allotted to Dalit families and an adult literacy campaign has been implemented. At least on paper, the village should speak for Digvijay. Ram Sahay Pal is the sarpanch, a Gaderia OBC. ‘‘We got two tanks constructed as part of drought relief last year, work on one is still underway, but the other is now full to the brim,’’ he lists out the achievements, but admits to a few problems when assembled villagers inteject. ‘‘You have yourself seen the approach road to the village. Then there is the problem with electricity. There is no bijli. The whole village depends on agriculture and farmers are trying to irrigate their fields with diesel pumps.’’ Others through the village fill in the gaps in the picture. Ram Gopal, the upsarpanch, lives in the Brahmin area of the village. He has been upsarpanch for 10 years, and a panch before that. ‘‘All my life, I have voted for the Congress but I cannot understand all this talk of panchayati raj. All it means is that after taking the decisions, we go from door to door asking people to sign the register,’’ he says. There are some real achievements, but he has to be reminded of it. ‘‘Yes, we have ensured the teachers under our control report on time. No karamchari working in the village can afford to be lax. But why do you want to write about all this? You see those three tanks behind you. Each has a capacity of 5,000 litres, one each for the Brahmin, picchada and Dalit bastis. There is a pump at the village tank which fills these tanks. Last year the tank ran dry and the women had to walk to the well for water,’’ he says. ‘‘This year, almost six months ago, the wiring to the motor was stolen and the electricty department still has not done anything about it, so the women are left with the same problem. The electricty department is not good for anything. If they can’t give us power at least they can repair the motor.’’ Every conversation returns to this department, to this issue. Baldev Singh Jatav is a beneficiary of another major thrust of the Digvijay government, the land distribution to Dalits, ‘‘Both my sons received pattas of 4 bigahs each. But the land is pathreli (stony). Nothing can grow there. And I had to pay a bribe of Rs 5,000 each for the allottment. I have few bigahs of land of my own, but I have no seed saved up and it is lying fallow. The drought relief work saved us last year. But we need help this year as well. And because of a lack of power, the sowing is proceeding slowly, there isn’t enough work for labourers like me.’’
