A Window To Perceptive Journalism

Lambi gets three choices, but does it have any?

S P Singh

"Parivar kinna wadda hai? (How big is your family?)" I ask a 35-year-old Amarjit Singh in village Channo and pat comes the reply, "Sadian das votan ne ji (We are ten votes)."  

Social paradigms shift as you move into Lambi, the native constituency of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. People talk only in terms of votes, and every new face is recognised either as a journalist, or a CID man trying to gauge mood in various villages. 

Kuchha houses, dusty village lanes, hundreds of unemployed youth in each village, and only two graduates in last twenty years, neither of whom got a job. You would think with such a scenario, Channo, less than three km from Badal village, could be one village where Badal would find difficult to get a vote. Hold on, for it is an overwhelmingly pro-Badal village.  

"Vikaas hi bahut keeta hai ji," Jeet Singh tells us, and as an example tells us about the high school which has been upgraded to 10+2. If in the motley crowd that surrounded us, there was no one whose kids have studied past 5^th grade, it is different matter. 

And if people sometimes cannot see what may be so obvious to an outsider, don’t blame them. Life in Lambi revolves around two camps within the Badal family, and a third dimension added by the family of Gurnam Singh Abulkhurana. That approximately defines the outer parametres of deliberate application of mind by Lambi’s electorate. 

In Channo, Amarjit, a bawaria Sikh, and his two brothers jointly own four acres of land, apparently not enough to sustain the joint family of fourteen, including ten adults. So all three brothers are daily wagers too, weaving coarse tokras (baskets) used in villages.  

"Somedays, if we are lucky, we make Rs 50, on other days the entire day may pass without any work," he says. It is a pitiful situation, Amarjit has been working for 15 years now after dropping out of school (of course he was helping his father in work even then), and his dream hasn't changed since then: he wants someday to buy a bicycle. 

So you think Lamb's voters lack awareness? Hold again, for you may be mistaken. "Yes, now we get drinking water at our homes. We have taps," Nachattar Singh beams as he tells you, praising the Chief Minister for some scheme which brought him the water. "So how many taps would this area have?" It was just a query to keep up the conversation with the villager. "Forty-two," he says, astonishing you with the exactness, and then it is the turn of the rest of the motley crowd to impress you as some tell you about the six-inch pipe that brings water, others about some Rs 2.5 crore scheme. 

Keep driving, and catch up with another crowd of 20-odd men in village Maan. "The fight is an equal battle between Badal and Mahesh (Inder Singh Badal, his cousin)," they tell you. So who will they vote for? "Jehra Badal Sahib de kam karda ji, uh Badal nu. Jehra Mahesh kiyan de kamm karde uh Mahesh nu, (Those who work for Badal will vote for him, those who work for Mahesh will vote for him)." Life is simple here. 

And no one notices the harsh reality that for years, they have been working for Badals and by all indicators, won’t have many choices in future. As you drive along the Bathinda-Lambi road, for a long time you are mesmerised by the beautiful Kinnow-laden trees on both sides, all belonging to the Badals. If suddenly a huge white bungalow rises up, it is Manpreet Badal’s. There are entire villages which work for these families, and no one talks of class differences here. 

Politics of patronisation is written into Lambi’s sub-text, and no one makes any bones about it."We have always helped anyone who came to us," says Bhupinder Pal Singh Dhillon associated for decades with the Badals and now looking after Mahesh’s campaign.  

Patronisation is required if you live in Lambi, most of whose 67 villages fall under just one police thana, a central entity in the constituency’s politics. It has made news too often for raids by court-appointed warrant officers. False cases in Lambi do not make for news anymore and there have been instances of political opponents being threatened not to entre police stations to complain. 

Congress’ Gurnam Singh Abulkhurana, who has traditionally contested against Badal and had lost by over 28,000 votes in 1997, again bagged the party ticket and, with son Jagpal Singh directing the campaign, is hoping to cash in on the Congress wave, if there is one. 

"We have always helped out those who were entangled in false cases by the Badals," Jagpal Singh told The Indian Express  and now hopes years of fighting for people allegedly harassed by those in power will vote for him. 

But Badal’s cousin and next-door neighbour Mahesh Inder Singh Badal, who joined Congress a few weeks back but rebelled after denial of ticket, is posing a bigger challenge to the Chief Minister who hasn’t made many visits to the area but has made sure that his wife and Rajya MP son Sukhbir Badal make up for his absence. 

"This time there is a fight because in Mahesh, people see someone able to counter the Chief Minister’s family. Mahesh enjoys goodwill, being son of highly respected Teja Singh who was a mentor of CM Badal but shunned him at the fag end of his life," say political observers. 

Badal-Mahesh-Abulkhurana is the only issue here. Schools, dispensaries, jobs are neither promised, nor asked for. Any talk of such issues is bound to provoke village jathedar to tell you how much have Badal Sahib done for his people. If you can’t see it, God help you, or the Lambi SHO. 

Many see the key to Lambi results in the cluster of 25 plus villages called Sarawan villages inhabited by Majha-origin people, since the rest of the electorate has been traditionally divided nearly equally between rivals for power. The electorate in Chappianwali, Kolianwali, Dabwali Dhab, Sarawan Bodla, Karam Patti, Kandukhera and dozens of these villages knows the value of their vote, and many quote the price too. 

"Last time I got Rs 500 note for each of my family’s seven votes. "Par uddon hazaar rupayiye wala note chhapda hi nahi si. Ais waari mazaa aayoo (But then Rs 1000 denomination note was not in print. It will be better times this time)," said a villager in Arniwaala.  

That is the kind of awareness in Lambi where the political debate’s parametres are limited. This time there are three choices, but frankly, are there any?■

February 9, 2002

Print this article

     
Home     Latest Column     SP Singh's Columns     Spice Of Politics     People     This Land Of Ours     Ballot Field     Across Radcliffe     Punjab's Religio-Politics

     
Cinema~Books~Life     Three Lines At A Time     Guest Column     Glossary     Archives     Grapevine    SP Singh     Contact     Search     Site Index     Site Map     Feedback

      © 2006       All rights reserved        Site design by Big Ideas