Picture of contrasts

ON an otherwise dull morning, this columnist spotted a dazzling photograph that made her day. It was a picture that showed Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu and Chief Minister of Haryana Om Prakash Chautala campaigning together. The picture was on the front pages of one of the nation's premier dailies, otherwise known largely to feature beauty queens and beauty queen wannabes.

The picture showed what it is that makes our democracy a vibrant study in contrasts; and it also revealed the binding, bonding power of money in Bharat that is India today. It was South meeting North; ex-Chief Minister's son meeting ex Chief Minister's son-in-law; Net lord meeting Jat lord on the soil of where else; but Kurukshetra. Yes, there they both were, the bearded and youthful technosavvy Chandrababu Naidu, and Jat Supremo Devi Lal's aging son and heir in Haryana: Om Prakash Chautala, leader of the ruling Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). Both were resplendent with enormous garlands glittering with gold-braid and crisp currency notes, and verdurous and winding green headgear, typical of the area.

"This is the land of Kurukshetra, ...." Naidu is said to have remarked. "There is a Mahabharata raging here again. On the side of good (Dharam) stand the INLD and the Bharatiya Janata Party, and on the side of evil, (Adharam), the Congress (I) and the Haryana Vikas Party(HVP)." The delighted host for his part, described Naidu as the developmental icon of our times: the International He-Man (Vishwa Vikas Purush). He described in glowing terms to the hookah-smoking crowd of Haryana villagers who this illustrious son of Andhra Pradesh was, and how much he had done for the development of his State. Naidu claimed that the coming era belonged to regional outfits and that he had come to campaign for the INLD as it also was a regional party and a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) co-partner.

How did the audience react to all this comradely back-thumping you may ask? The reports do not reveal much on this score. Perhaps in the way of most English language journalists from our metro towns, the reporters did not understand the local language too well. It is quite possible the farmers were saying, "At last! the cyber-revolution is coming to the land of the Mahabharata! And we have lived to see it." One wonders if they thought it would recompense for the long days they have all spent, waiting for power-supply to resume, the river-water distribution to be sorted out and the procurement prices for farm produce to rise. "All that their leaders have done of late is, quarrelled, brought each other's governments down and formed new alliances. Power and water supply have been erratic, prices have plunged while they have been left gazing patiently at the inert horizon with numb and hopeless anticipation. But the epic references by the leaders, might have brought new hope. After all even the Mahabharata war ended on day 18, didn't it? May be after this election, Indraprastha will see glory once again.

So far as we, the outsiders, can make out, the arrival of Chandrababu Naidu could not, and did not, fundamentally alter the lives or vision of the electorate in Haryana. Yet this brief sojourn by a man who has come to represent change and new thinking, was somewhere vital to the wily Jat leader, who is pitted against two other Jats (Bansilal of the HVP) and B.S. Hudda of the Congress(I), along with one Bishnoi (Bhajan Lal). And of course (this being Kurukshetra), his own (rebel) brother Ranjit Singh is there too in the fray, casting aspersions on Big Brother as a Congress(I) candidate.

Anyway, the rally in Bahadurgarh did distract attention from traditional familial quarrels and also provided Chautala a subject for conversation about likely change and development in the State under his stewardship, after the election Mahabharata is over.

The presence of Naidu and Chautala on the same podium was material proof of the existence of a brave new world where cyberspace and the internet unite all, and Sirsa is just a mouse- click away from Seattle. It was bracing confirmation of the fact that there already existed a part of India, which had broken through regional isolation and now strode the globe. It had sent them the great CEO in flesh and blood, who now stood blowing his Panchajanya conchshell in favour of his Arjuna: Chautala.

Perhaps as the Haryanvis went to the poll on February 22, the people of Kanonda in Bahadurgarh district at least, would have been engaged in a debate about when the cyber revolution would get to their benighted state. Will the nineth Assembly that the election brings into being, also renege on its pre-poll promises, or will it deliver cyber cafes and internet commerce and highways smooth as the actress Hema Malini's cheeks? "We will soon adopt the technology Naidu is using," Chautala is said to have assured the audiences. It is, after all, election time, and during election time in North India at least, no leader worth his salt will ever admit to being anything but democratic, forward-looking and net-savvy; never mind how feudal and tribal the Khap (Caste Panchayat) laws that actually run the party and the State- apparatus he is presiding over.

In similar times, both Naidu and Chautala's predecessor, Bansilal of the HVP, too had promised the electorate (particularly the women) fundamental changes, starting with a ban on liquor and uprooting of all forms of corruption. But what happened? The Haryana Chautala gleefully inherited from Bansilal (after his falling out with his erstwhile friend the BJP and then the Congress(I)), is, today, even more ridden with corruption, and economically deep in the red. Both Naidu and Bansilal were eventually forced by the powerful liquor barons into revoking the prohibition. We hear the "dry years" have cost the State exchequers dear, and if the ticket distribution is any indication, local politics has continued to be a family business in both A.P. and Haryana, dominated by the caste considerations and the male kith and kin of the ex-Chief Ministers.

It is interesting that around the same time that Naidu and Chautala were being garlanded with currency notes, the Prime Minister too addressed an election rally in the State, in Ballabhgarh, where he reiterated the urgent need for electoral reforms and expressed a deep concern over the visible misuse of money power during the elections. This rally, according to newspaper reports, was not attended by the INLD Chief and Chief Minister Chautala. Naidu, of course was only a guest. He must have left soon for Hyderabad. He was wise.

Perhaps he also knows that in Mahabharata, (in the Karna Parva) the Yakshi Ulookhalmekhala has advised the pilgrims: "Having spent the day in Kurukshetra, just leave. If you stay here, you shall find that all that you saw in daytime, is being stood on its head as night falls."

MRINAL PANDE

The author writes in Hindi and English and is a freelance journalist.

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