ELECTION BEATS
Battle for Rampur
ZIYA US SALAM
|
In the midst of campaigning, actor and MP Jayaprada takes time off to talk about how she’s dealing with the challenges of this election season and her plans for her constituency.
|
Many summers ago Jayaprada turned down Subhash Ghai’s film “Meri Jung”. Today, as she faces probably the biggest battle of her political career, she takes recourse to a song from the film. “Zindagi har qadam ek nai jung hai, jeet jaungi main tumhara jo sung hai,” says Jayaprada, addressing a community meeting in the Gangapur segment of her Lok Sabha constituency, Rampur.
She is a woman besieged. On the one side is the formidable challenge presented by the royal bahu Noor Bano of the Congress and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the BJP’s Muslim face. On the other, she is facing a bigger battle within her party. Azam Khan, the local MLA and the most visible Muslim face of the Samajwadi Party, is going out of his way to make things difficult for her.
Learning fast
Jayaprada, though, is keeping her dignity. Speaking in chaste Hindi, she tells a gathering of Thakurs and others, “I am going by what Mahatma Gandhi taught us. If somebody slaps you once, show him the other cheek.” She then lets the fast-learning politician in her come to the fore, adding, “Gandhiji was silent about what to do if the man slaps you on the other cheek too. But you can give an answer on May 13. I seek no votes from Muslims or Hindus. I want votes from every Vikas Purush and Vikas Nari. I have not been born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Like most of you, I am a simple daughter of a poor woman. I live in no palaces. My home is in every poor woman’s heart, a woman who survives on pension, a woman who is happy to have her name in the ration card as a mark of identity.”
Indeed. A little before her caravan rolled into Gangapur, some three hours behind schedule, a local grocer was heard saying, “She has built 13 bridges in Rampur in five years, which is more than the combined total of the other 50 years!” Another who runs a computer institute added, “Noor Bano does not have even five hours for local people. Jayaprada keeps aside five days a month for the constituency.”
Achievements
Concluding her address, Jayaprada hops into a Land Rover, and outlines her achievements and plans. “I bond with women. Their requirements are simple. For instance, I got insurance done for women who roll beedis. Then I got a handicraft centre established for the zari workers. I got rid of the middlemen. I provide the wedding clothes for poor girls and am setting up a stitching centre in every big village. I have brought about connectivity to Rampur. Unless you connect the villages with the towns, progress cannot percolate down to the poor. I have built bridges there. In the town, I have established a hospital and a nursing college for girls. For the past 40 years, Rampur did not have a blood bank. I built it.”
Photo: PTI
Going to the people: Jayaprada faces the biggest battle of her political career.
Little wonder Jayaprada has a better following in villages, where women seek her blessings, embrace and hug her, and tiny girls want her autograph! Even as she speaks in the car, fans and party workers wave at her from outside. She smiles, waves at them, then adds, “Next time I come here to ask for votes, I want most of them to have a degree after their name. After 60 years of Independence, we cannot afford to talk about religion and caste. Education has to be a universal right for everybody, from every religion, caste and region.”
Even as she talks about having set up primary schools and upgraded many to senior secondary level, the car stops at Ilahi Bagh, a predominantly Muslim middle class area. Courtesies over, Jayaprada begins her address with “Assalam-o-alaikum! I have been a part of the big Rampur family for the past five years. I seek your permission to be with you through all sorrows and joys for the next five years. I request all khatoon (women) assembled here to keep one thing in mind: You are in the kitchen every day, you wash clothes, clean up the house every day. All for your menfolk, all for your family. On May 13, won’t you step out to support your sister? Do it for the sake of development. Your family and your town deserves a better life.”
Plans
As women in burqa clap every now and then, Jayaprada concludes her address with “Allah Hafiz”, promising to be there at the next wedding in the locality. Soon after she hops into her car and reveals, “I address some 30 such meetings every day. I have been to every tiny lane and corner. I remember many faces, particularly of those with whom I have interacted a few times in the past five years. But there is so much poverty here that one Lok Sabha term is not sufficient to set everything right. I have concentrated on bridges, schools and other development things until now. In the second term, I want to do more for employment and healthcare. Rozgar ek adhikar hona chahiye. Aur ilaaj muft.”
As she gets down to address her party workers, taking out a cycle – her election symbol – rally, the actress in her comes to the fore. “I have just signed a very good film with K.C. Bokadia,” she says. As she steps down, a media person tells her Naqvi has had a similar rally. “Caravan sab nikaalte rahenge. Manzil par hum pahunchenge.” The battle is on. As Jayaprada said at the beginning, “Zindagi har qadam ek nai jung hai”.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Magazine
