Bihar Assembly elections | This independent candidate gets a leg-up from Jean Dreze
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Belgian-born economist has been tenting in village to assist MGNREGA activist Sanjay Sahni
The ballot marketing campaign within the Kurhani Assembly constituency of Muzaffarpur district is just like that within the different 243 constituencies of Bihar, besides that famous economist Jean Dreze and a group of pupil volunteers from totally different elements of the nation have been tenting in a village for the final 10 days to assist Independent candidate Sanjay Sahni.
Mr. Sahni, a class VII dropout, is a in style MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) activist within the space and intently related to the Belgian-born Indian economist and social scientist Mr. Dreze, RTI activists Nikhil Dey, Aruna Roy and others.
Along with Mr. Dreze, a group of eight pupil volunteers from Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Jharkhand and Bihar too have come to root for Mr. Sahni within the election.
Every day, braving the sultry local weather and the scorching solar, college students Xara Khan, Shailja Tondon, Achyuthan, Vipul, Anil Vyom, Nikhil and Piyush Fozan hit the dusty village tracks together with Mr. Sahni and a group of village ladies for marketing campaign within the constituency dominated by Scheduled Castes and Extremely Backward Caste folks.
Mr. Dreze too accompanies them generally however principally stays on the camp workplace dealing with technique and social media for the candidate.
“The sheer energy of the candidate and of the young student volunteers is inspiring…here you can see democracy in action with the participation of poor and disadvantaged people in the campaign”, Mr. Dreze informed The Hindu when requested why he had come to this distant place in Bihar to marketing campaign for a candidate contesting Assembly elections.
Ms. Tondon, who studied at JNU and now works on the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities in Delhi, and Ms. Khan, a contemporary pass-out from Rishi Valley School in Hyderabad, journey a number of kilometres day by day on their foot to be with the village’s ladies campaigners and information them from time to time to cowl their faces with masks.
Independent candidate Sanjay Sahni campaigns in his Kurhani Assembly constituency
| Photo Credit: Amarnath Tewary
“The reason I chose to come to Kurhani to campaign for Sanjayji is because I want to be part of a counter-movement against the systematic attack on democracy”, mentioned Ms. Tandon, whereas for Ms. Khan “it was an opportunity to absorb the women campaigners’ strength and hope for future struggles”.
“I’ve never participated in any political campaign before…also when I read Jean’s latest book Sense and Solidarity and came to know that he is coming here for campaign, I couldn’t resist coming here for the campaign, though my parents were a bit scared for me”, mentioned 17-year-old Ms. Khan, wiping beads of sweat from her brow together with her stole wrapped tightly round her face.
Mr. Achyuthan, Mr. Fozan and Mr. Nikhil too are with them studying “new ropes of democracy”. They don’t want any change in Bihar’s governance however a “transformation” that might finally carry out structural modifications in society.
Mr. Dreze and Mr. Vyom are on the camp workplace at Mahant-Maniyari in Ratnauli village of the constituency to analyse knowledge, be in contact with folks on social media and welcome the guests as nicely.
The native villagers are amused to see a foreigner talking in Hindi and staying put with them 24×7 for the final 10 days. They know that Mr. Dreze is a well-known economist however have no idea about his contribution to the MGNREGA.
“Yes, we know him…he is a very famous eekonomisst of the country…students from big cities of rich families too have come to support Sanjay Sahni, a local lad who has been working for us to get our right to work under MGNREGA for last several years”, mentioned Anita Devi, Mandeshri Devi and Indu Devi at Mahant Maniyari village.
Sanjay Sahni, in his mid-thirties, too feels proud and honoured that he’s getting assist from Mr. Dreze and the coed volunteers for marketing campaign. “Though I’ve have been working with Jean Dreze and other activists like Nikhil Dey, Aruna Roy and others, I had not imagined that they would come here to be with me for my campaign”, Mr. Sahni mentioned, whereas campaigning in Rampur village.
Since 2013, Mr. Sahni runs a group named Samaj Parivartan Shakti Sangathan for villagers to get their proper to work underneath the MGNREGA and ration underneath Public Distribution System (PDS) in Kurhani block of the district.
Earlier, he was working as an electrician and had a stall on the pavement of Janakpuri space of Delhi.
One day, in August 2011, he strayed into a cyber café on the opposite facet of the street and typed “NREGA Bihar” and the search engine gave him all the small print of MGNREGA associated to his village, Ratnauli. “I had heard that if you type anything on Google, you would find the answer”, he mentioned. Later, armed with the printouts, he returned to his village to confront the native authorities for gross misuse, rip-off and fabrication in numbers and funds to the harmless villagers.
“People are now aware of their rights and have learnt to question authorities about their rights”, he mentioned, flashing a smile on his face.
The Kurhani constituency is steeped in poverty and nearly all of persons are poor and downtrodden.
“Do you know your rights now? …will you allow contractors and mukhias (village heads) to deny you work under MGNREGA and ration under PDS like they used to earlier?”, Mr. Sahni requested a gathering of principally ladies.
“No,” they mentioned in refrain.
But, what might be Mr. Sahni’s first process, if he wins the ballot? “I’ll open a help centre at the Kurhani block office where all work will be done for the villagers at one desk”, he mentioned rapidly.
“This gives me faith in a candidate like Sanjay Sahni who is keeping the democratic values alive…people like him must be in our Assembly to help us make progress as a State”, mentioned Mr. Dreze.
Mr. Sahni is pitted towards sitting NDA candidate Kedar Gupta (BJP) and RJD nominee Anil Sahni. Kurhani goes to the polls within the third section on November 7.
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