By Mohammad Mudassir Alam,
Bihar’s north-eastern districts of Seemanchal region witnessed a totally different pattern of voting in recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. While most parts of Bihar was engulfed into NaMo wave and voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the people of Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar and Araria took a U-turn and franchised their votes in surprised manner. Congress candidate Maulana Asrarul Haque Qasmi won from Kishanganj for second consecutive terms by getting highest number of votes in Bihar. Tarique Anwar (Nationalist Congress Party), Taslimuddin (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and Santosh Kumar (Janata Dal United) won from Katihar, Araria and Purnia respectively. Although there are scores of reasons about the failure of NaMo wave in these constituencies and victories of these candidates, but in Kishanganj the critics are saying that polarisation of Muslim votes was the main reason behind Maulana’s incredible win.
Keeping aside the criticism about voting pattern in Kishanganj, one must accept that he won convincingly although next five years is going to be challenging.
Maulana Asrarul Haque Qasmi
A quick overview of Maulana Qasmi’s five year tenure during UPA II government clearly shows it was more or less not much encouraging for common people. In short, the establishment of AMU Centre at Kishanganj was hyped by Maulana Qasmi and he also sought credit for bringing the project in the district. Fact is that, the Member of Parliament himself and his party lauded about establishing special centre of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Kishanganj time-and-again. Of course, Maulana and Congress led UPA government must be praised for gifting Kishanganj an institute of higher learning. However, there were many other reasons along with efforts of activists groups, politicians and JD(U) government of Bihar to make the way easier for AMU Kishanganj. All deserve credit especially the common people who took part in agitations and protests for AMU Kishanganj including the Maha Dharna on 12th October, 2010 in Kishanganj where approximately 4 lakh people gathered from different parts of Seemanchal.
The infrastructure development on the actual 224.2 acres site of AMU on the outskirts of Kishanganj at Chakla Village is still hanging in balance. Only one course B.Ed is being run at the rented building in Minority Hostel of Bihar govt. Rest of the requirements for AMU like allocation of sufficient fund starting the construction work and launching of new courses are still questions for common people.
Now move ahead and leave behind the AMU Kishanganj issue and role of Maulana and his party. An important and valid question that must be asked by any citizen, society and the 17 lakh Janta of Kishanganj is the “Development” of district in last five years under Maulana Qasmi whose was also part of Congress led UPA government. And, how the MP is going to bring development for Kishanganj under the BJP led NDA government?
Development is the foremost question usually asked to any elected representative of the constituency. Maulana Qasmi, who has been referred with many titles since the start of his political journey succeeded in winning the election in 2009. With high hopes people of Kishanganj sent him to Parliament and boasted about their favourite leader on almost all platforms. It’s obvious, when someone very close to you achieves higher position the expectations raises many times. Since Maulana Qasmi belongs to Surjapuri community and considered among the country’s biggest ‘Aalims’ (intellectuals), Kishanganj was having high hope with him on development front.
The key issues of Kishanganj were illiteracy, unemployment, malnutrition, health and sanitation, corruption among many others. Another major issue was the heavy devastation due to floods during monsoon season in the entire district. Kishanganj is an agriculture based district where the majority of population is dependent on yield of wheat, rice, maize, etc. The district is criss-crossed by a number of rivers namely, Mahanada, Kankai, Donk, Mechi, Ratua and Ramzan. The river gets over-flooded during the monsoon season and the excess water released from neighbouring country Nepal adds more to woes of people. Sadly, every year the flood caused by incessant rain destroys the crops, which in turn causes financial loss to common people.
After winning the elections from Kishanganj in 2009, Maulana Qasmi claimed that the Central government is very much concerned about the Mahananda Basin Project and it would be started soon. The project was planned to connect the rivers of Kishanganj so that excess water could easily be directed to the Bay of Bengal. People were quite optimistic as the project seemed as a big rescuer for their yearly loss of cultivation. Five years passed and the Mahananda Basin Project is still in government files.
If talked about the corruption, it would not be wrong to say Kishanganj as one of the most corruption affected districts of India. The corruption can be witnessed in government offices, panchayats, blocks, railway station, bus stand and several other places. Railway station is the place which is mostly used by the Member of Parliament for his official trip to and fro Kishanganj / Delhi. One can easily see the hub of unlawful activities be it the reservation area or the parking lot. Common people are suffering due to corrupt officials and touts, but the MP of Kishanganj never took any strict action or asked the district administration for looking after the chaos at the railway station. If the MP asks the district administration or reach out to the concerned higher official the situation can improve and on-going corruption can be controlled.
Similarly, Maulana is a highly learned person and understands the importance of education and literacy very well. Again in last five years apart from AMU Kishanganj issue hardly any major change is noticed in the area of education. Irregularities can be easily witnessed in the primary, high and senior secondary schools of the district. The condition of government affiliated colleges namely, Marwari College, Nehru College, Bahadurganj College, M.H. A. National College Thakurganj are very disappointing. Classes are not conducted regularly in these colleges and academic curriculum doesn’t run properly. As an MP, Maulana Qasmi could have been visited these government run educational institutions and instructed the headmasters and principals for giving proper attention towards academic curriculum.
Other issues like unemployment, malnutrition, health and sanitation, illegal encroachment by tribals on the land of common people, introduction of new trains, etc. were hardly given proper attention by the Member of Parliament Maulana Qasmi. There are a number of reasons behind unfulfilled tasks of MP and mash-up on the development front. However, some of the reasons are: (i) softness – lack of aggression (ii) lack of a strong team (iii) lack of lobbying with concerned ministers for getting funds (iv) old age and (v) negligible representation in the district headquarters of Kishanganj.
If Maulana spend some time in thoroughly introspecting his five years term and work upon shortcomings, surely he can bring Kishanganj on the path of development. Maulana was on driver’s seat during his 2009-2014 tenure as his party was ruling at the Centre, but Kishanganj missed the development bus. Now the government has changed at the Centre and it would be very tough for Maulana to get the funds for development of Kishanganj.