By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net
In order to know what the common Muslim thinks of the current ruling dispensation in New Delhi and Patna, the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance governments respectively,TwoCircles.net talked to aam admi and tried to make the informal survey as much representative as possible.
I talked to some of the people who remain marginalized throughout their life, those who are poorest of the poor, and some who are part of the middle class, then a student, an unemployed youth and an educated Muslim woman.
First I found myself in a place called as Karbala Ilaqa near Dargah in the Sultan Ganj locality of Patna – the area which the officials of the state government usually avoid to visit.
It seemed to me that this area has remained untouched for long and hasn’t ever been covered either by the “India Shining” campaign of the NDA government, the “Common Minimum Programme” or the “Ten Points Programme for the Minorities of Bihar” of the Central and Bihar governments respectively.
“Yahan koi nahi aata hai Saab hamari pareshani janne aur kuch kerne keliye (Nobody comes here, Sir, to know our problems and solve them ).”
It was the astounding statement on the performance of both the governments which claim too be pro-people and minority friendly, by Zarina Khatoon (43) who runs a Tadi shop at one extreme of the Karbala area.
She was forced to sell Tadi after her husband who too used to do the same business. She is illiterate and doesn’t know about different areas and powers of Central and the Bihar governments, but she knows that at present she has no benefit from both the governments.
As per expected she does not know which government is at the centre and which one is ruling Bihar, UPA or NDA. Irrespective of difference she says that both the governments are anti-people, because the grains, flour, and edible oil are increasingly becoming expensive stretching the daily budget of common man to the extent of making even “Daal Roti out of common man’s reach.”
When asked about her three big problems she showed me her makeshift house frail enough to be carried away by a strong rain. It was filled with knee-deep water from the nearby dirty Nala.
She had only one request to me. Considering me of having good terms with the concerned officials she requested me to help her secure at least one room house distribituted to the minorities under various schemes of the government.
Then she told me to see myself if I can locate any water pump in her area, in fact there wasn’t any. “Hamare paas itna pisa nahin hai Saab ki hum Karamchari ko ghoos de ker kal lagwayen (we don’t have enough money to bribe the government official so that they could sanction one water pump for our area)”.
There are some positive steps that the UPA government has taken like the Right to Information Act, and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), says Dr. Badre Alam Khan (36), a Lecturer in Patna Law College, Patna University. But he has strong reservations about the way these laws are implemented by the government.
The point is although the common person on the street may have been empowered but still the same people are working in the offices. There hasn’t been the radical change in the mindset of people. Corruption is still rampant in nearly every department and the people working there resist any kind of reform from within.
On the performance of the NDA government in the state he says: “Things are no different. Except certain things nothing has changed. For instance there hasn’t been any concrete effort on the part of this government to build and revive the declining Infrastructure.”
He says the state government hasn’t notified for appointment on the vacancies in Patna Law College. The College is in worst condition and the government hasn’t yet taken any step to revive it.
He comes from a lower middle class family and has been educated at Aligarh Muslim University from where he did his L.L.D. (Ph.D. in Law).
On personal front he says that the salary of the teachers in the state should be first of all regular. They should be paid as per Fifth Pay Scale of the University Grants Commission. And the government should revise the pay scale of the government employees altogether in order to attract the new generation to the public sector.
Perwez Arshad (47) who owns a shop of cement is also not happy with the performance of the state government. He nearly echoes the previous view when he says “Except few things I don’t see great change.”
Perwez Arshad at his shop
He criticizes severely the state government for its failure to solve the waterlogging problem.
As far as the UPA government is concerned he says that “They are working not that good but not bad either.” He comes from a lower middle class and is a science graduate. All he wants from the government is proper roads, electricity and the solution of the waterlogging issue.
Meet Nasir Ahmad (58), who works as the fourth grade employee at government Malaria Office in Patna.
He doesn’t have any problem with the Nitish Kumar Government in the state if it pays him on time so that he could pay all the debts by which he is overburdened, as he confessed frankly. Debt has become a regular feature of his life and for him it is the only way to survive.
He rated the performance of the state and Central government on a scale of ten as 4/10, not good. Reason? He says that both the governments have failed to stop the onslaught of increased prices on the common man.
He says that “Bade log (middle Class)” has the capacity to cope up with that, but the people like him are overburdened.
He is only intermediate passed, but he knows the electoral logic that both the governments should take lessons from what happened to the “India Shining” Campaign of the NDA government.
He says that given the increasing prices the central government will be voted out of power.
The three problems that he wants the government to solve: he wants the government to provide him loan to build a small house and marry off his three daughters and provide loan to his son so that he could take admission in Engineering College.
Aslam Perwaiz (32) is a Ph.D. scholar in the Department of English, Patna University and comes from a lower middle class family. He doesn’t see substantial and the required change after Nitish Kumar led NDA government came to power in the state about three years ago.
He says the government claims a lot about the betterment of the public education but it has not taken even a single step to ensure revival of higher education which is at present in worst condition.
As an instance he points out that at present the teachers and the non-teaching staffs of the universities of Bihar are on strike. Had the government have any intention of creating a better atmosphere for education it would not have let the employees go on strike in the first place. Now when it’s already late it has taken feeble efforts to talk to the employees.
The whole education system of Bihar is at the brink of collapse, he says. The sessions are not regular, syllabus is not up to date, teachers not teach seriously but beat around the bush, and moreover there is no infrastructure for the development of education sector.
He wants from the government to radically overhaul the education system of the state. He also wants the state government should provide research grant to research scholars in order to encourage research, appointment of the vacant posts for the faculties in Patna University and encouragement of the education friendly environment by providing infrastructure to the universities.
Ashfaque (28) is a History graduate and is looking for any kind of respectable job. His father is retired clerk.
Ashfaque says that what to say about the government when it doesn’t create employment for you which they say they will do when came to power.
He complains that in technology sector there is no crisis of work, but if you have planned to take a simple Arts degree then you may not survive in this technology driven India.
Although he doesn’t differentiate between the Central and the state governments while complaining about their ignorance of the unemployed youth but according to him the sate government is more to be blamed for the crisis of unemployment. Because he thinks that there must be some schemes of the Centre for the unemployed youth of the minorities but there is not enough awareness and transparency in the government here he says.
Among the problems that he wants the government to solve: all he wants is employment. Apart from that he wants the government to take extra care of those unemployed youth who come from humanities educational background.
Samina Khan (31) is a research scholar of English literature. She doesn’t see any positive step taken by the NDA government of Bihar apart from the usual steps taken by any government. She talks especially of the serious and concrete steps for the overall development of Muslim women of the state.
She says that only distributing bicycles won’t do anything. She says that Muslim women are doubly marginalized as they are minority within the minority. For the development of Muslim women first of all the awareness among the Muslim men has to be increased to such a level that they are able to realize that the education and assertion of women’s identity won’t be a threat to them.
She criticizes the Central government for its laidback attitude towards the Women’s Reservation Bill, although she considers the RTI Act and NREGA as some of the positive steps taken by the UPA government.
She demands from the government to take serious and genuine instead of populist and temporary measures for raising the awareness among Muslim men towards women’s education.
Nasim Ahmad (60) is a rag picker. He also volunteers to throw the garbage tin of the colony where I live. This article would have been incomplete without his views.
Remarkably he says: “I don’t know about ideology of the political party, all I know is that both the governments have been disastrous on every front which concerns a common man.
He says that he wanted to get a Below Poverty Line Card but he couldn’t as he was unable to produce the residential certificate.
He lives in the shanty which has sprung up on an illegal land. He says that he has been living in Patna since last fifteen years.
He doesn’t have any card, be it BPL card, voter ID card, or any thing which will enable him to get benefit of the schemes of the government.
He insisted me to visit his makeshift “Jhuggi”. There was all water in the frail room. And there is no light as the employee of the electric department has cut off the “oxy” through which he used to “steal” power to light one bulb.
He questions that, is the electricity is not supposed to be in the homes of poor who can’t afford the electricity bill?
He wants from the government a house which is meant for the poor minorities sanctioned under the schemes of the government and which he often hears about.
He wants loan on low interest rate from the government so that he can marry off his two daughters.
He says that it would be enough for him if at all these two things are fulfilled by the government.