The Congress is depicting the problems that the people of Varanasi are facing, using a banner entitled ‘Dard-e-Benares’ (The Pain of Benares).
The Congress is depicting the problems that the people of Varanasi are facing, using a banner entitled ‘Dard-e-Benares’ (The Pain of Benares). The party’s website is running videos, projecting the citizens’ plight as also the filth in the holy city and the Ganga which flows along it.
The main Opposition, whose target is the Prime Minister, has turned its focus on Mr Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi, highlighting its ‘lack of development’ ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls due early next year. The videos use short interviews with locals from diverse backgrounds who insist that nothing has changed in Varanasi in the last over two years despite the Prime Minister representing the city in the Lok Sabha.
“Modiji comes here only for photo opportunities,” says Ajit Singh, a local resident, a feeling echoed by several others. Gopal, another citizen, says he has stopped taking a dip in the Ganga whose water is getting more polluted by the day. “Modiji may have come here and declared that he had been summoned by ‘Ma Ganga’, but nothing has changed for the better for the river,” he says.
Gopal says Union minister for water resources Uma Bharti, whose ministry has been entrusted with the responsibility of cleaning the holy river, visits Varanasi once in a while and takes a look around the Ganga, but not much has been done to rid it of its pollution.
Brajesh Singh says cleaning the Ganga has become a “publicity stunt”. Mannu Sahani, a tea vendor, laments that Modi raised hopes of development, but has done little for the city. “I thought that when a chaiwala came to power, good days would come. But this has not happened.” Sahani recalls how during the time of the campaign he had distributed tea for free in the hope that a bright future awaited him but that did not happen.
Sunil Jha regrets that the dirty water from the Assi Nullah is still flowing into the Ganga unabated despite promises made during the polls that it would be stopped.
Pulses remain priced at Rs 180 a kg, he says, wondering whether these can be called “Achhe Din”.
“In elections, we chanted ‘har har Modi’ in the belief that he would rid us of our pain and suffering, but no change has taken place. The people’s plight is worsening with the continuing price rise,” says Pandit Mishra, woefully. Another local says that there are hardly any employment avenues in Varanasi where the number of educated jobless youth is increasing.
