I walked the lonely road that cuts through the sal forest. The thick forest with its tall trees has been a silent witness to a lot of turmoil and bloodshed in recent years. The calmness of the woods is being used as a cover for the Maoist activities. The Maoist or the locals know what the forest can provide them. I too decided to start my coverage from the ground zero.
As I stood 35 km away from Jagadalpur at the door step of Kanger national park, I struggled not to drift into my philosophical mood, because the beauty was breathtaking and the silence compelling. So much so that I could hear the sound of footsteps at a long distance. I could make out that they were not two but many.
Then the signal of our microphone started buzzing, as if even the phone was confused between many receivers. As I stood in the middle of the road ready to start my election coverage of Bastar, my chordless microphone became increasingly disturbed. Then I saw a soldier in uniform walk towards me. He had a walky-talky in his hand. As he pulled closer I saw behind him a straight never ending line of paramilitary soldiers marching into the forest.
Unprecedented security arrangements has been made in the Bastar region to man the polling booths as 90 per cent of them were either sensitive or highly sensitive. The Election Commission is taking no chances with the region turned into a war zone. Seven districts of Bastar with 12 assembly seats are going to polls in the first phase on November 11.
Realising that we were unnecessarily wasting time trying to get the audio through for our opening anchor link, we hopped into our Innova vehicle and decided to head deeper into the forest and away from other wireless phones. Jagdalpur to Sukma road is a beautiful drive; meandering roads with the sunshine trickling through trees make it more enchanting. Our day had started early and even as we had travelled a bit, my watch told me that it was 8 o'clock in the morning, a good time to call my head office in Delhi and say hello I am fine!
But we had no signals, and it flashed that we had entered the dead zone. Our local guide Man Singh burst into an animated narration repeating the word Jeeram ghati once in every sentence. Jeeram ghati was a dead zone, a stretch of 15 km with no mobile signals. After the deadly attack on the Congress Parivartan Yatra on May 25 that virtually wiped out its state leadership, the Congress had made it an emotive issue ensuring Jeeram ghati was not lost in the wilderness.
The Bastar region is politically crucial, last time the BJP had bagged 11 out if the 12 seats and went on to form the government in Chhattisgarh. Faced with anti-incumbency it will be almost impossible for the BJP to better its performance this time and the Congress is sensing an opportunity.
To gauge the mood of the villagers, I ventured into Kutumsar village in Darbha block. This small tribal village bore a sleepy look. No sooner had we broken its slumber, a bunch of old village folks poured in like ants towards the tamarind tree where we sat. As they chatted to Man Singh in their local dialect, occasionally they turned to me for a response. I could understand their expressions. They wanted light' 'doctor ' 'school' 'boring' etc.
As I tried to connect with them, I was pulled by a skinny old lady in a pink saree, I stood up and followed her. Man Singh had made them understand that I had something to do with news and I could solve their problems.
So as I discovered later the old granny holding my hand was 70-year-old Mungli Bai. She muttered something to me in 'Halbi' and took me inside her house. It was pitch dark and I could not understand her dialect. But I actually understood what she was trying to convey. This village had no electricity ever since independence. It's an irony that power rich state cannot provide its original inhabitants enough light to kill the shadows of poverty.
Comments
0 comment