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Mainpuri Seat – ‘Good To See SP-BSP tieup’

By LokMarg Publishing 24th April 2019

Sanjay, 24, member of Kanjar community in Mainpuri, has not been in the best of terms with the law and the locals, as his community carries the stigma of being a criminal tribe. Traditionally BSP supporters, Sanjay is happy that Mayawati has joined forces with Mulayam Singh in this Yadav stronghold.

Mainpuri has been a Yadav bastion for as long as elections were held here. The Yadav community rules the roost in this region. From top to bottom in administration and also among (Samajwadi) Party office bearers, their writ runs. Whether you need a job, or a government scheme favour, or even lodge a police complaint in the local Thana (station), one has to plead before their leaders.

Our community also votes for Neta ji (Mulayam Singh Yadav). We fully support Samajwadi Party. Yes there are some in our family, who support Behanji (Mayawati) because she has worked to get us some self-respect in society. During her rule in Uttar Pradesh – between 2007 and 2012 – many of us got pucca houses, some were able to buy and set up shops in the market with their savings. Otherwise, most caste Hindus do not have business dealings with us. I don’t know why, nor do I any longer bother. We are happy with our lives.

WATCH: SP-BSP Supporters Speak Up In Mainpuri Rally

I studied till Class VII then dropped out we needed more hands to work and livelihood. I am happy, we have our own house, and we get odd jobs to see us through. But during the time of notebandi (demonetization), we had to keep the hearth burning on borrowed ration. Those two-three months were horrible. There was no work for us. Even when we got work the wages were not paid. Everybody was cursing (Narendra) Modi here. Things are better now.

It has been a great relief that Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav have joined hands. Many Yadav leaders suspect us to be BSP supporters and refuse to help us. With the gathbandhan (SP-BSP alliance), there is no reason for (Samajwadi) Party leaders to look at us with suspicion. We just hope this alliance survive. Rest, time will tell.

Rally Report – SP-BSP Show In Mainpuri

By LokMarg Publishing 21st April 2019

LokMarg brings speaks to the SP-BSP supporters at the joint rally of Mayawati and Akhilsh Yadav on April 19 in Mainpuri, a Yadav stronghold in Uttar Pradesh. Watch what they said about the issues that brought them together:

Rally Report – ‘We'll Vote To Defeat BJP’

By LokMarg Publishing 13th April 2019

Although Mohammad Israr, 49, attended the Congress rally at Saharanpur on April 8, he calls himself an observer than a party supporter. He believes Muslims must see which way the wind is blowing and vote tactically to defeat the communal forces. And he has valid reasons to back his belief:

I am just an observer to this rally (Congress public meeting on April 8) since I happened to be in the vicinity. I can judge the support of Muslim community to Imran Masood. He is a very popular leader in the community because of his fierce comments against (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi. Mazloomo ki aawaz hain (he is the voice of the oppressed).

In my opinion, Imran sahib is likely to win, even though the joint candidate from the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj is also Hazi (Fazulrahman) sahib. A day or two before, there was gathbandhan (the SP-BSP alliance) rally which was also attended by many Muslim voters. And I was worried a little that two Muslim candidates would mean division of votes. The Muslim voter must not allow its voter strength to be wasted. Taqseem nahi hona hai, taqseem karne waali taaqaton ko harana hai (we must not get divided; instead we have to defeat the divisive forces).

Community leaders must guide the votes not to get carried away by punchy slogans and promises made in a rally. Once the results come, these leaders will forget what they had promised before the public. Similarly, a voter or a quom (community) also has to keep its self-interest in mind. BJP rule in the last five years have instilled a feeling of fear among the minority community.

Never before were so many cases of cow vigilante had come. Muslims and many low-caste Hindu brothers lost their jobs after a crackdown on abattoirs in Uttar Pradesh. There were so many incidents of lynching on false pretext. Such incidents send a wrong signal to the minority community. We get worried when our children travel to other states on their own.

Even in Vajpayee ki sarakar and Kalyan Singh ki sarkar, this fear never visited our minds. But the last five years have been traumatic. And with Yogi sarkar in UP now, things have only got worse. You should see the bike rallies by men wearing saffron headgears. They deliberately shout slogans whenever a mosque comes en route. Their sole purpose is to humiliate Muslims. Ask anyone. This is a universal feeling and a regular point of discussion in our community.

I understand Muslims are used as votebanks. But do we have any other option than not to unitedly help a candidate who would listen to us, help us in getting our police complaints registered, give us protection or at least a sense of protection. Self-interest is back in the game. That is why you are not hearing the slogan sabka saath, sabka vikas this year. Are you?

(Name of the narrator was changed and his face blurred on request)

NYAY – ‘Easy Money Makes People Lazy’

By LokMarg Publishing 12th April 2019

Manju Garg Dhingra, 65, a retired banker in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, says Congress’ proposed Nyuntam Aay (NYAY) Scheme, which promises ₹6,000 a month to the poorest of the poor, may not work. She would prefer MNREGA scheme over NYAY so that people work for money and not live on dole.

I have been a banker with a nationalised bank and understand money pretty well. To my understanding the Nyuntam Aay (NYAY) Scheme plans to give ₹6,000 every month to the poorest families in India which is about five crore families or 25 crore individuals, constituting 20 percent of India’s population.

I feel such schemes ultimately don’t work in the long run in a democracy like India. In my many years of working as a banker I have realised that many of the poor people have what you call a ‘poverty mindset’. Yes, poverty is brought upon by terrible circumstances. But there are many people who are rather lazy and if you pay them say ₹6,000 per month, they would try and fit all their monthly expenses in that amount rather than use it as an investment to earn more money.

What we need is financial literacy in our country. People should be taught how to manage money. Earning money is often not that hard, managing money is. Remember the urban poor story that created quite an uproar in 2016?

This plan is different than what the Universal Basic Income (UBI) Schemes that are already in place in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. As per UBI, a small amount of money is paid every month to every citizen of a country, without any terms and conditions. This basic income varies with age, but with no other conditions, so everyone of the same age would receive the same Basic Income, whatever their gender, employment status, family structure, contribution to society, housing costs, or anything else.

In 2014, when Narendra Modi said he would bring back black money from overseas and ₹15 lakh would be transferred into every individual’s account, I was less circumspect. The money would not have come from the taxpayer’s pocket, but schemes like NYAY will put the burden on the taxpayers. Many people would not want to go to work if money came easy. At the starting of my career, I often saw very poor women get peanuts in the name of pension. Out of empathy, I started giving them cash from my own pocket. Later those old women started behaving as if I owed them money and they were entitled to the extra cash I gave them. This is human nature, so I have my doubts about the NYAY scheme.

Rahul Gandhi has suggested that the money will be transferred to the account of women so that the chances of men drinking or gambling away the money is minimized. However, I think it would be better if the money was directly spent on improving the women’s lives directly by training them to earn money. Give me MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) any day over NYAY scheme. It is more important to teach people to fish.

Even if the NYAY scheme were to be implemented, it should be bound by a fixed tenure, say only one year, so that the women don’t become completely dependent on the money. The money anyway doesn’t reach the intended beneficiaries without middlemen eating away the money (as Rajiv Gandhi had famously mentioned in 1985 that only 15 paise of a rupee reaches the intended beneficiaries, while the rest is eaten away by middlemen).

As far as my vote is concerned, I would like to reinvest my faith in Narendra Modi. I live in Ghaziabad and for us true nyay (justice) lies in the fact that the crime rate has reduced, cleanliness and waste management are being taken very seriously and most importantly NH-24 is being maintained pretty well. Now evenings feel safer in Ghaziabad. I don’t find Rahul Gandhi as effective a leader as Modiji. Power commands respect.

And sadly I don’t feel that respect for Rahul Gandhi. In the next five years, I would want Narendra Modi to do away with the many subsidies and schemes. He should let the respective state governments and then local area MLAs and MPs and ward members and councillors decide on the best way to bring out groups of people out of poverty. Let the grassroots leaders help the grassroots people. Delegation of duties and powers to local leaders and trusting them is very important if we really want to help the poor.

NYAY – ‘The Scheme Holds Promise’

By LokMarg Publishing 12th April 2019

Jai Kishore Singh, 72 a retired HR professional, sees a lot of promise in Congress’ proposed Nyunatam Aay (NYAY) scheme and hopes it is implemented well.

All those years in the HR department of a PSU have taught me to understand the fine print. Thus, if I had to give my opinion on Congress’s proposed NYAY scheme, I would say it is a much-needed step for the poorest of the poor, who don’t have the resources to improve their lives, despite having the willpower for it. But there is a hitch — the implementation.

The scheme has tremendous potential to successfully bail out the poorest of the poor sections. But if not implemented well, the scheme can end up exploiting the poor. Rahul Gandhi’s heart seems to be in the right place – he mean well. However, neeyat acchi hone se sirf kam nahi chalega, neeti bhi utni hi acchi honi chahiye. Aur neeti ka implementation bhi. Tabhi desh ki niyati badlegi. (just meaning well for the poor won’t work here, the policy and its implementation are equally important, then only can the fortunes of our country turn)

ALSO READ: ‘Create Jobs, Avoid Freebies’

The implementation will be carried out in phases and not in one fell swoop like demonetization. Rahul seems to have this well-planned. The Congress manifesto says that the scheme will be tested properly for six to nine months before running it. Implementing policies in a phased manner gives you the opportunity to learn from mistakes and carry out rectifications, if required. The janta can give valuable inputs too.

Here’s what happens if you rush in with policies that look good but haven’t been fine-tuned properly. I recently read about the BJP’s Ujjwala Yojana. The beneficiary of the Ujjwala Yojana were only given gas cylinders and not cooking stoves. One of the most popular stove brand in villages and small towns is Sunflame Pride 2 burner stove, which costs around ₹2,249. To reduce the burden, the beneficiaries could pay for the stove and the first refill in monthly installments

. However, the cost of all subsequent refills has to be borne by the beneficiary household. And this is where the scheme is failing. As per reports, poor people don’t have the money to get a 14 kg cylinder filled or even pay installments for the stove and are ultimately resorting back to traditional cooking methods.

ALSO READ: ‘Easy Money Makes People Lazy’

Rahul Gandhi has also talked about how he wouldn’t burden the exchequer for the implementation of this plan. Many people say that the NYAY scheme will put a burden on the honest taxpayer. Didn’t it put a burden on the honest taxpayer when the statues costing ₹3,600 crore and ₹ 2,989 crores were built? NYAY scheme is expected to cost ₹3.6 trillion and is supposed to benefit 2,500 crore ‘humans’, the majority of whom will then further contribute to the economy. The Congress has said that it would be doing away with some subsidies as well as sharing the cost with the state governments. So it’s a thumbs up for the NYAY scheme for me. Though at the national level I support Congress and its policies, at the local level I am very happy with the work done for our constituency by our MP Nishikant Dubey, who belongs to BJP. He has worked extensively on broadening our roads, plus the waste management inside the town is good. He has streamlined Deoghar’s famous Saawan mela for kanwariyas (Deoghar is one of the only 12 jyotirlingas in the country) and the town’s economy is improving steadily under him. The best part, he is working on bringing back the town’s green cover. I like the man, not the party he belongs to.

NYAY – ‘Create Jobs, Avoid Freebies'

By LokMarg Publishing 12th April 2019

I lived and worked for almost four years in the United Kingdom and came back in 2015. In these few years, I have been able to observe how both the countries help their poor. Unlike the UK, India took a long time to cope with the after-effects of colonization. As a result, both socially and financially, India remains backwards. However, now it is time to put an end to this, and that can be brought about only through a change in mindset.

In case of populist schemes like Congress’ Nyuntam Aay (NYAY), I feel they are a way of giving handouts to people, which in turn, makes them lazy. India has a huge population of beggars, who would remain beggars and will have no motivation to work if they get money from the government. Thus, I don’t have high hopes from the as of now.

ALSO READ: Easy Money Makes People Lazy

The people who could benefit from such a scheme are the ones who work in India’s unorganised sector. Demonetization dealt a severe blow to these people and rendered them jobless. But I guess they won’t be covered under the NYAY scheme as they don’t belong to the poorest 20% of the population. Rahul Gandhi should look at addressing the problem of the unorganised sector as a whole. I have heard that he has talked about filling up 22 lakh government job vacancies within a year, if voted to power.

Social security schemes for all sections of society in the UK are well-structured and India can learn a lot from it. However, I have seen many people turn lazy in the UK because the government supports them so well. We Indians generally don’t follow discipline, for e.g. standing in lines, but when it comes to freebies, ‘mamla air bigad jata hai aur log uspe toot padte hain’ (things get worse and people will go up to any extent to avail them). We need a social change where people understand that the government is there to help you only after you have tried to help yourself — himmat-e-mard madadan khuda (God helps those who help themselves).

Whichever government comes to power, it must think about job creation and addressing unemployment. Women are more financially astute and they should more involved in such policy that would require large sums of money to be taken out from the exchequer.

The BJP government had also launched the PM-KISAN Samman Nidhi Scheme, which gives ₹2,000 every quarter to farmers owning agricultural land of less than two hectares. This is quite low in comparison to ₹6,000 per month, but BJP knows how to advertise its schemes better, while Congress/Opposition doesn’t.

I also read that NYAY is expected to cost the exchequer ₹3.6 trillion or around 1.7% of the forecasted gross domestic product (GDP) for 2019-20. However, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said that the cost will never cross 2% of the GDP.

To put less burden on taxpayers, Congress is thinking about doing away with some subsidies as well as sharing the cost with state governments. Let’s see if it works, though I don’t have high hopes.

Last time if I had got the chance to vote (because I was in the UK then) I would have voted for the BJP. However, this time despite seeing the tremendous infrastructural development around me, I am still to make up my mind whether to vote for it or not.

I am doing a lot of research before casting my precious vote and taking note of all facts and figures related to socio-economic development. Our city, Bhopal is known for communal harmony, but BJP is known for its divisive tactics and that is disturbing. I have seen people from all cultures coexisting peacefully during my stint in the UK and we need to bring back the thought of ‘unity in diversity’ in the mainstream to be happy as a country.

WATCH – Who Will Win Muzaffarnagar?

By LokMarg Publishing 11th April 2019

LokMarg travelled across Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha constituency to gauge the mood of the voter. A prestigious battle will play out here between SP-BSP-RLD candidate Ajit Singh and BJP’s Sanjeev Balyan. The latter won the last election in post-riot, polarised belt. This year, however, it will be a closely contested fight.

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WATCH – Congress Rally In Saharanpur

By LokMarg Publishing 9th April 2019

Team LokMarg reached Saharanpur to attend Rahul-Priyanka rally on April 8 in Saharanpur, western UP. While bad weather forced the Gandhi scions to cancel their public meeting, our team interacted with the crowd to gauge the public mood.

Watch our video capsule

Rally Report: Watch Modi Fans Speak Up

By LokMarg Publishing 8th April 2019

LokMarg visited Narendra Modi’s public meeting in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, on April 5 and spoke to his supporters who had come to attend the rally. Most of them would bear hardships but “still vote for Modi”.

Rally Report – ‘Rallies Good For Business’

By LokMarg Publishing 7th April 2019

Chandrapal, 54, from Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh, set up a pushcart full of cucumbers at the venue of Narendra Modi’s rally in Amroha on April 5. He favours neither the Congress nor the BJP. “My family is my first concern and such rallies help me make an extra buck for them,” he tells LokMarg.

I have a family of six to take care of. Two of my children go to school too; their fees and uniforms are a major setback. I sell vegetables and fruits at Khatauli (in western Uttar Pradesh) market every day for a living. My first and foremost concern is how to increase my income. And I have little faith in political parties or their leaders to be take care of my interests. I will have to deal with them myself.

We lead a tough life, with little time for entertainment like these (pointing out to the mad rush at the BJP rally in Amroha). For us, such large gatherings are an opportunity to eke out some extra income. Whenever I come to know about a political rally in the vicinity close to my work place, I grab the opportunity. And I am not alone in this. Take a look at the sugarcane juice sellers or other refreshments.

Your judgment about what you are going to sell works a lot. Since it is getting hot in the day, I chose cucumbers. They are cheap, within the budget of a villager and cools down the parched men. Of course there are several options; one has to choose that one can handle. If I end up with some surplus, I can use it on my vegetable stall for the next few days.

I am teaching these tricks of the trade to my son, Sooraj, who is here with me. He is studying in Class XI. I do not want him to become a vegetable vendor but he is a good helping hand, and it is never too early to learn the ways of the world. The business a bit slow right now. But I am sure, when the rally ends, there will be a rush of thirsty men towards the main road. I hope I am able to return with an empty cart. This is the dream of every vendor that he does not have to carry any of wares back home. I too hope I made the right decision by betting on the cucumber.

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