At Camp Kosi, Ballot Box Time

Lalu, Paswan lead political shamelessness to cash in on the misery of flood victims, reports ANAND ST DAS

WHEN HER house submerged in the deluge in the Kosi river last month, Lakshmi Devi, 52, from Sunhat village in Saharsa district, found shelter at a state government relief camp. Local political workers told her that the food at a camp run by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was much better. She moved her family there for the three sumptuous meals served daily at the Lalu meal camp, a makeshift arrangement adorned with life-size photographs of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife, Rabri Devi. When this camp — funded by the Indian Railways — folded up on September 26, Lakshmi Devi and those with her were back to the government camp.

A large camp at the Super Market in Saharsa town is funded by the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and other PSUs under the Union Steel Ministry. But nearly all the 1,500 people sheltered here say they owe their lives to the generosity of Union Steel, Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. The dalit leader announced he will personally distribute food packets in Madhepura and Saharsa through October and November. Meanwhile, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, looking for a foothold, announced it will distribute clothes to flood victims during Dusshera.

With the Lok Sabha polls around the corner, Bihar’s political parties have plunged into flood relief with an alacrity and dedication usually seen only around election time. The massive destruction by the Kosi river in north Bihar — which has killed hundreds and displaced 2.7 million people — has given political parties a campaign windfall months before the election code of conduct comes into effect. With parties setting up camps alongside those of the state government, competitive fervour is palpable.

LJP camps were known for their iftaars organised for Muslims. “No other camp in the six affected districts held an iftaar party,” says party state committee leader Anil Giri, in charge of the Super Market camp in Saharsa. “What’s wrong with publicising this? Many flood victims come to LJP camps from others’ because ours are the best. We give people a new dhoti, sari, soap and oil along with three meals a day.”

Bihar’s political parties have set up relief camps and collected funds and relief material, mostly from Central ministries held by the respective party leaders. Aid provided by Central PSUs, too, has landed with political parties. SAIL and other PSUs under Paswan’s ministry have already donated over Rs 30 crore. While Paswan has taken care to print the names of the PSUs funding his relief operation on the LJP publicity material at relief camps in Saharsa, Madhepura, Supaul, Araria and Purnea, he has ensured his pictures and name get far bigger display. The Lalu Bhojan Shivirs that dot the floodaffected districts, however, make no mention of the Indian Railways that is largely behind the RJD chief’s vaunted generosity. Banners at these camps prominently bear the RJD’s election symbol, the lantern, and give the names of the caste groups that the RJD says have sponsored those camps.

Lalu, who ceaselessly claims to have ‘convinced’ Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to describe the flood as a national calamity, has pledged Rs 90 crore from the Railway Minister’s Welfare and Relief Fund. He has also asked railway employees countrywide to donate a day’s salary and asked the Railway PSUs to chip in, besides himself donating the Rs 1 crore he won in the TV programme Kya Aap Paanchvin Pass Se Tez Hain.

For Lalu, the relief operations have urgent significance. Despite Madhepura, Saharsa, Purnea and Araria being traditionally RJD strongholds, Lalu won only two of the 24 seats here in the 2005 assembly polls. The JD(U) won 12 and the BJP eight. Lalu was himself elected from both Madhepura and Chhapra, but retained Chhapra and helped his clansman Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav win the Madhepura by-polls. Now, with Pappu facing a life term for murder, the RJD is eager to consolidate its base.

Lalu triggered a controversy when he distributed cash to flood victims in Purnea last week, prompting the BJP to allege he had already launched the RJD’s Lok Sabha campaign. But in Bihar’s typical political dynamics, the controversy died down just as it did when Lalu had been videotaped distributing money to voters during the 2005 assembly polls.

Madhepura and Saharsa have several bamboo-and-cloth structures erected to announce the relief work conducted by Pappu Yadav’s party workers and his wife, Ranjita Ranjan, the LJP MP from Saharsa. Ranjita, who held several iftaar feasts, organised prayer sessions by the flood victims, for the early release and acquittal of her husband. She also publicised Pappu Yadav’s threat to go on hunger strike if the Bihar Government failed to arrange adequate flood relief.

LOVELY ANAND, wife of former MP Anand Mohan, now in jail after his conviction for murder, has also been organising similar prayer meetings by flood victims at her Saharsa camp, set up by an organisation called Friends of Anand Mohan.

The Congress, which distributes relief material from storehouses in various towns, has given out thousands of caps with pictures of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and the party’s poll symbol, the hand. During relief distribution, Congress workers hand out small cards with these pictures and the party symbol printed on them, behind which they put a cross mark. Those who don’t get relief material the same day return with the cards later.

With several NDA ministers, MPs and MLAs having been attacked by flood victims during their tours, the government’s publicity campaign has remained low key. Nonetheless, the NDA has also joined the mad race for political mileage. Gates display pictures of a smiling Nitish Kumar and the words in Hindi: “We will relieve your pain till our last breath.”

Tuntun Ram, a Dalit migrant labourer sheltering with his family at a government camp in Saharsa says it is the proximity to a major election that has made the parties so eager for public service. “If there were no elections coming, we would all have died in the Kosi. It is all votebank politics and most flood victims also know it,” he said.

The Lok Sabha polls may be a few months away, but it will take much longer for the anguished faces of the Kosi’s victims to even remotely resemble the smiling visages on the parties’ banners at the camps.

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