When Darul Uloom Deoband banned the entry of politicians in the premises of the Islamic seminary till the end of elections for the 16th Lok Sabha, it was considered a harsh if not extreme step on the part of the seminary which has been visited by political stalwarts eying Muslim votes. But it maintained this first-time restriction to rule out the possibility of its name being misused by political parties for electoral gains.
Since the commencement of the electoral process, the disenchanted, disgruntled citizens of various constituencies have also expressed their ire against the erring, non-performing politicians by deciding not to exercise their franchise. The Meghalaya Times (19 March) in a front-paged story reported that 100 remote villages in Mawait area, covering eight polling stations, in West Khasi Hills district, decided to boycott the Lok Sabha polls due to lack of development in the area. The inhabitants of these villages complained that the roads were never repaired nor maintained despite several pleas since 1965. This is why they see no reason in exercising their franchise.
The voters of Kosli village of Rohtak parliamentary constituency in Haryana boycotted polling on 10 April. Initially, they were planning to boycott Congress as they were not satisfied with the efforts of the ruling party’s leaders to resolve the dispute over naming of a railway over-bridge. However, two days before the polling, a panchayat decided to boycott the poll completely, and resolved to socially boycott the villagers found exercising their franchise. In the Maoist zone of Madhya Pradesh a campaign to boycott polls was reported from a few places.
The latest in the poll boycott developments is from Darbhanga district of Bihar. The villagers of Kamalpur-Brahmotar Ghat, a village under the Pirri panchayat of Bahadurpur block in Darbhanga, which goes to poll on 30 April, announced boycott of Lok Sabha polls for failure of people’s representatives to fulfil their old demand for a concrete bridge over the Kamla river. They built a bamboo bridge, locally known as Chachri pul, last November by collecting donation of Rs.3 lakh from among the villagers and banned the entry of people’s representatives to express protest for their failures to fulfil a promise. Earlier, they used to travel across the river through a smaller bamboo bridge which used to get washed away during monsoon season.
These disquieting developments make it certain that our politicians have failed the nation. They also hint at the symptomatic revolution simmering and simmering and coming to a boil. The formation of AAP can be seen in the backdrop of this symptom. The use of NOTA button also indicates this phenomenon.