The right issue, the wrong place
ONE RARE case of an environmental issue spreading out and influencing an election campaign in two constituencies is that of Betwa river pollution in Madhya Pradesh. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for Vidisha and the Congress candidate for nearby Sanchi tried to cash in on the issue, cleverly using agitations and polemics. But in neighbouring Bhojpur, where former chief minister Sunderlal Patwa and Arjun Singh's son Ajay Singh clashed, the villages worst-hit by the river pollution had little say.
The entire 95-km stretch of the Betwa was polluted in early August by effluents from Som Distilleries located in Raisen district, which lies upstream of Vidisha and Bhojpur districts. Cattle fell sick and fish died in large numbers.
The BJP MP from Vidisha, Prithvi Singh Chauhan, launched an agitation in September, which led to the temporary closure of the distillery. Says Mohar Singh, the BJP candidate for Vidisha, "The agitation helped to galvanise us. The party unit tightened up to face the election." The rank and file of the party have a broader perspective of the benefit. Says party activist Mohit Agnihotri: "We showed the town that the BJP was vigilant about national imperatives as well as local concerns of citizens."
In contrast, the other major candidate -- Ranajit Singh Dangi of the Congress -- could only refer vaguely to the "concern for environment" shown by Congress leaders such as the late Rajiv Gandhi. He credits the closure of the distillery to the state government.
But upstream in Sehatganj, a part of Sanchi constituency, BJP candidate Gauri Shankar Sajwal, a former state health minster, lacked the initiative shown by his party colleagues in Vidisha. Says local resident Bhagwan Singh: "The local people had raised the problem with Sajwal during his ministerial tenure. So he cannot pretend to have woken up suddenly." The Congress is on the offensive here and party candidate Prabh Rai Chowdhary says: "How could Sajwal allow such a situation to develop? After all, he was the health minister." His party workers are going around saying that Chowdhary, if elected, would have Som Distilleries shut down permanently.
Upstream of Sehatganj, at the eastern tip of Bhojpur, lies Makoria, the village worst-hit by the pollution. Says Om Prakash, a potter whose hut is 350 metres from the river, "Every monsoon, the poison enters the water." His mother, Santosh Bai, tells of cartloads of dead fish they have to remove occasionally and says ulcers and sores become common among the inhabitants soon after the rains. "At times," she complains, "it becomes difficult to sit here and breathe because of the stench."
Political workers visited the village and started a colourful campaign, but no one has promised to check the pollution. The voters of Makoria are definite about one thing. "You know what," says Om Prakash, "there will be no fish from here to Vidisha for the next two months."
In Vidisha constituency, too, the BJP failed to touch Badimet, a small hamlet of 80 huts, about three km from Vidisha town. The chief occupation of the villagers is fishing. Says a resident of the village: "The people of the town were satisfied when the government assured them their drinking water would be safe. But what about us fisherfolk?"