 "Waiting for development in Amethi, Rae Bareli and Varanasi")
Rahul, refreshed after a 56-day break, has launched a broadside attack on the Narendra Modi government for running a suit-boot ki sarkar and practising "politics of revenge" - as evidenced in the scrapping of the food park, a project that was launched during United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule in 2010 and was being set up by Aditya Birla Nuvo.
The charge stung. The Modi government, in response, said that the company withdrew from the project and, in fact, the food park was shelved by none other than the UPA government in 2013. A few days later, Smriti Irani, Union minister for human resource development, visited Amethi for a panchayat with farmers in the village, where she told them Rahul was raking up the food park to "lobby" for corporations.
The Gandhi family's constituencies, Amethi and Rae Bareli, have received more than their fair share of projects - public as well as private. A vindictive centre, Rahul says, has scuppered many of them. There was talk of a special economic zone at Amethi but there is no sign of it. A unit of the Indian institute of Information Technology was to be opened here, but there's been no progress so far.
Projects such as an All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences and a rail wheel factory in Rae Bareli have only just begun construction after much debate over land acquisition. Construction is still under way at the Steel Authority of India unit, after it bought the plant from the defunct Malvika Steel in 2009. The National Institute of Fashion Technology functioned without its own building for almost five years. The campus finally became functional in 2012.
I am in Amethi to find out if the place has gained from being a VIP constituency or whether unfriendly governments in New Delhi and Lucknow have starved it of growth and development.
While the roads leading up to Amethi are spotless, sewage lines are missing. Many villages in Uttar Pradesh are taking to solar lights, but I see only the occasional solar panel in Amethi. The famed transformers that many mythically believe are present at every kilometre in Amethi make appearances sporadically.
Some factories are up and running but they have failed to generate employment for the locals, at least not on a large scale, and there are no ancillary units in sight. "We only get work like carting and loading; our educated sons still sit idle at home," says 65-year-old Rajendra Pratap Singh, dressed in white dhoti-kurta and seated on a plastic chair outside his home.
Behind us, smoke blows out from a massive grey factory. The ACC cement factory at Tikaria, which was set up in 1998, stands out as a symbol of development in a largely rural, agrarian setting, the contrast becoming starker in the harsh summer sun.
Singh's claims may well be true: cement factories these days don't employ manual labour in large numbers and usually hire executive-level staff through centralised processes. The food park would have allowed Amethi's largely agrarian population an opportunity to participate in a sector it is already a part of.
| The state of affairs |
Amethi
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Most Amethi residents appear confused about the promised large projects. "We keep hearing about projects that are being cancelled, but all this is politics. This means nothing to me," says a fruit seller in Amethi. Arduously swatting flies and peeling grapefruit, he points to an electrical wire across the street with the knife in his hand. "We need electricity, water and sewage - consistently. All these factories mean nothing to us," he says dismissively.
Dasaswamedh Ghat, one of the most popular ghats of Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency
But he foresees bad times for Amethi. The new railway line that was to help farmers in Amethi transport their produce to the food park will now be scrapped, he fears.Has all of this eroded Rahul's popularity? His visibility certainly has diminished. While just a year ago, his face was plastered on every prominent wall, tree and electricity pole, those of Irani, along with Prime Minister Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, occupies each of those spots today. The highway leading up to central Amethi is lined with BJP flags, with only an occasional poster of the Samajwadi Party. Irani, who lost to Rahul by a slender margin in Amethi, seems eager to grab whatever little toehold Rahul's hiatus has afforded her in Amethi.
However, when I talk to voters it is clear they are not yet ready to shift their allegiance. "The Gandhis keep visiting us because it's their turf and we're their family," says Singh, adeptly swatting flies that are attracted to the open drain running parallel to his home.
Further down the winding, though well laid-out streets in Amethi, the Gandhi family bastion gives out mixed signals.
"Why will he not work for us? He's family, and we all love him," says a portly woman in her late 40s, clearly irritated when I ask her if she feels that her elected representative is neglecting their village. But her ire towards me fades a little when she speaks about her family's income. "We constantly struggle with high inflation, especially because our income doesn't rise," she says. "But what can he (Rahul) do about this? He's trying his best."
While Amethi had a jubilant, doting disposition when I last came here before the 2014 general elections, several residents now speak of Rahul with the disappointment a parent might show for his under-performing child.
The food park was supposed to come up at Jagdishpur, about 40 km from Amethi.
Jagdishpur, which falls in the Amethi constituency, has for long been the area's demarcated industrial hub. Factories such as Aditya Birla Nuvo's Indo-Gulf Fertilisers and units owned by Steel Authority of India and Bharat Heavy Electricals emerge every few kilometres. These massive structures were once the pride and joy of the area.
Outside the lane that leads to Indo-Gulf Fertilisers, young men share a beedi at a paan shop. Standing just a few kilometres from the site of the proposed food park, they are unaware of the political storm the project has created. When I explain the project to them, one of them says: "They keep announcing these projects and then go back on their word. We've stopped caring because the youth here are anyway moving out to look for jobs."
Driving down the lane that leads to Indo-Gulf Fertilisers, a different Amethi greets me. This could well be an upscale industrial unit in a metropolitan satellite town like Noida but for the vast empty spaces that surround the factory. Several guards stand on duty outside a gated complex. I am denied entry into the complex and when I ask about the food park, the guard cheekily exclaims, "Why are you getting into this, Madam? This is a 'government issue'." The food park seems to touch a sensitive nerve even among those who guard its gates. The company declined to comment on the matter.