 "Hope lingers despite disappointment")
Surendra Kumar Nayak, who owns paanch bigha zameen in Lakheri city of Rajasthan, was a farmer till last year. With loans mounting, Nayak left farming and started working as a bricklayer.
Every morning at six, Nayak boards the Dehradun Express to travel 80 km to his workplace at Kota, to be able to repay moneylenders.
“I had no option. I thought the new government will help us get out of the mess but that didn’t happen. Instead, the land acquisition Bill has come as a scare. How will it help the poor like us?” said Nayak, who earns Rs 250 daily.
Nayak’s was not the only story of farmers’ distress.
Autorickshaw driver Asrat Ali, who accompanies Nayak daily to Kota for work, said the cement manufacturing unit of ACC in Lakheri, around 180 km south of state capital Jaipur, doesn’t help in creating jobs for locals. He had expected the new government to create more job opportunities. “We are fortunate Kota is accessible from our place and that we are able to earn our bread,” said Ali, who remembers a speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he had said villagers would no longer have to migrate for work.
The controversial land acquisition Bill is a major letdown for most on board the Dehradun Express who had voted Modi to power a year before.
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But Modi has staunch supporters, too. “Why blame him for everything? Can he be blamed for the vagaries of nature — rains and no rains? Also, those who are critical of the land Bill do not know that there is a clause for fair compensation for the farmers in it,” said B L Sharma, a retired police inspector, at the Meerut railway station in Uttar Pradesh.
But those like Sharma were rare on this train, which passes through three Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat —where one would expect strong support for the prime minister.
On the same route last year, people were very enthusiastic about the “Modi wave” about to sweep the entire country. Now, his vocal supporters defend him saying a year was too short a time to measure the performance of the prime minister.
One of these supporters was Kailash Dhanotia, who boarded the train from Bhawani Mandi in Madhya Pradesh, about 300 km southeast of state capital Bhopal.
“Please understand this government inherited six decades of corrupt rule from the Congress and changes won’t happen overnight,” he said.
But there are others in the same coach disappointed by comparing the achievements of Modi’s government and the “huge promises” he made before the elections. One of them is Imar Bharti, a resident of Ratlam — about 300 km west of Bhopal. He said: “They (the government) haven’t even passed on the benefits of declining fuel prices to the aam aadmi (common man).”
As the train entered Gujarat, where Modi served three consecutive terms as chief minister (from 2001 to 2014) before being elected to the top job of the country, passengers said Modi should adopt the state’s model at the Centre.
Vijaybhai Modi said he had found better opportunities in Gujarat than his home state. The 29-year-old from Ratlam has been selling furniture at Dahod district, about 200 km east of Gujarat capital Gandhinagar, for a decade, making the 1,000-km
journey from his home regularly.
“The pace of development at the Centre is yet to catch up with that of Gujarat but I feel running a country and a state are two different ball games,” he said.
He said Modi should have reached out to the people through a nationwide tour after coming to power.
In his home state, the prime minister still commands considerable confidence.
“You won’t see the changes this soon because he (Modi) is here to revive the entire system. Give him a few more years, he will impress you as he had impressed all of us here,” said Ashwin Dandwani, who runs a medical store in Vadodara — a major town in Gujarat, about 140 km southeast of Gandhinagar.
Distance: 1,429.9 km,
There are, however, others who believe that the National Democratic Alliance will not be able to garner the same support in the next election.
MUZAFFARNAGAR TO SURAT
Distance: 1,429.9 km,
Train: Dehradun Express
There are, however, others who believe that the National Democratic Alliance will not be able to garner the same support in the next election.
“The balloon of expectations will have burst. Looking at the mandate, one would have thought he is here to stay for at least a decade but five years will be too long for the Modi sarkar (government),” said 45-year-old Mohammad Shakeel, from Godhra — the epicentre of sectarian riots in 2002, the blame for which has often been laid at Modi’s door.
But despite the contentious land Bill, the expensive foreign tours, and continuing unemployment, some are still hopeful that the government’s train of reforms would reach all classes in the next two to three years.
One of them is Nayak, the erstwhile farmer and current bricklayer, who hopes the 80-km one-way commute to Kota in search of a livelihood will soon be a thing of the past.