How Azam Khan turned Rampur into his political bastion

Money speaks in Rampur, a town 37 km to the southeast of Moradabad. Its people think in terms of crores and serenade the buck because they believe everything they have today is owed to it. In contrast to Moradabad, where the stench of unclaimed garbage and clogged drains — made worse by open defecation — never leaves until one hits the highway, Rampur abounds in verdant spaces and gardens. It keeps fairly well-maintained roads and has open but empty drains. Not for nothing have its voters elected one individual to the Uttar Pradesh legislature for eight terms because they are