For Phool Kumar Tiwari, a 44-year-old farmer from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur, the usually half-a-day journey to Delhi took more than 36 hours.
He boarded the train from Rampur to Sitapur, where he waited for a train to Shahjahanpur. The train, he claims, was 10 hours late. Having left his home on Wednesday, he and 10 others finally reached Delhi via Bareilly on Friday morning.
Though tired by the journey, Mr. Tiwari and thousands of farmers gathered at Ramlila Maidan on Friday and greeted Anna Hazare with thunderous applause as the anti-graft crusader began his fight against non-appointment of Lokpal and the issues facing farmers, by going on an indefinite hunger strike.
Team Anna
“We took a train to save money. Half the time was spent sleeping on the platforms. Thank god, we reached before the programme,” says Mr. Tiwari, surrounded by his fellow villagers who listened to him with keen attention as he shared why they all have joined the demonstration.
“He [Anna Hazare] is the only one who is working for the poor. Who else listens to us without any ulterior motive?” he says.
Ram Prakash Lodhi, a 68-year-old resident of a village near Jhansi’s Babina, says the only reason he joined ‘Team Anna’ is because the members of the team in his village told him that the water problem would be solved.
‘Root of all problems’
“I joined them three years ago because they solved the water problem in our village. A pond had to be created for water supply. They made it happen after putting pressure on the authorities,” he says, adding that his electricity bill is another problem for which he continues to be in the ‘team’.
“We got electricity connection in our one-room house in 2013. My bill has reached ₹80,000 and I don’t know how,” he claims, adding that corruption is the reason of all the problems and “Anna ji” is fighting for that.
Tired and frightened of the village pradhan, Lalji, a 60-year-old farmer from UP’s Sitapur, alleges that the money released to them under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana does not reach them in full due to graft by his village’s authorities.
“We only get half of it because all the officials take their cut on the pretext of helping us,” he alleges, admitting that the “movement” hasn’t helped much but “at least creates fear in these middlemen to listen to us”.
Attar Singh, a 70-year-old farmer from Haryana, stresses over the ‘Kisan Credit Card’ he got a few months ago.
He says that the money is debited from the card in the name of insurance for his yield but if the yield is destroyed, he doesn’t get the compensation.
“Money is taken from us but when we demand compensation for the destroyed yield, they check for the entire plot of land and not individually. This is unfair,” he says.
‘It’s the least we can do’
As for Ravi, Bhanu and Prakash, Civil Services aspirants living in Mukherjee Nagar, moral responsibility encouraged them to join the movement.
“An 80-year-old man is trying to do something good. The least we can do is leave our homes and support him,” they said.
