From Bihar To Baramati - Reports From Every Corner of India

Twas the best of times...and the worst!

Dear Reader,

This above is a picture of a road section of about 36km in length, connecting a railway station and the village where the local MP lives. It was taken in Khagaria, Bihar.

In today's evening check in, I want to present to you two contrasting images - an extremely well developed area of Baramati and Bihar's Khagaria, your stereotypical Hindi heartland place.

Baramati, the home of Sharad Pawar family, is rich, well developed, with jogging tracks along irrigation canals. Khagaria has people who've taken to hemp to kill time.

For those of us passionate about reviving the glories of India's Hindi heartland this contrast is painful.

I wouldn't have ordinarily compared these two places but it happened quite by chance. Abhishek Kumar and Krishna Dange, both of them my colleagues based out of our Noida office, had their ground reports on Khagaria and Baramati published on the same day - I happened to read them one after another!

- Amar Govindarajan

The Baramati Bastion

My colleague Krishna Dange, who filed his ground report from Baramati today has a pet peeve: regional imbalance in development and growth.

• That's the thesis with which he presents the photo essay and ground report from Baramti.

What to expect in Baramati: In terms of infrastructure, facilities, factories and even temples.- everything is well taken care of by the Sharad Pawar family.

• The landscape greens up as you enter the Baramati region, even the bus stand there is of relatively far higher standards.

• For farmers, factories and commercial operators, Baramati offers everything - such is the influence and development the Pawar clan brought to their hometown.

• "Baramati seems to have everything. Problem is it comes at the cost of other talukas in Pune district."

Please enjoy the essay in full: I'd much rather you actually read the entire report than for me to summarise here in bullet points.

• Krishna Dange spent three days in the city and surrounding areas.

• The pictures and descriptions he's brought back are stunning.

• Especially for those who're not familiar with Pawar clan's Baramati.

• Click to read.

Where rural Bihar is today and how it might vote

Khagaria is not a particularly well known Lok Sabha constituency. But it's quite off the beaten path and there's not a lot of economic activity happening in the place.

• That's precisely why Abhishek Kumar thought it would be a good idea to write about the place.

After roads came ...nothing much! Much like many places this constituency also saw first good roads built to connect nearby towns in between 2005 - 2014.

• With the news roads Patna was reachable within five hours. Earlier it took 12+ hours.

• Bad roads was the least of the problem.

• The place was infested with kidnapping gangs were present en route, Left wing terror too had taken its toll.

• But after the roads, there has been a plateau in economic development of the region.

Maize keeps it going. Maize production has become a preferred choice of crop for farmers.

• It is the only crop which produces economic value high enough to sustain a family of four to eight people

• Local arhatiyas.control the markets - hence the full economic benefits actually don't go to farmers. (Farm reforms cough cough..)

But farm employment is seasonal. For labourers working in these places, the incentive goes as high as Rs 25,000 during the season.

• But post the harvest season, there isn't much work to find. People continue to leave!

• Loss of opportunity is hurting youngsters more. Many have started to rely on hemp for their relaxation.

• Are Khagaria's urban clusters any better? No!

How the electoral arithmetic looks. Caste equations are predominant in local politics.

• Yadavs are 3.5 lakh votes, Kurmi and Kushwahas combined 2.5 lakhs. Muslims and Dalit each between 1.5 - 2 lakh each.

• But there are wheels within wheels - two NDA allies are not on the best of the terms and may end up hurting the candidate's choices.

• Could it be a simple M+Y formula leading to a victory for INDI alliance?

• Best to read the full report and get the 'feel' of the place.