FROM THE ARCHIVES
giggled. “We do not understand these pictures (party symbols) on the box (ballot box), so we press whatever appeals to us the most,” she said.
They did not know why they were expected to vote either. I told them that voting enables citizens to elect people to power and to make their voices heard. They laughed. “Are you joking? Who are these people who will make our lives better? You have come here, you have seen how di©cult it is to reach here. Why would anyone want to visit us,” asked Rambai Pawara, a resident. Ungya Gurja Pawara, another resident, asked me whether the voting process could really make their life better and if so, how.
Then why do you vote, I asked. They said that they feared the forest department would displace them.
I found similar reasons driven by fear in the hamlets of Nandurbar in Satpura range. In Nashik’s Trimbakeshwar tehsil, the Warli, Katkari, and Kokni tribal people do not have government supplies such as ration, but they vote religiously. This is because, they said, they feared they would be declared dead if they do not. “What if the government strikes o my name from their document if I do not vote? My family has to suer then,” said Bhaudu Ramu Pingle, a resident.
In India, there is great buzz about the Lok Sabha election. Political parties campaign daily, their remarks make frontpage headlines. But travelling to remote corners of one of the largest States, I realised that in some parts of India, communities are still waiting for their voices to be heard. These tribal communities play a role in electoral politics, but they do not make informed decisions. It is not pride, anger, or even a wish for change that drives them; it is fear of losing something. These are people who have religiously exercised their franchise, but unfortunately, they have got nothing in return.
FIFTY YEARS AGO
MAY 10, 1974
New Delhi, May 9: Parliament passed the Finance Bill, 1974 to give eect to the nancial proposals of the Central Government for 1974-75 when the Rajya Sabha returned the Bill to-day. The Opposition fought the Bill at every stage through a series of amendments which were rejected by the House — four after the Opposition forced a division and the rest by voice vote. A number of amendments related to increased levy on post cards, whose withdrawal was strongly urged by several members.
Other amendments related to withdrawals of levies on kerosene, further raising the income tax exemption limit and withdrawal of levies on various articles of common use like toothpaste and sweets.
At the High Court Mr. Justice Devadoss passed orders in the case in which the Cambridge University Press had applied for an injunction to restrain Messrs. P.R. Rama Ayyar and Sons from selling their publication of XIX Century Prose prescribed for the B.A. Degree Examination 1925. Mr. R.N. Ayyangar who appeared for the plainti said that the defendants had copied in their book several passages from the notes published by the plainti press on the Essays which was the textbook prescribed.