Lok Sabha elections 2019: Saifai’s aglow, but darkness engulfs neighbours
SAIFAI (ETAWAH): The sight of under-construction high-rises, four government colleges, swanky eateries serving pizzas and burgers, two international stadiums, airfields and wide, pothole-free roads could make one believe he that he has entered Greater Noida, but these visible signs of development have sprouted at Saifai, the hometown of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.
However, the parts of the constituency, some as close as 500 metres from the village, lie almost in ruins, with dingy huts, broken roads and roofless houses. Almost the entire village of Saifai is made up of SP ‘karyakartas’. “This is the place where our Netaji was born and by virtue of being born and brought up in the same place, we are automatically SP workers,” Tinku Yadav, a 44-year-old ice cream seller said.
Students, who have come from elsewhere in the state to pursue education in one of the four government colleges, are more proud of the fact that they are associated with Safai than they are of pursuing education.
“He (Mulayam) put Saifai on the world map. It has everything you need now,” said Shilpa Kumari, a 23-year-old student from Barabanki.
On the opposite side, barely a kilometre away from the pizza joint, the roads suddenly narrow down, high-rises are replaced by unroofed houses. In one of the houses, sits an old woman. The house has no electricity and Bachchi Yadav is on a cot, staring into the large wheat field ahead.
“We are now used to it. People nowadays do not even look at us. At least you came here. They are all wowed by the chaka chaund (glamour) of Saifai. Even during the Saifai festival, we are unwanted,” she rues.