Thursday, August 30, 2007

Of birha, bati and bar girls!

Darpan Singh
Ghazipur, April 25,

Electioneering in Ghazipur areas bordering Bihar is slowly but steadily coming into its elements. In order to woo the electorate, contestants are employing novel methods. While some are trying to satiate their taste buds by organising ‘bati-chhokha’ party with ‘noorie-laila’ (country liquor) flowing in abundance, others are offering some music to their ears by holding ‘birha’ and ‘chaita’ shows.
Hard pressed for time a sizeable number of desperate aspirants can be seen going all out to satisfy voters’ prurience. For the purpose, they are roping in bar girls, ‘nauthc’ girls. Even male dancers are a hit!
A candidate from Saidpur said, “Male dancers, who are very difficult to differentiate from bar girls, are mostly brought from Bihar and they are cashing in on the opportunity and making the most of the poll season.” According to sources, they, while crossing all limits of vulgarity, were giving their female counterparts a run for their money.
Sources said many consignments of bar girls, who were recently rendered jobless in Mumbai, had already arrived here and they were being used as crowd pullers. Congress candidate from Sadat (reserved) Subas Pasi is moving around in the area to carry out his campaign with a troupe of artistes that he claims to have been brought from Mumbai. Apart from bar girls, the major attraction of his troupe is Nirhu ‘Birahiya.’
Chunnu Singh, a local resident, said, “Such shows are becoming popular but people turn up there just for entertainment and not to listen to politicians.” On Tuesday, ‘nautch’ girls brought from Buxar in Bihar offered some pelvic gyration at the election meeting of SP candidate from Ghazipur sadar, Shadab Fatima, at Mishra Bazar. The show suddenly became the talk of the town as the performers were said to be minors. An SP worker, on the condition of anonymity, said, “ Fatima should not allowed it to happen in her presence.”
Kashinath Yadav, a three-time SP MLC, who was once a famous ‘biraha’ singer, is organising several shows to stump for Mulayam and his party. Yadav, who did his BSc from Satishchandra College , Ballia, in 1979, said, “Birha logon ka dard hai.” He said that these shows were a success in striking a sentimental chord with voters. Talking to the Hindustan Times, he hummed, “Banala ke saar bahnoi ha, jagatawa mein koi nahi apna.”
However, organising ‘baati-chhokha’ parties is not proving as smooth. A pradhan and his associate have been arrested after a case was lodged against them for throwing such a party at village Veerpur under Bhanwarkol police station in Mohammadabad constituency. Not one to lag behind, the electorate have also coined a slogan and they can be heard saying “Baati kha ke sat ke, vote mara hat ke”, as they return home after savouring the delicacy late in the night.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

carry on the good work buddy.