The morning after Lucknow went to the polls last week, I met a retired railway worker at a tea stall. Buddhu Rai told me how there was a swing in favour of the Samajwadi Party (SP). “ Lag raha hai, cycle nikal legi (it looks like cycle will win),” he said, referring to the election symbol of the SP. As observers of the Uttar Pradesh elections of 2022 would tell you, it is largely a bipolar contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav.
Rai continued without my prompting: “ Mehengai, berozgari … log pareshan hai (People are tired of inflation, unemployment …),” followed by a sudden pause midway to ask me what I do for a living. The moment I told him I was a journalist from Delhi, his tone changed dramatically. He began to explain how unemployment cannot be blamed on this government and why people should be willing to bear the burden of inflation if that helps the nation’s development. I was confused by now. Was he critical of the BJP or not? Pat came his reply. He was actually trying to make me understand why some people, including him, were still voting for the BJP and why Mr. Adityanath should be the Chief Minister again. Before I could untangle the claims, he got up suddenly and left.
When people do not tell you what they mean, and they do not mean what they tell you, is any meaningful reportage possible? Undoubtedly, there is fear, personal calculation and, often enough, the need to tactically mislead. For journalists from Delhi in particular, who are always short on time, low on patience, deadline driven and prone to see and hear precisely what they are looking for, the Uttar Pradesh election of 2022 is mined with psychological traps. For one, in many cases, the person you are interviewing will most likely assume, unless proven otherwise, that you are with the current ruling establishment. I experienced this on many occasions in my recent travels through Uttar Pradesh, a fact corroborated when comparing notes with many of my journalist friends.
