By Mamta Sen and Noor-ul-Qamrain
URL: www.covert.co.in/mamta.htm
As the election process unfolds, Covert takes an in-depth look at one of the hidden links in the chain — the political muscleman, the tough guy who is used by every politician to do work that cannot be done by regular campaign workers.
Mumbai: With several gold chains around his neck, 37-year-old Pratik Patel makes his entry at the local teashop just off Vakola bridge in Santacruz, hours after the appointed time. “I had to avoid being caught, sorry,” he says, before asking why we are doing a special feature on political musclemen. “This democracy thing and clean governance is all rubbish,” he laughs, recalling how he witnessed booth capturing even when he was a child in the slums of Vakola.
“I was 14 when I got involved in elections, thanks to a local goon who was in touch with the young boys. We were asked to put stamps on a strip of paper and then fold and put them into a tin box which was later sealed with red wax. There were many such boxes. We usually worked at night, for almost an entire week,” he remembers. With the advent of electronic voting machines a lot has changed, but he says they have managed to duplicate these as well. In the years that followed he was given extortion jobs, which eventually became his main source of income. But he has now graduated to being the “bhai”, the head, and is grooming several newcomers in the profession: “Most of the boys who get into campaigning during elections are uneducated, unemployed and of course poor. We choose boys between the ages of 22-28. Politicians and established goons lure them by promising them money and power.” Even young girls in this age group are finding work in this line. “Girls, mostly from places outside Mumbai, who settle down in these slums and work as door-to-door saleswomen, act as a good cover for our boys,” he says.
Municipal, Assembly and Lok Sabha polls are the most lucrative of all their ventures, which also include activities like land grabbing and extortion. “We sell ourselves to the highest bidder and do not align with any particular party,” he says, adding that of all parties, the Congress pays the best. The rates vary from poll to poll. The charges for Assembly elections are between Rs 5-10 crores per constituency, but for the Lok Sabha, even Rs 100 crores is not enough.
Shiny Singh, 32, who is generally hired by one of the most controversial and high profile politicians from Maharashtra’s Konkan region, says that all politicians have their henchmen who rig the polls. Every booth is a rigged affair. “We bring in over 35% of the votes. Do you think the public actually comes out to vote for these politicians who claim to have won by so and so margin?” he laughs. For every 1,300 votes per booth, 800 are apparently bogus, courtesy the musclemen.
The process begins well before the elections, when boys are hired to examine the slums and get an idea of the actual number of residents living on each address via the electoral list. Many voters’ names continue to be on the list even though they have left their present address or died. This is where the musclemen come into the picture. “We get fake railway passes issued on these names, which are then passed on to our men, who on voting day stand in queue and cast their vote.” He nonchalantly mentions that even as he speaks fake passes are being printed and stored. They will be distributed a day before the election. “Local electoral officers and the police too are taken into confidence,” he adds. The distribution of money is a well-planned affair amongst voters prior to D-Day. Every family gets Rs 500 per day via a choudhury, the local middleman who gets to keep his share of the money. “Bogus voting happens during the first two hours after the polling centre opens and late in the evening, during rush hour. The afternoons are generally ignored,” he mentions.
Shiny says that his boss, a minister in the Maharashtra Cabinet and worth crores himself, hires boys at election time by giving them a “salary” of Rs 10,000 per month. “They have to come and sit at the party office for two hours every morning and evening. For every job performed a 60:40 arrangement exists. He has thousands of young boys on his payroll all over the State. They only turn up for rallies and elections.”
Once their interest is served the same politicians, however, ignore them for the next five years.
Daniel Swamy, 23, from Dharavi, who has been hired by the Congress to hang out at sensitive pockets to see that voters comply with his “orders”, says, “Politicians generally rope in boys as young as 12 to campaign for them. They train these boys to be their chamchas but do not guarantee employment or jobs once they win the elections. I once overheard one politician telling another, ‘Agar hum log in jaise logon ko kaam-dhanda dene lage, to hamara kaam kaun karega?’ That is when I realised what these people are like.”
Srinagar: In Jammu & Kashmir, election musclemen are entirely different from the men who run affairs in States like Bihar and Maharashtra. It is not the criminal gangs that operate for such purposes; but it is a strange mix of counter-insurgents, policemen and small-time politicians who become the musclemen when elections arrive. In Srinagar, in the recent Assembly elections, where voter turnout was low compared to other parts of the Valley, this dangerous breed of politicians-cum-gangsters played a vital role in making certain candidates win. About 1,200 former counter-insurgents, abandoned by the Government and security agencies, were used by the political parties and candidates for this purpose. They live without money, often in subhuman conditions, and are more than willing to work for the political parties. Some of them have even contested Srinagar’s municipal elections and become corporators.
Muzaffar Ahmad alias Babloo, for instance, is “indispensable” in Srinagar. In the recent Assembly polls he played an important role in “mobile voting” in Srinagar city. “I was paid for the job and so were my boys. We were given the task of polling votes at different stations in the Amira Kadal Assembly segment in favour of the candidates who won,” Muzaffar said.
In Kashmir, several henchmen of the separatist groups have joined mainstream politicians. Mansoor Ahmad was Junior Engineer with the State Government. In 1990 he was indicted in a scam in Anantnag district along with a number of officers. After the scam Mansoor joined the ranks of the militants and became an active member of the JKLF. In 2002, he joined Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and was handpicked by him as his personal secretary when he was Chief Minister.
A former Sikh militant, Indumeet Singh, is now closely “associated” with the PDP. He was with the JKLF in the early 1990s and was arrested and put in jail for several years. After his release, he started his own business in Srinagar. In the 2002 Assembly elections he was co-opted by the PDP and was prominent amongst those who stood up to the National Conference in the Valley. When Tariq Hameed Karra won from the Batamaloo Assembly segment and became minister in the Mufti Government, he made Indumeet Singh his PA. Indumeet provided a lot of “supporters” to the PDP in Srinagar city, including some released militants.
Syed Asghar Ali was director of Rural Development when Peerzada Syed of the Congress was Minister of Rural Development during the PDP-Congress coalition Government. Syed Asghar was suspended for being allegedly involved in a huge scam in his department. He joined the PDP and was very visible in the Kishtiwar-Doda Assembly segment organising support against Ghulam Nabi Azad. Ali is known as a prominent “land mafia mover” in Jammu city, where he owns a number of hotels. He used his money power in Kishtiwar and Doda and helped the PDP get “supporters” and “vocal voters”. In recognition of his services, the PDP soon selected him as their MLC in the recent 2009 Legislative Council elections
