The Hindu Business Line : It's weavers' choice in Varanasi

WHO could have thought that Varanasi silk saris, a must in every north Indian household at the time of weddings not so long ago, could turn into potent electoral weapons?

In the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency, though, interestingly enough, silk saris could impact the outcome of elections in a big way. All the more so because the industry is dominated by Muslims who form the bulk of over 13 lakh voters here and whose vote could tilt the balance in favour of a particular candidate. No wonder, the candidates are bending over backwards to woo this industry, which has been languishing for over a decade now.

While the Congress (I)'s Mr Rajesh Mishra, who was the runner up in 1999, is promising to create a weavers' zone, where the sari weavers would get all the infrastructural and marketing facilities, the Samajwadi Party's Ms Anjana Prakash, a first timer in Lok Sabha elections, thinks this is a national problem, not confined to Varanasi only and is promising the creation of a national silk commission which would look into the problems of the entire silk industry in India.

The plight of silk sari weavers in Varanasi, unfortunately, comes to the fore only at the time of elections and once the electoral brouhaha ends, the messianic promises too fade into the background and the poor weavers are left to fend for themselves. According to the weavers, the faulty policies of the Central Government in all these years have only added to their plight. The silk industry here was already hit by the entry of smuggled Chinese silk into India which resulted into the proliferation of cheap silk saris which gradually replaced the original varanasi saris which used to be costlier because these used to be hand-woven and hand-printed or embroidered.

The availability of this cheap alternative proved to be fatal for this industry and many powerloom owners, like Mr Manjoor Ansari, were forced to shift base to either South India or Gujarat, where machine printed saris were being manufactured. Here they could at least work as labourers and earn some money while back home, there was no work and whatever they were making, did not have the market because of its high price and not so high quality. "Many powerloom owners turned into daily wage labourers. The city has witnessed the mass exodus of silk weavers over the years. In December last, 300 families migrated to South India and Gujarat," says Mr Ateek Ansari, General Secretary of Powerloom Weavers' Association.

According to him, the gravity of the situation could be gauged from the fact that in March the weavers offered mass prayers for the upliftment of their industry.

Such mass prayers, called duakhani, are only offered at the time of devastating natural calamities. No wonder, for Muslims, this has become a big electoral issue and they could vote for the candidate who, in their opinion, would be best suited to help them out.

Their disappointment with the BJP candidate, Mr Shankar Prasad Jaiswal, who has represented Varanasi since 1991, has only added to their resolve of voting to defeat him. Despite being in Parliament for so many years, never once did he raise their problems, nor did he do anything for their upliftment.

"Mr Kanshiram Rana, who was the Textile Minister, managed to have a finishing plant for silk saris set up in Surat. This made our task all the more difficult because the bulk of our business shifted to Surat. But the local MP could not care less," says Mr Ateek Ansari.

Hence, the weavers' resolve to defeat the BJP candidate could become an important factor in these elections, so important that even the question of Congress (I) president Ms Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin pales into comparison.

The choices before weavers are between the Congress (I) and Samajwadi Party. It remains to be seen who walks away with the sari at last.