IT was an unusually busy morning at the primary school in Basi Kalan in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. From 6 am, harried teachers who got an order to ?broadcast? Prime Minister Narendra Modi?s speech barely 12 hours earlier were wondering about logistics, while rushing to put up notices to announce that school hours will change from 7 am-12.30 pm to 11 am-5 pm.
As a result, students who battled the morning rain to reach the school found the gates locked, and announcements about the PM?s address.
Class III student Suhani returned home excited to her mother. ?Aaj Pradhan Mantri Shri Narendra Modi hamaare school aa rahe hain,? she announces. ?Kaun Modi?? her mother asks. ?Arre, he is the man on the poster next to that MP Dr Baliyan, outside the madrasa,? Suhani explains irritably to her mother. Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Baliyan is the MP from Muzaffarnagar and all his victory posters feature Modi.
Suhani and her family fled their home in Kutba village last year after the September communal riots, and stayed at the madrasa relief camp in Basi Kalan for most of last year. They moved to a colony for riot victims, named Ahmednagar a month ago. Suhani got a transfer certificate to get admission in her present school.
While her mother tries to clean her up for the ?VIP visit?, her school principal Mohammad Wajid and teacher Mohammad Rizwan have bigger worries.
?We got the orders Thursday eve-ning around 9 pm from the district education authorities that school hours had to be rescheduled and arrangements made to ensure children hear the speech. At such short notice, what could we do but buy a radio? We could have managed a TV earlier but with so much rain, who knows if we can even find a shop open for a radio,? Wajid says.
The two teachers start on a bike in the heavy rain to buy a radio in Muzaffarnagar city, 22 km away at 9 am.
Rizwan is also a ?refugee from Kutba? village, who took a transfer from the primary school there to Basi Kalan, after his family used their riot compensation to buy a plot in Ahmednagar, which is surrounded by three Muslim-dominated villages. ?The polls and the riots are behind us. Somebody has to take an initiative… Modi is not just about the BJP, he is PM of the country now and we… these children are Indians… why shouldn?t we work to make sure they hear him,? he asks.
About eight hours later, around 2.30 pm, students are seated in the school courtyard, staring at a brand new radio kept on a stool. The boys are wearing skull caps and girls had their heads covered with dupattas.
After the riots, most displaced children from Kutba-Kutbi have taken admission in this school and the strength of the school has shot up by more than double, making it impossible to fit them in a single room. In the run-up to Modi?s speech, the students have been given a 30-minute lesson on the significance of Teachers? Day.
The school has a portable loudspeaker. It?s taken out and dusted to ensure that all students can hear the PM?s address. But there is a situation: with no power the entire day, it could not be charged. Teacher Mohammad Riz-wan comes up with the bright idea of connecting it to the battery of his bike. The teachers and students are finally ready for the PM?s address.
?Where is Modiji?? Suhani whispers to her friend Sama.
In Kutbi, a Jat-majority village, home to minister Baliyan, the boys? junior high school presents a contrasting picture. A lonely teacher waits with the old school radio. Like his counterpart in Basi Kalan, he had returned students who turned up at the school in the morning, asking them to return at 2 pm.
Students at an adjoining school celebrated Teachers? Day in the usual hours and went home at noon. They walked up to a portrait of Dr S Radhakrishnan pasted on a wall and bowed in respect, some giving gifts like pens to their teacher. The principal here says he did not get time to arrange a radio.
Back at Basi Kalan, disappointed students realise the PM is not coming himself. They are now looking at the radio, straining to listen as Modi exhorts for toilets for girls in schools. It?s raining again, disturbing the radio?s signal. They giggle at the word ?shauchalay?, and how teachers and students clean toilets in Japan. Their school only has a boys? toilet. ?He will build separate toilets for girls? Will the boys clean the girls? toilets?? Muskan jokes.
Mohd Rizwan tries to control the chatter, explaining Modi?s speech. ?He is saying you should read life stories of great people like Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. The library has books on all these people.?