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HIS name is Laden. vin Laden.

He has even cultivated a faint resemblance to the real Laden. Though, of course, he was not born that way, or, for that matter, to that name.

Vijay Narayan Pal, to use his real name, is one among the millions of campaigners, a small but extraordinary part of the mammoth exercise called Elections 2002.

Kanpur is where you will find him. He has floated a yet-to-be registered party there, the Rashtriya Kinar Morcha [National Eunuch Front].

True to the name of his outfit, vin Laden campaigns for eunuch candidates.

In fact, such is his empathy with them (he is, he tells you, fighting "to change the society's approach towards the kinars") that the father of two has suffixed 'Kinnar', or eunuch, to his new identity -- an addition he explains thus:

"We are all psychological eunuchs. We flow with the current."

vin Laden's campaign, however, is more against politicians than for eunuchs. The point he strives to drive home being, the former group is more impotent than the latter.

Not surprising, that. For, vin Laden, who, in his original avatar, is a lecturer in mathematics, is known in the city for his quirky protests against politics and politicians.

Last year, for instance, when Kanpur was electing a new governing body, he showed what he thought of the exercise by arranging a procession of 110 donkeys -- one for each city corporator.

"I wanted to convey the message that the corporators who did nothing for the masses were as good as donkeys," he says.

Another time, he went around the city with a decaying body on a cycle-rickshaw -- to highlight that the "whole system is rotten".

And till last week, when campaigning ended in Kanpur, vin Laden was moving around, canvassing votes for the six eunuch candidates contesting from the city.

The Afghan turban and the artificial beard he wears give him a Ladensque appearance. He moves with a fake snake in one hand, a broom in the other.

"When you go to vote this time, do not vote for politicians," he tells the crowd that gathers around him. "Vote for the kinars. Cleanse the system by defeating the corrupt politicians, the way this broom cleans the road."

His snake, he says, will ensure his security. "Since the government fails to safeguard even the Parliament, I am carrying this to protect me."

He has more to say about the politicians. "The scavengers are better than them," he continues. "They clean our surrounding, while the politicians vitiate the air by taking recourse to the casteism and communalism."

The election symbol of the eunuchs is bangles, and vin Laden has it painted on his car. "The bangle will shine in this election," he claims.

What we have today, he goes on, is not democracy. "It is de mo ko raashi [give me money]," he says. "Democracy has failed here... and nobody wants dictatorship. Monarchy and aristocracy too are redundant."

What India needs, according to him, is the 'fifth alternative': "Let us choose 10 IAS toppers, 10 vice-chancellors, 10 scientists, and such other eminent people... Let them rule the country!"

vin Laden's outlandish electioneering, unsurprisingly, has not found many supporters. Most people take him as something of a publicity hound.

"He is doing it just to stay in the limelight," says voter Mohammad Israar. "He keeps coming up with tamashaas like this."

But Mohan Kumar, another voter, feels there is something in vin Laden's philosophy.

"We may not take him seriously, but what he is saying is not entirely wrong," he says. "What have the politicians done except fill their coffers and send there children abroad for education?"

The irony of it all is that some of the eunuchs disown vin Laden. "We have nothing to do with him," says Anwari alias Sheila, a contestant from the General Ganj assembly seat. "He is doing it for publicity."

But vin Laden is unfazed by such comments. The last we saw, he was sweeping the roads to propagate his message of a corruption-free governance.

Photograph: Basharat Peer

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