The Election Special/Basharat Peer
HEADS turn, cameras zoom in, people make way.
Who, pray, is this man?
Goes by the name Gopal Sharma. Age, 35 or so. Chaiwallah-cum-cyber café owner on normal days, but the BJP's campaigner outstanding in Kanpur right now.
What makes Sharma special is the way he goes about his new assignment: In the garb of the Saffron Horseman.
On a white, flower-decked horse, the brass bells on his saddle jingling, you will find him at the head of every BJP rally. Sprouting a golden headgear and huge earrings, above a starched white dhoti and saffron kurta with 'I love BJP' printed on it.
He wears a brass badge too, featuring the BJP's election symbol, Lotus.
Sharma, by the way, is very serious about his job. He does not ordinarily take care of his dress, or appearance, he tells you. For now, however, his clothes are ironed, his hair and moustache are well-trimmed; the overall image is that of a clean-cut, meticulous young man.
Now how did Sharma end up as the horseman for the BJP?
Well, it just happened; he just decided to do it, on his own, one fine day.
The idea, he says, is off the pages of history, off the Hindu kings who undertook the Ashwamedha Yagna, wherein they asked other rulers to accept their authority by garlanding the horse they let roam or do battle with them.
"I saw the Muslims canvassing in the city wearing their traditional caps," Sharma says. "And I decided to do it my way."
Of Rajasthani stock, Sharma had moved to Kanpur some 20 years ago with his father. He had always loved horses, a passion that found him the job of a charioteer in the Swami Bhagwan Jagannath Rath Yatra, Kanpur's version of the famous Puri Rath Yatra.
A fierce believer in Hindutva, he is an activist with the right-wing Ram Sena and had participated in the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.
"It was madness there," he recollects, "I could not think. I was dazed. I just wanted to demolish everything."
His role in that exercise earned him a stretch in the jail. "They locked me up for six months," he says, "for being part of the Ram Mandir movement!" You can almost hear the disbelief in his voice - 'How could they be so unreasonable?!'
Sharma says he is not a paid campaigner; in fact, he is spending money out of his own pocket everyday.
"I do not want money from the party," he says. "I do not even eat at the party office. I have my food at my house before I start the day.
"I want to remind the Hindus of our heritage and urge them to vote for the BJP."
As the campaigning winds up in Uttar Pradesh, Sharma believes the BJP is on a sound footing.
"We are certainly going to win," he says.
