Likh deejiyega ki raat mein saand hank kar fasal bachaate hain. Savere is maidan mein aakar practise karte hain. Fir jakar sote hain. Lekin Army mein bharti hone ka sapna liye overage ho jaa rahe hain (Please write that at night we herd bulls to protect our crops. In the morning we come to this ground for practice. Then we sleep. Dreaming of being recruited in the Army, we are becoming overage),” says Ajay Maurya, 21, adding that he and his friends won’t vote for “this government”.
There are dozens of them here this morning at the Tilak Intermediate College ground in Kotwa village, nearly 25 km from Prayagraj, running, exercising, anything for that elusive Army “bharti”.
Meanwhile, they wait on, not even applying for other jobs, turning up at the ground every morning, touching its soil to their forehead before starting the day, hailing each other with the Army greeting “Jai Hind”, and on Diwali, crafting a map of India out of diyas and colours. The scenes play out in village after village here, morning and evening.
Anuj Gaur, who belongs to Kotwa village, is now 23, “overage for soldier (general duty)” and hence trying for Territorial Army. Claiming none of his family members or even neighbours will vote for the BJP, an angry Gaur says: “Politicians have no problem with election rallies. But Army recruitment drives are stopped in the name of Covid!”
