It may sound as an old saying — 'ballot winning over bullet'. Rather more optimistic and realistic is —'democracy was never under threat ever!' This is not a rhetoric as series of booths under Tamar (South) that had witnessed nil turnouts in 2009, saw long queues of men and women waiting to exercise their democratic rights. The threat was there but also the eagerness to defy it was present with 60 per cent polling.
The Pioneer was probably the only media crew that reached arteries of the Naxal den and took a close look of Pundiri, longso, Baghai, Rabo, Mankiri, Parasi, Dimra, Tamrana of Tamar and Hunte of Arki area. Most of the places, still heavily infested with the proscribed organisation CPI-Maoist's parallel governance, had seen near complete blackout in 2009 parliamentary polls. This time as well the call for boycotting the polls was in the air but anything else. "People have become aware about their rights and they have understood that if anything is going to change it is only through democratic processes. We have a series of issues here like facility for proper education, employment opportunities and migration," says Rohit Kumar Kundru, a first time voter at Pundiri.