2023 Rajasthan Assembly Elections: This corporate worker turned politician wants Chambal to move on from its dacoit past

BJP Rajakhera aspirant Malvika Mudgal has previously worked with Eli Lilly, Cargill Seeds and Hitachi Corporation. (Photo by Shantanu Guha Ray)

Every morning, a young woman walks through undulating mud hillocks and thorny shrubs of Chambal to meet impoverished villagers. She is Malvika Mudgal, who once worked from the comforts of her air-conditioned office and was a top honcho for Eli Lilly, Cargill Seeds and Hitachi Corporation. She even trained at the London School of Economics (LSE). Mudgal, 34, is often accompanied by her brother, Dushyant Ashok Sharma, a former American Express manager.

Through some very unconventional ways, Mudgal is pushing social reforms in Rajakhera, which is a part of the larger Dholpur constituency in Rajasthan in the heart of Chambal ravines. It is one of India’s most backward regions, bereft of medical centres, schools and colleges, even proper drinking water.

This is the badlands of Chambal valley, nearly 300 km from the Indian capital and a short drive from the Taj Mahal. In Chambal, it is all about dacoits. Once they lived in the ravines, and robbed the rich landlords. Now, they are all out of business.

Early this month, former bandit king Malkhan Singh who once headed the largest gang in the Chambal ravines and wrote letters on stationery with the title, King of Dacoits, joined India’s oldest Congress party. Singh had become a folk hero in this part of India. The New York Times called the bandits a combination of Robin Hood, Jesse James and Bonnie and Clyde and said the bandits were traditionally protected by villagers and courted by local politicians.

On the campaign trail

Mudgal is trying hard to push a new life in these badlands. She says she is not worried about former dacoits. Or stories about their prowess. They are a spent force and the handful who live in the ravines are not worth mentioning.

“Seek what you need when you vote next. Ask for schools, medical centres and regular supply of water. Tell me, I am here to help you,” says Mudgal. The villagers stand in blistering heat, listening to her. Barefoot womenfolk take her inside their dilapidated huts, narrating their woes ranging from mensuration issues to rising cases of typhoid, a life-threatening infection that spreads through contaminated water or food.

Mudgal does not promise the moon. She promises what she can do from her private purse. Medical camps, fixing iron pipes for drinking water, high quality tarpaulin for the monsoon season, even solar panels and batteries for six hours of power in the evening. Sometimes she invites the villagers to watch a movie in Dholpur, serving snacks like homemade besan-coated peanuts and fried potato slices. Tea made with camel milk is a bonus during a recent gathering to watch Gadar2.

Almost immediately, Mudgal is reminded of the latest releases on the OTT platforms and a life she misses every day. But she also wants to be the last-mile connection between people who can get things done, and people who want to rise. And those who seek are not small in numbers.

An estimated 200,000 live in Rajakhera, mostly low-caste Hindus. They will vote for Rajakhera’s assembly elections which will be held soon. Mudgal is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aspirant.

Not a Bollywood Curry Western

Her father, Ashok Sharma, was a seasoned politician in the region for Congress before shifting to the BJP. In 2018, he was the BJP candidate in Rajakhera and lost the elections by 14,000 votes to Rohit Vora of Congress. Sharma died last year, prompting Mudgal and her brother to spend almost 16 hours a day in the Chambal badlands.

Malvika knows she is not a star campaigner. People know her father and are now getting to know her. Her appeal works more with the women who have always suffered in Rajakhera’s tough, patriarchal society. She works closely with the women, and then turns her attention towards the menfolk and tells them not to browbeat their wives.

“Please do not get swayed by politicians who promise everything but never return. Stay with those who will work closely with you,” says Mudgal.

Unlike big campaigners who travel in imported SUVs and speak through loudspeakers, Mudgal travels on two-wheelers, sometimes riding a bicycle to go to villages.

She says her meetings with the villagers are eye-openers. She says she is reminded of the 1983 India yatra by Chandra Shekhar who said he saw a new country that was missing from big Indian cities.

“I see people who live in mud houses, rear cattle in the open, sell milk and still believe in barter trade. I am shocked, I sit with them and break bread and look around their dilapidated homes. And then I wonder what has India achieved in all these years?” says Mudgal.

Malvika Mudgal campaigning in Rajakhera ahead of the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly elections. (Photo by Shantanu Guha Ray)

She calls India’s big claim of corporate social responsibility a big joke. “Stay back in the ravines and you will see only a scattering of homes with virtually no power connection. It is pitch dark everywhere,” she says.

She says she is leveraging her background in public policy and social development, creating awareness and community mobilization on developmental issues. Rajakhera is listed under NITI Aayog’s Aspirational District Programme. She wants to improve Rajakhera’s overall ranking. She has covered almost half of the constituency and pushed her ghar-ghar jansampark karykram in all 46 panchayats and 32 wards of Rajakhera.

Mudgal knows that her new life is no longer about spreadsheets on a MacBook for annual budgets prepared for her multinational corporations. A shift to the hinterland from the corporate world is not easy. She is aware of the dangers of the Chambal river that often floods villages and agriculture fields; villagers shift to hillocks to avoid the surging flood waters and crocodiles that come close to home. The Chambal is home to nearly 500 crocodiles. In March this year, eight people, attacked by crocodiles, were swept away in the river.

As clouds darken a late-monsoon sky in Rajakhera, Mudgal says she tells the villagers to get out of the skins of bandits and their never-ending need for vengeance that has always dominated the main plot points of villagers living close to the ravines. “We need to move away from these stories of these bandits and their escapades which have been recounted in the Curry Westerns turned out by the Mumbai film studios,” she says.

She says she feels compelled to give this place a new hope, new life. It was from this district, Dholpur, that an intrepid reporter from Indian Express broke the law and purchased a young girl, Kamala, to write a shocking story on trafficking. That was 40 years ago but villagers still talk about those days of human trafficking.

Mudgal says there was a time when boys in villages around Chambal - where farmers barely scratched a living from the harsh land - would rather have been dacoits than cops. “I encourage them to go to the schools, colleges and become doctors and engineers.”

Mudgal and her brother have crafted a study paper using people’s experiences. The paper says Rajakhera is at a critical point of underdevelopment that demands urgent attention. “We must improve lives and transform the larger narrative of the region,” says Mudgal.