My fellow travellers talked about the Naxalites targeting trains, police stations and government establishments as the Hatiya-Patna carried us crossed Muri station and we headed towards Bokaro last week.

The train passed through jungles dominated by ?Red Army? of Maoists. Anxious for a safe overnight journey from Ranchi to Patna, many travellers slept by 9:30 pm when the train left Bokaro. It was an altogether different scene as the train reached Patna, capital of neighbouring Bihar, at crack of dawn next day. Unlike in Ranchi where the morning has become relatively cooler, it was a bit hot and humid at Patna.

And ubiquitous betel shops and tea stalls on the streets outside the railway station were hot with the people debating if the Laloo-Rabri regime would come back or would pave way for Nitish Kumar led national democratic alliance. Leaving Patna after a while I decided to go to Vaishali where the Lichhavi rulers laid the foundation of a ?democratic republic? more than two centuries ago.

Vaishali, according to historical accounts, taught the world its first lessons in democracy in post Gautam Buddha age. Incidentally Rabri Devi, the former chief minister and wife of ?Bihar king? Laloo Yadav is contesting Raghopur constituency which falls in Vaishali. And the ?messiah? of dalits Ram Vilas Paswan, too, woes his political existence to Vaishali for he represents the Hajipur seat, which falls in Vaishali.

But the scenario in Vaishali had hardly anything to suggest that it had been a venue of the first experiments in democracy. Buses loaded with heavily armed BSF jawans were seen moving around on the Hajipur-Muzaffapur Road. Light machine gun wielding jawans dotted every nook of Raghopur Assembly constituency. Motorboats carrying armed police personnel were patrolling Ganga and Gandak river fronts that surround Raghopur from all the sides.

?We are doing so to ensure free and fair election in the region,? said a BSF officer leading the forces. I wondered the use and need of such a huge deployment of armed forces in an exercise for democracy, particularly in the region, which is believed to have given the first lesson in democracy to the world.

Democracy to me and to all of us is the ?government of the people, for the people and by the people?. It is autocratic monarch who depends more on the army and firepower to conquer. Why should a democratic state depend so much on the armed jawans to ensure ?safe? polling by people who are entitled to make the government of their choice I asked to myself.

While this question was haunting my mind, I heard a companion on the tour say that the police had arrested a candidate in Belaganj area of central Bihar seizing many lethal arms, explosives besides 30 cartons liquor bottles from his vehicle. Then, I heard court issuing warrant of arrest against a former minister in connection with transportation of arms to his constituency in Munger region. Again, I wondered why these candidates who talk too much about their faith in ?peoples? power? had developed a penchant for arms and explosives.

In fact, constituencies going to poll in Bihar, look more like a battleground with armed forces roaming around, than a democratic exercise. By deploying countless companies of para military forces in Bihar, the Election Commission, too, is dependent more on the forces than voters.

Though it has ensured relatively peaceful polls in phases but constituencies, which went to polls in the first and second phases, recorded only 39 to 40 per cent polling. It means more than 60 per cent of voters stayed away. Petrified of heavily armed policemen around them, majority preferred not exercise their franchise in two phases. Will Bihar find a ?government of the people, for the people and by the people? when 60 per cent of its voters are staying away from voting?