Political Diary
New
Delhi, 12 May 2020
Fuel
Hike Fury
COVID
19 RAJNITI
By
Poonam I Kaushish
Victorious
warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first
and then seek to win. One doesn’t need any guesses to decipher in which
category our leaders and State Governments fit. Else who would have the
temerity to hike fuel prices ranging from Rs 1 to Rs 7 and charge corona virus
cess of upto 70% on liquor? Specially at a time when the aam aadmi is grappling with their monthly budgetary expenses
crippled by salary cuts and job losses. Welcome to Covid
19 desh ki rajniti: The new
Carpetbaggers!
Our
leaders’ logic defies rationality. The lockdown has resulted in a loss of revenue
and excise duty, they reason. Tipplers will drink no matter what the cost of
their nasha and people will be on the
roads once the lockdown is lifted, so let’s in-cash. Perhaps they might be
correct, but it stinks of callous disregard for a citizen’s well being. It’s
akin to hitting a person below the belt when he is hurting, uncertain of what
the future holds. Obviously, they seem to be guided by the dictum sabse bara rupiya!
Arguably,
shouldn’t raising taxes be the last resort? Specially when crude prices the
world over have crashed. While Ministers, bureaucrats and police travel in
Government vehicles it’s the citizens who have to pay out of pocket suffer. Not
only do they need to commute to work or run home errands but also burn petrol
by getting stuck in endless traffic jams or having to take detours as roads are
blocked for VIP movement. Add to this, the cost escalation of transportation of
good and essential services.
However,
for our politicians these “inanities matter little, it time to sacrifice for
the nation”, averred a senior neta.
Really, you could have fooled me. For our politicians have turned the maxim ‘life
is under no obligation to give us what we expect’ on its head. Afflicted by the
acute Oliver syndrome of always asking for more and the Orwellian disorder
I-am-more-equal-than-you alongside the high octane decibels of Saada Haq they simply don’t care a damn
about how we live or suffer.
Think, our
rulers are sarkari jawais wherein we
pick up the tab for all their expenses: salaries, life-long pensions,
residences, food, retinue of staff, chauffer driven cars and security. Indeed,
if sobriety begins at home, should our netagan
be living like Burra Sahibs in lavish
five acres seven-star bungalows with manicured lawns, growing wheat and
vegetables, furniture, air-conditioners, fridges and maintenance to boot, down
to a Rs 10 tube-light all for free and yet, just about everybody, who’s anybody
abuses power and public resources topped by being protected all at our cost. So
what if it cost the tax payer an extra Rs 70 crores annually.
It doesn’t end just there. Each MP is
entitled to free water upto 4000 kl per annum and electricity upto 50,000
units. Beside, Rs 30,000 of furniture, 1,50,000 local calls for 3 telephones
and 50,000 free local calls during a year for
internet. Down to washing of sofa covers and curtains every three
months! As also a guard. Do our jan
sevaks need a sepoy to protect
them from their janata they profess
to serve? All paid by the aam aadmi
who continue to grovel outside soliciting a favour from their undata.
Scandalously,
why and for what do our netagan need
fancy pay-packets, perks galore and free travel, beats me. And isn’t it
ridiculous that we are paying pensions to not only former legislators but their
kin on his demise. For what? Didn’t we pay them when they served us?
Considering that there is no jan seva
involved that needs monetary compensation? The tragedy is that over the years
we have become used to the ‘more equals’ playing havoc with the people and
getting away with it.
Bad luck, the hoi polloi, packed like sardines live in tin boxes atop each other.
Thereby, making a mockery of social distancing resulting in increase of corona
case. Mumbai’s Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum a case in point where it is
impossible to segregate the infected or quarantine them. For over 70 years successive Governments have
twiddled their thumbs instead of rectifying the ills that plague the area.
Questionably, haven’t we had enough? Do our rulers
know the reality of Asli Bharat which
they ad nauseum vow to protect? Do they care a damn? Is the aam aadmi’s well-being merely about
statistics?
Pertinently, even as NGOs, gurdwaras and
citizen groups are busy giving a helping hand by feeding labourers, poor and
migrants one hears a deafening silence from our elected representatives who are
cocooned in the comfort of their homes. I have neither seen nor heard either my
MP or MLA come forth by providing succor or relief. Isn’t it a part of their
job description? Are they not meant to
work for the janata’s welfare?
Sic.
Alas, we
seem to live in an India where only VVIPs matter, living life in the slim strip
called ‘official’ in a race for privilege. Wherein there is a wide chasm
between the aam aadmi and our khaas aadmis. Leading to increasing
frustration, disconnect and contempt for the rulers which results in defiance
by people at large.
Most times our babus sitting in airconditioned offices just issue orders without
studying the ground realities. A case in point. The Prime Minister announced a
lockdown at 8PM to come into effect at midnight. None spared a thought of the
lakhs of migrant workers who were left high and dry as factories closed,
landlords threw them out for non-payment of rents and trains stopped. Homeless
and jobless they were bundled in relief camps not up to the mark, sans money
barely able to keep body and soul together.
Their woeful plight is heart wrenching. Daily
we read about workers dying on the wayside from Delhi to Bihar due to
starvation or being run over by a speeding vehicle as they cycle to Madhya
Pradesh from Lucknow. On Friday 15 workers were run over by a train in
Aurangabad as they fell asleep on the track enroute to Chhattisgarh.
Undoubtedly, one needs neither a bleeding
heart nor blindness to see how our polity capitalizes on human tragedy to fill
their vote-bank coffers. Everything is kaam
chalao! Busy as our netagan are
enlarging their respective “relief empires” and pointing accusing fingers at
each other. Tragically, exposing the political and administrative callousness
towards human life. Emblematic of our rulers’ broken promises.
The TV media feeds off the disaster in a new
circus act every night with netas of
different stripes and colours doing what they do best: Tu-tu-mein-mein and finger-pointing forgetting that sound and fury
signifies nothing. A vulgar tamasha
of manufactured grief specially those representing Opposition parties,
scrambling for sound bytes and twitter trolls.
With a new
generation coming of age our rulers including bureaucrats and police need to grasp
gone are the days when leaders were revered, today they symbolise everything
that plagues India, warts and all. We do not need gestures which total zilch
because when truth becomes a casualty one ends up with only babble and bedlam.
----- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature
Alliance)
New Delhi
9 May 2020
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