Some time back, the young new chief minister of UP - Akhilesh Yadav - made an annoucement that created a stir...atleast in the media. He announced that the out of forty - yes you read it right, 4 & 0, 40 - vehicles in the chief minister's entourage, a Mayawati legacy, thrity-two vehicles will be withdrawn. He wants his entourage to have only, yes, only eight vehicles.
Great thought. Great gesture. But the point is, its actually seen perhaps, as a gesture. If Akhilesh too, continued with forty vehicles, there wouldn't have been any complaints. Even if he were to increase the entourage to fifty vehicles, that too wouldn't have been news. Thats the point. Before India became a nation, with a comprehensive constitution, lofty values & principles and declared itself as socialist democracy; some kings used Rolls Royce cars, for ferrying their horses & pets, while people had no public means of transport, except for their own two legs.
After well over 6 decades of independence from the British and of becoming a nation, things don't seem to have changed. Check just one of the images, thats part of our daily lives.
Mayawati having forty vehicles in her entourage and similar would be number for many other chief ministers, union ministers and several other VIPs, isn't really a sensational news. If that means, the public of this country faces probable death each & every day of his life as she or he commutes to work or college; if that means people travel on top of trains and get electrocuted to death, if that means people fall out on the tracks and get crushed under mumbai locals, that's not news, either. Clearly, the young nation with stated socialistic principles, doesn't really believe in socialism. There are kings & queens and their are people. There are first class citizens and there are ordinary citizens.
Whats really sad and scary that in terms of values & principles, socially & culturally, India has changed deep inside. It isn't teh country of vedas, sanskriti, satyuga and all that. Its neo-imperialim and I'll be damned if am being rhetorical!
Great thought. Great gesture. But the point is, its actually seen perhaps, as a gesture. If Akhilesh too, continued with forty vehicles, there wouldn't have been any complaints. Even if he were to increase the entourage to fifty vehicles, that too wouldn't have been news. Thats the point. Before India became a nation, with a comprehensive constitution, lofty values & principles and declared itself as socialist democracy; some kings used Rolls Royce cars, for ferrying their horses & pets, while people had no public means of transport, except for their own two legs.
After well over 6 decades of independence from the British and of becoming a nation, things don't seem to have changed. Check just one of the images, thats part of our daily lives.
Whats really sad and scary that in terms of values & principles, socially & culturally, India has changed deep inside. It isn't teh country of vedas, sanskriti, satyuga and all that. Its neo-imperialim and I'll be damned if am being rhetorical!
very well said. Its the times that have brought us to ignore the abnormality of such extravagances...follow this up with Mayawati spending upwards of 100 crs on getting her house fixed with bathrooms made of Pink Italian marble, while a large part of our population ( and more so in UP) use the open grounds as toilets...its such a horrible shame how all this goes unchecked.
ReplyDeleteHey Viren, coming from you, it gives a lot of encouragement. But the point is, the politicians really frustrate me!
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