Elections and after – some thoughts
The elections are finally over. Amidst the false promises and shoals of
money distributed by the political-bandits, in the world’s largest
democracy, honesty took a back seat covering her face and weeping
silently. But who cares – the victors have the authority to rule, loot and
plunder for the next 5 years.
The ministry formation exercise saw the extreme thirst of the various
political parties to serve the public. Some felt that unless they are
given “railways” they can not serve the country. Some one else felt that
they needed telecom or road transport or shipping portfolios to serve the
people better. We dumb individuals can not see what they see – perhaps in
our limited wisdom we foolishly think that some of the main problems India
is facing today are related to education, poverty and healthcare. My
servant maid, Rami’s husband is a drunkard. He needs 70 Rs per day for his
drink and once a week he needs to visit the doctor – costing her 80 Rs for
auto-rickshaw, 100 Rs for the doctor and another 100 Rs for the medicines.
He refuses to go to work – he is too weak to work – but strong enough to
beat his wife when she refuses to give him money to drink. Their children
study in a government school – where the classrooms double as toilets –
yes, there are no toilets in the school – and the classrooms will not even
pass muster as the toilets in our homes. Even though her daughter is
studying in 8th standard, she does not know to converse in English, can
not write her name in Tamil without error and does not know what a
computer is. But these are not problems for our political parties who want
railways or telecom or road transport portfolios. They want to serve
India.
The same people served India during the last five years. What difference
did it make to Rami’s life? A year ago, the drink was 60 Rs, auto-rickshaw
cost was Rs 70, doctor charged 90 Rs and medicines were 95 Rs. But did she
sense anything wrong in the system? No. She curses her fate and argues,
“What can they do? They were kind enough to give us Rs 200 for each vote
this time”.
So, India is the knowledge capitol of the world, our software exports have
exceeded 70 billion, and per capita income has increased by 14% and
inflation has dipped to 0.2%. The finance minister in his sonorous voice
will announce these in the Parliament to the thumping of desks of his
party colleagues and Rami will also see the news on TV till she gets
disrupted by the sound of her husband vomiting in the house.
Long live India.
