THE POLITICIAN AND THE PAUPER

“Intrepid, audacious fighters, they were for our independence, but what is the opposition doing to cherish it…...” bragged the demagogue , referring to our freedom fighters, sounding a lot like a masquerader, wearing a dusky cap, snaking his eyes through that of his prosaic listeners. He was giving them an ‘I am your only saviour’ look, and in a jiffy, he was on his soapbox twaddling away. What followed was an onslaught on the opposition and the ‘bump on the log’ crowd hardly realized that they were there to witness what was supposedly a flag hoisting function. In retrospect, one might think, why on earth was oodles of time and money being spent (read wasted) in conniving such unworthy functions. A statistician would raise his eyebrows at the alarming rate at which money was being wasted every year, on worthless baubles like these. At the first place, the country needs to draw a line abut its priorities and liabilities, which in turn means that we need to slash out on the useless so called ‘functions’. A patriot would have a cow on me and would make the fur fly at the first instant for he would argue that the various processions and the drills were part and parcel of showing our respect to the country. TRUE ENOUGH. But shell out as little as possible while allocating more for important areas is what I would like to drive home. Our country needs to clue itself up on very many aspects in order to establish itself as super power among the third world nations. The paunchy politicians should pay more attention towards the country than their bank accounts (if I am not asking for the moon)!! Education to all and reduction of our ever growing population are two of the most promising solutions, if India were anywhere near pulling itself out of the ‘Devil and the Deep blue Sea’ situation. For all this to happen, the last thing that one might ask for is the MISAPPROPRIATION of funds. The money should be used for the upliftment of the poor and the needy and not for the politicians to unleash an open season on each other in the names of National functions like the Independence Day and the Republic Day. What is so very concerning is that ,these functions never cease in number, and a politician celebrates his birthday five times a year (bewildered ,aren’t you?)!! So let’s all hope that the penny drops some day and India makes a move towards the apex……..

By,
S.Rahul