By Arshad Mohsin
Most of the deaths in India are due to poverty, lack of medicare, malnutrition, helplessness driven suicides, extra judicial killings, lynching, state sponsored pogroms, politically motivated hate killings, forced martyrdom, fake police encounters and stampede or police firing in political rallies due to unruly overcrowding.
However, the officially controlled Govt. figures will speak otherwise. Because what is cognizable in the already compromised Indian courts is the official data. Be it the police investigation report, the forensic report, the medical certificates, the hostility of the witness, or the post-mortem report anything but truth is conveniently admissible. Courts in India are no more the temple of justice rather they have become the automated gallows for the helpless poor. If the son of a parliamentarian is arrested with a carful of prohibited liquor by the police in Bihar by mistake, the entire police hierarchy is transferred overnight by the ruling Titan endorsed by the nodding judiciary. While a poor scooterist is fined, detained or sometimes jailed for not having an insurance certificate.
Then there are underpaid, undernourished, scantily-armed Jawans , on the volatile borders or politically fomented militantized zones , being martyred. Although the entire death zone for both the army and the civilians is meticulously crafted by the govt. to serve their domestic and geo-political goals, the lives of only the poor remains cheap and perishable. No son or daughter of any known politician has ever lost his life fighting on the border or in those radicalized zones.
Ever since India won freedom in 1947 it’s been divided in two unequal sections. The ruling rich and the ruled poor. Two different laws, two different medicare, two different logistics, two different housings, two different education, two different representations, two different dreams, two different realities, two different languages, two different upbringings , two different food habits, two different opportunities, in common language the rulers (Sarkar) use everything private ( i.e. world class) while the ruled use everything governmental (sarkari ) which is cattle class.
Villages after villages face hunger and famine while wheat and other food grains are thrown in the sea by the heartless Indian govt. citing lack of storage facilities. No wonder why you see the beggars swarming every traffic signal, Masjids, temples and Gurudwaras.
The agency (i.e the judiciary) which was supposed to investigate this inhuman destruction of Indian citizens and bring the guilty to justice has itself fallen prey to greed, bribery and irreversible political and communal partiality.
The super-rich ruling class murders, polarizes, pogroms, bribes, horse-trades or treacherously allies its way to the throne. While the ruled poor remain lifelong onlookers and perennial victim of poverty, diseases, hopelessness, ideological subversion, infighting, deep divisions, joblessness and legal oppression. The filthy rich rulers disguise themselves as the messiah of the downtrodden with massive media campaigns costing them thousands of crores of rupees and once the elections are over and they succeed in befooling the poor masses into voting for them they disappear from the posters, banners, hoardings, newspaper ads, and TV screens to go back to the lap of luxury where they had come from.
Their patrons usually big corporates celebrate their victory and share their piece of pie from the national treasury while the poor voters become poorer due to increased taxes on everyday consumables.
Once elected the political dispensation (i.e. legislature) forges treacherous alliance with the other two organs of the Govt. namely the executive (i.e. bureaucracy ) and the judiciary. And the feast of vulture begins. In fact It has begun since independence and the party is still in its full swing. The executive being the most learned among the three co-axial organs brings in the most horrific ideas to oppress the ruled masses and is responsible for the vast majority of unlawful killings, death and destruction in the country. Bribery , corruption, tyranny begets in the offices of these unbridled bureaucrats who have the weapon wielding police forces at their disposal. Themselves being immune to executive actions, unleash legalized terror on common men and women in the name of law enforcement and destroy the lives of all those Indians who refuse to give in to their bossism. These are our rulers no matter how loudly we scream of being a free nation.
To be clear, I don’t expect the member of the corporate families, the political dynasties, the brainwashed Hindutva brigade, the Meems and Bheems, the red flags, the bureaucrats and their agents, for that matter the Modis and the Shahs to do anything other than flatter or fawn over the rulers visiting the airconditioned auditoriums or stage shows in your vicinity. But what of you poor, unemployed, farmers, Dalits, isolated upper castes, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, North easterners, Kashmiris, Keralites, Tamils, Biharis, UPites, Delhiites, Bengalis, Gujaratis, North Indians, South Indians, and the real Hindus ? Why do you go see them and applaud your own humiliation, destruction and dilapidation ?
What happened to Achche Din? What happened to the Petrol price ? What happened to the gas price ? What happened to Rohit Vemula and Najeeb ? What happened to your job guarantee ? What happened to the loan waver to the poorest farmers ? What happened to Lokpal ? What happened to India’s black money in Swiss banks ? What happened to the dozens of kids who died without oxygen in UP hospital ? What happened to your sensibility O Indian voters/ poor ? What has really gone wrong with you ?
So what excuse can you offer for your eternal silence ? or for your complicity even?
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(The author is a Kuwait based Indian author .He can be reached at Email: wichars2012@gmail.com.)
