Garland Politics and Roadside Poo

Mayawati is once more in the news for all the wrong reasons or maybe right reasons depending from which perspective you read the news. The BSP purports to be a part of the poor for the poor and by the poor, but the manner in which the current head of the political party is garlanded with currency garlands would raise doubts as to the motto even in the eyes of die-hard loyalists! On Monday, March 15 (ides of March) she has been gifted a Rs. 5 crore garland purportedly made of 50000 Rs. 1000 currency notes and yesterday another more modest garland of Rs. 18 lacs! The political ‘chamchas’ claim that henceforth they won’t give her floral garlands but garlands made of hard cash only. This raises the question as to where this money is utilized – a person who rose from poverty to such riches in a short political life-span with hardly any questions being raised by the revenue authorities, has done very little to alleviate grass roots poverty in her state. Her major achievements are building Ambedkar gardens on public property at a huge cost to the ex-chequer which have now been stayed by the Supreme Court. These garden consist of Elephant statues and statues of the founders of the party including her own statue!

Another report which struck my mind was the report which was released by WHO-UNICEF on the number of people defecating in the open. The report has figures for 2008 which show that India has 658 million people defecating out in the open that is 58% of the total of 1.1 billion people worldwide doing it out in the open. No wonder India is still a majorly agrarian economy – the amount of natural urea available for fertilization would be mind boggling!

Don’t you think it is a tragedy that shameless politicians show such a vulgar display of wealth and power when we have such a high percentage of the population without basic facilities for completing their daily ablutions in private. What is the use of those garlands of hard currency when most of the population of her state shits out in the open – maybe Mayawati and her ilk shut their eyes or better still she and her ilk may be using helicopters to avoid both the masses and their exposed arse’s.