Cry, my beloved country

India is a rich country with too many poor people.  It is primarily because the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals.  According to the World Inequality Report 2018, India is the second most unequal region in the world.  The Middle East takes the cake with the top 10% of the population owning 61% of the national income.  10% of the super-rich Indians hold 55% of the country’s wealth. 

I was sitting in a friend’s car yesterday when he refuelled the car with petrol at the rate of ₹76 per litre.  I wondered aloud why people didn’t protest against such blatant exploitation as whimsical pricing of petrol and diesel in the country.  I belong to a state whose recent BJP nominee to the Rajya Sabha, Alphons Kannanthanam, told the highly literate Malayalis that the income from the mounting petrol prices is being used to construct toilets in North India.  Malayalis have more than enough toilets in their homes.  In fact, the number of toilets in Malayali homes is likely to surpass the number of persons in those homes.  Why should the Malayali pay for the toilets in Bihar or Madhya Pradesh?

“As long as the common man keeps paying for the luxuries of our leaders, there will be no protest,” my friend said.  “Who paid for the Kerala Speaker’s glasses which supposedly cost half a lakh of rupees?  Who paid the ₹1.2 lakh bill for the Ayurvedic treatment of our finance minister?  Who will pay the new proposed salaries of our MPs and others associated with them?  Who pays for the petrol of the vehicles of our politicians?”  My friend rattled off a long list of things for which the aam aadmi in India is paying, not things but luxuries enjoyed by our politicians most of whom have no worthwhile qualification of any sort.  We pay for the opulence of our leaders.

“This is the helplessness of India,” my friend said. “Modi has made India incapable of questioning.  Do you run for money to buy bread for your children or go questioning the villains who sit in the legislatures?”

What a pity!  Cry, my beloved country.