While waiting for my turn in a Vodafone centre, I came across an edition of Outlook/ India today which covered the Bihar Flood havoc. Reading the stories of the affected families made me cringe. 25 Lakh people affected . A number which I was aware of. But suddenly few of these numbers had faces now. I knew how many family members they had lost, how many days their children had to go hungry before getting one piece of bread, how many square inches they had got for the whole family in the relief camp. And of course of the governments inability to deal with it.
The vastness of it all leaves me wishing - if only there were not a bunch of inefficient, money hungry officials in power. If only the culprits were given such a punishment, that in future any official would think thousands of times before putting monetary benefit over his job. But knowing Indian politics and our judiciary system, that is definitely not gonna happen. The media has already moved beyond. The officials will probably have to give some testimonials to some bloody commitees, and they will then go for a trip to switzerland (from the money that they have made out of it ) to cool down. Leaving the 25 lakhs people struggling for a lifetime to build what they have lost. And well, sometimes not even a life time is enough. 25 Lakh people.
And I could not help but compare that number to the number of people who have been affected by terrorism in our country. Are the numbers even close? No, do not get me wrong -I am all for the fight against terrorism - in spirit if not in action. But what about corruption? What about the people who had sworn to serve the people, now killing the people- through their greed and inefficiency. They are not even fighting for any cause, any jihad. They are doing that perhaps just for a bigger car, a bigger house or a foreign trip. After the Delhi incident, new laws are being brought in for the terrorists. People from everywhere are writing editorial columns about terrorism. How about a couple of laws for corruption ? For not doing your work ? How about few of the top bureaucrats speaking against the system ? But then corruption perhaps does not make that good a story as terrorism. And well, it definitely does not help India become better friends with U.S.
So what if the number was 25 Lakhs !!
1 comment:
perhaps ur best piece of writing :) . and thought provoking too. just that we have become too fat-skinned to get anything not "nearly-effecting us" to let us bother.
And i guess i have told u this thing but this flood, for the first time, made me realise that i can no more perhaps be willing to defend Bihar against all the things it is blamed with. I just don't want to. And not because of the corruption, but because of the way some bunch of people behaved in such traumatic conditions.
And waise, i think even terrorism isn't getting as much attention as it deserves. As I said, I guess it has become part and parcel of our life and until it hits us personally, most of us aren't gonna be effected. We easily forget now. Coz we are all so busy and luxurious in our own lives. What a life, huh!!!!!!!!!!!!
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