CRY MY BELOVED COUNTRY

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister

Hon’ble Sir,

For the last ten years we have been listening to your “Mann ki Baat” (A piece of your mind) on the radio. However, not once in all these years did you deem it appropriate to hold a Press Conference. Hence you could not hear the “Dil ka Dard” (cries of pain) of your countrymen. You were not able to feel the pulse of your people. Hence, with all due respect, and based on facts, not conjecture, I place before you some of the pain of my fellow countrymen:

• You claimed that you would provide us with less government and more governance. The very opposite happened. You kept exercising more and more control on the lives of citizens, even telling us what to eat, wear and whom to marry. All entrance exams were centralised. Far from making life easier, you have made mundane operations like opening a bank account much more complex. 
• You talked of “Sabka vikas, sabka vishwas” (Development and trust of all). Here again the enactment of laws for so-called love jihad and conversions have belied that trust. You have torn asunder the social fabric of the country. I ask you, can you gather together all those strands from the warp and woof of the fabric to restore it to its pristine beauty?
• You waxed eloquent on the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution pertaining to Kashmir. But terrorism is just as it was earlier. Now you have shied away from fielding your candidates for the Lok Sabha from the three seats in the Kashmir Valley. So who is fooling who?
• Even the people in the neighbouring Union Territory of Ladakh are furious with you. Whatever citizens’ rights they had in the erstwhile State of J&K have been snatched away. They are also angry because their grazing grounds have been encroached upon by China, something that you are loath to admit.
• Nagaland is another border State where you claimed to have had a tacit accord. Then why did 6 districts in Nagaland boycott the Lok Sabha elections?
• In neighbouring Manipur you could not hear the cries of people dying, being burnt or raped. It was like water off a duck’s back. You did not have the guts to remove a communal and grossly incompetent Chief Minister. Like Nero you fiddled while Rome burnt.
• Your Agniveer plan, just to save some money, has compromised the safety of the country. The brave Gorkhas from Nepal that served in the Indian Army are now opting for the Russian and Chinese armies!
• You rammed the Citizens’ Amendment Act down our throats, ostensibly to help refugees from neighbouring countries, albeit based on religion. But can you explain the increasing number of Indians relinquishing Indian citizenship after you came to power? The figure is in lakhs per annum. Then there is the dunki (donkey) route through which lakhs try to migrate illegally to western shores. A large number of them are from your home State of Gujarat. Where then are the achche din and amritkal that you have been tom-tomming?  
• For political mileage you hastily inaugurated an as yet unfinished Ram Mandir that was boycotted by the four Sahankaracharyas.
• You have tried to project yourself as a Vishwaguru. But relationships with all our neighbours – Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, have soured.
• How can a Vishwaguru support naked aggression as evidenced by Russia and Israel?
• You also have stormy relationships with the USA and Canada because of alleged involvement in the murder/ attempt to murder of Khalistani supporters.
• You claimed victory over the Covid pandemic, but now we know that the vaccine used causes heart attacks and has been withdrawn. Through the Electoral Bonds you also received funds from the vaccine manufacturers. Do you not value the lives of your citizens?
• Your Electoral Bond scheme has now been equated with a washing machine for corrupt industrialists.
• You boldly asserted “Na khaoonga na khane doonga” (I won’t accept hush money nor will I allow others to do so). Please ask the aam aadmi, the petty businessman or the big corporates. The “rates” in all government departments have gone through the roof.
• You managed to bring the mainstream print and electronic media to heel. Seeing the exponential growth of the social media you now tried to tame YouTube and WhatsApp as well
• You talked of women’s safety, but your canvassing for a rape accused MP from Karnataka and giving a ticket to the son of another such tainted politician in U.P. belie your claim of “Beti bachao, beti padhao” (Protect and educate the girl child).
• By doling out 5 kgs of rations (maximum value Rs 300/-) you may have swayed some voters. But they need employment not a beggar’s bowl.
• To add fuel to the fire you have stooped to your lowest level in your election speeches, when you sensed the ground slipping from under your feet after the very first phase of voting. Your inflammatory rhetoric has brought shame to the country and the august office that you hold.
• You insidiously claimed that the Congress Party’s manifesto would result in the land, livestock and even personal jewellery of the people (read Hindu) going into the hands of infiltrators having more children (read Muslim). Shame on you sir. You were following in the footsteps of your friend Donald Trump, who coined the term “alternate facts” for blatant lies.
• As for big families, are you not one of 6 siblings, and the C.M. of U.P, one of 7? So who were you pointing at?
• Recently somebody close to me had gone to a village in Muzzafarpur district of Bihar, to shoot a documentary. The hutment dwellers were very poor. Each family had 8-10 children; but they were not from the community that you were hinting at.
• You made another absurd and baseless claim that the Congress would bring in an inheritance tax. To the contrary, Estate Duty, the same thing, had been abolished by Rajiv Gandhi when V.P. Singh was his Finance Minister.
• Why these blatant lies and Islamophobia? As a drowning man are you clutching at straws, having seen the straws in the wind? I am reminded of that famous line from the movie Sholay. “Bacche so jao nahin to Gabbar Singh ayega” (Children get to sleep else that ogre will come). It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book. Raise the spectre of a ghost and stampede them into your fold so that your sceptre may remain intact.
• We have suffered interminably during these last ten years. Our cup of woe is overflowing. That is why we would not like to see your pipe dream of 400 paar come true. After 4 rounds of voting experts and analysts are crawling out of the woodwork to say that you may not even get a simple majority of 272.
• The country can ill afford another 5 years of “Mann ki baat” from a man who doesn’t understand the “Dil ka dard”. Jai Hind.

MAY 2024