But he has nothing on!
Remember the tale of the Emperor who wanted new clothes everyday, at the cost of the kingdom's well being. He dressed in the invisible clothes and posed while sycophants fawned. It took a little boy to say the obvious - "but he has nothing on....." when he became the laughing stock of the world.
This children's fable has nothing to do with what is happening in the present moment.It is loudly proclaimed that this is Amrit kaal, and even though we wonder why our wallets are lighter, gas is so expensive, power bills are too high, the air is not cleaner, we still keep quiet.
We, who know that laws are being changed to suit the whims and fancies of an autocratic government still choose to keep quiet. We hear them say there was no shortage of oxygen, while we had watched people drop dead in autorickshaws, yet we say nothing. We, who saw hundreds of shrouds float in the Ganga, saw queues of dead bodies outside crematoriums where fires burnt through the night, stay mum when the official Covid death toll stopped at 4 lakhs. Was the real figure 40 lakhs or a crore? No one knows. We have stopped funding department of statistics.
We, who saw how a rapist MLA murdered a victim's father, assaulted the victim and her family, was draped with the tricolour. We saw convicted rapists garlanded and released. We saw a University owner being massaged by a female student, who was then arrested instead of being protected. We, spent crores of ₹ on hoardings that said Beti bachao, without bothering if the nation's beti was being saved.
We, who couldn't speak up when a certain friend was given 2.5 lakh crores loans by PSUs, known to have shell companies and committed every possible financial fraud, was made owner of airports, seaports, coal mines, building projects, highways, electric companies, solar power, food, oil and richest human in the world. We shrugged and kept quiet, because that's what we do best.
We, laughed and mocked when Delhi's health minister and then education minister were jailed on what we knew are totally trumped up charges, but now are wondering how the leader of opposition has been thrown out of the Parliament, for 8 years!
When you keep quiet, when another is being harmed, wait until they come for you. Because they will. Today, no one knows which tweet, video or Facebook comment will send you to jail. Arrested for putting up a poster. Thinking twice before writing message. Scared to speak out our minds.
We, the citizens born in independent India are again losing our freedom. Speak out and talk about what is happening. Write. Speak. Discuss. Tweet. Chant. March. Silence won't help you.
It never does.
Dr.Sarika Verma
AAP Spokesperson.
A voice of Gurgaon.