Slumdogs meet politicians

I usually refrain from writing blogs on politics but this one forced me to abandon the rule. Recently Congress claimed credit for some of the country's recent achievements which included guess what “Slumdog Millionaire's success at Oscars”. The party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said "All this has been possible because of the conducive environment and good governance of the UPA”.

Wow.. what a statement? Isn’t this a laughing matter? To top it, the two kids from slums who acted in the movie (Rubina and Azhar) met Sonia Gandhi at her house in Janpath and also sang "Jai Ho" for her (which incidentally is Congress's election anthem now). They even suggested campaigning for Congress party in the coming elections (by the way they both are single digit old else Congress would have made them candidates from their slum constituency). Just before meeting Sonia, the two kids just had a small request “When we meet her we will tell her that we need a roof over our heads”

This last request from the two little ones is enough to summarize the irony of the situation, the sorry state of our political affairs? After 60 years into independence, the slums are only increasing; in fact so big, that a hollywood producer depicts them in full nakedness to the whole world and wins credits left right and center. The party who was providing their “good governance” for most of these 60 years claims credit for it – I guess credit for glorifying India’s poverty and highlighting the majority of population who struggle to make even their basic necessities meet. Yes Sir, this is definitely a “conducive environment”

There was so much criticism when the movie went on to win Oscars. Why hasn’t no one come forward now? Everyday, the two kids meet some political leader or some bollywood star or do a ramp walk on a fashion show (yes they walked on the ramp as well in designer clothes) but at the end of the day, they still come back to their same old slum wherein they share their parched hutment with so many others in poor unhygienic conditions. Imagine the mental trauma those two might be going through everyday? At such a tiny age, they are living a dual life every 12 hrs (a dream life in a day and dropping to the stark realties in night) hoping that the political parties will do something to rectify the situation, something that can make their dreams last a bit longer.