No More Excuses

Within a few hours from now, the new cabinet will be unveiled. A new morning will dawn upon India's political landscape. This poem announces that dawn and expresses hope that a bright future follows it...

Newly instated men at the helm!

and stewards of our country's mothership...

Kudos on winning the ballot game yet again,

and flogging the opposition with the political whip.

Now that you have tasted the sweetness of victory,

please don't forget what you owe to the nation.

Hesitate no more to water your motherland with sweat,

please don't spend the next five years in hibernation.

Don't shatter our fragile dreams with hollow promises

Don't fan our hopes with worthless Five-Year Plans

Don't stretch the already-torn communal fabric further

and then with cries of secularism, place us all in a trance.

Admonish and punish all those naughty babus,

who use their offices to fill their pockets with gold.

You have an eager billion-strong workforce at your disposal,

so channel it wisely and let our gargantuan might unfold.

Tackle the twin troubles of poverty and unemployment -

bring them out of statistical records and cabinet discussions.

If you sound the gong of prosperity in the star-lit cities,

let the villages too feel and revel in its percussions.

Don't make us prairie chickens for those satanic terrorists,

and turn up hours later with a poker face and words of regret.

Don't let those thwarted hooligans butcher us in our homes,

and give us a past we are never likely to forget.

Don't play queer games for ministerial posts and portfolios,

just give whatever job you get your best shot.

Don't peddle your conscience for a couple of bags of cash

and tie the national concerns in an impossible knot.

Just try and practice half of what you preach...

Just try and stay true to half of what you endorse...

That should be enough to place the nation on the path of glory,

and give a feel of good life to India's unfortunate crores.

Try not to mix up party politics with governance,

Try not to let orthodox political axioms dictate your choices.

Don't turn the parliamentary houses into gladiatorial arenas -

give the enlightened minds a platform to sound their voices.

While you are busy watching 'Bull' fights at Dalal Street,

the poor Indian farmer is toiling to earn his daily bread.

While you are cutting petty deals with foreign diplomats,

a sobbing village in Kashmir is quietly tidying up its dead.

Even as you are mindlessly tweaking the reservation quotas,

the orphaned Indian youth is seeking a new parent in Uncle Sam.

Even as you shamelessly deny the vandalism of mosques and temples,

an innocent child is being recruited in the army of Rahim or Ram.

We do not demand for a state of blessed utopia,

nor do we expect you to conjure up miracles overnight.

All we ask for is a sincere attempt to govern us well,

and an honest confession when things are not going right.

We know the task is too wretched and monumental,

and the system too jilted to accept any new ideologies.

But then that is what could seperate you from your predecessors,

and make the custodians of history write you lofty eulogies.

- NISHANK MEHTA

   21.05.2009