By Zohra Javed, TwoCircles.net
The austerity issue of the Congress is becoming a bit of a joke. Shashi Tharoor’s remarks are being blown out of proportion and they have become more the subject of hilarious repartees on social networking sites. This in itself shows how hollow and shallow this “austerity drive” really is. There are people who want Tharoor thrown out of the ministry for having used “objectionable” words like “holy cows” and “cattle class” in the context of the Congress leaders and the common man. The Congress itself is perhaps in a dilemma over the stand it should take, so the party spokesman says they will take “proper action at a proper time.”
What are we supposed to believe? That our netas have become suddenly concerned with the tax payer’s money and have decided to use it for the good of the masses by travelling economy class and not staying in the plush five and seven star hotels? What an eyewash!
All this love for the Aam Aadmi seems to have bloomed and blossomed while the prices of necessities of life are sky-rocketing. So while the netas sacrifice their luxuries and save precious government money, the Aam Aadmi continues to go hungry and nothing really changes for him on the ground. It is a shame for a nation claiming to be one of the fastest growing ones to not be able to provide its citizens with as basic necessities of life as food and water.
Congress it seems has taken its 2009 election victory to its head. The arrogance that comes with power can be seen spilling all over. The Party would do well to come to terms with facts rather than dwell on fiction. There is no austerity without accountability. It will be a good idea to do something practical to curb corruption by fixing responsibilities, setting deadlines and getting a code of conduct in place for everyone from top to bottom.
There are also those innocent souls who feel that the younger generation of politicians has a much better vision for the growth of the nation. They have dreams for India. They can steer the country to a better tomorrow. Indeed how good this sounds. But look at the veteran leaders of today. They were also young once upon a time. They also seemingly had a vision, but look at how things stand completely messed up today. And the younger generation comes from the same families in the same positions. Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, Omer Abdullah, and others (some still in the making), all occupying their fathers’ chairs and taking their grandparents’ agenda forward.
While I have very little knowledge about Mr.Tharoor’s integrity as an honest politician, I think his reference to Aam Aadmi as “cattle class” is not at all objectionable. In fact sometimes the Aam Aadmi is more worse off. Also more seriously I think our double standards stretch strangely and disproportionately. Consider this: We call dogs our best friends, but then abuse someone by calling him a dog. We descend from monkeys (or so some would believe!), but calling someone a monkey is racist. We worship cows, but suddenly saying ‘cattle class’ is derogatory.
Politicians would go to any lengths to confuse people and block every little effort of people asking for their rights to food, employment, health care, education and such other human interest issues. Hence sometimes it is religion and sometimes such stupid controversies that take up print and electronic media space to work up peoples’ emotions and stifle important humanitarian issues. I feel lets leave this ‘cattle class’ issue behind and see how these austerity measures may have an impact or not on the overall governance and the people of this country.