Fast politics

BHATURAS on the plate, food deprivation on the mind, smiling faces and the bonhomie of a common cause. What a picture it could have made. What a story it became, what with everyone having fun at peoples’ representatives preparing for a day of fasting. For what? For the sake of people who struggle to get even one meal a day. The fast was to start later, so the political leaders ate earlier. Omnipresent mobile phone cameras, and social media became the blinding light that spoilt the picture the leaders of the Grand Old Party of India sought to present. 

When the Mahatma undertook a fast, Indians all over the country joined in. Positive political consequences often followed. When Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri asked the country to “miss a meal” one day a week, an overwhelming majority responded to the national crisis the country faced in 1965, of food shortage at the time of war. How things change. Now, the mightiest leader of the land decided that he would go on a day’s fast too. Why? To protest the washout of the Budget session of Parliament. Now when the leader with a broad chest plans a fast, how can his MPs forego a chance to be hungry? For a day, the well-fed will not be fed.

Instead of paying attention to matters of national importance, politicians are now focusing on optics. The real issues of development, disempowerment, discrimination and the fact that Dalits do not have the means to improve their lot are brushed under the carpet, even as the odour of opportunistic optics wafts around. Eat your bhaturas, idlis, rotis or rice... just don’t go hungry. The Dalits, in particular, and the poor in general, deserve more than just bandhs and politics of fast. Take measures to improve the lot of the poor and the deserving. It may be too much to expect politicians to shun optics. Is it also too much to expect the samaj sevaks to actually do some service for the people they profess to represent? Food for thought or thought on food?