Friday, May 8, 2009

Pappu Will Not Vote S@#l@

Candle light vigils, evening marches on weekdays, extempore speeches on what's wrong with Indian political system is best done by the famous argumentative, educated Indian and taking it a step further, by the resilient Bombayite.

Bombay is a cosmopolitan. It reflects the character not of a city but the class of people, the likes of which live all across India. Educated, seemingly informed and for sure with strong opinions about everything, almost. This is the class which seemed to have woken up on 26/11. But nay, Christmas to May is too long for memories to last.

This is a class of people which is most equipped to "make a difference" with just a little more effort - effort on educating with history and politics to begin with, effort to go out and vote in order to become involved instead of remaining a bystander. Unfortunately, they didn't vote still.

To their credit, however, it was way too hot. Didn't the EC know it? But then some may say it is hot even for a lowly paid cop making a mess of traffic in the afternoon while we honk sitting inside our air-conditioned cars. Well, they don’t pay as much tax, now do they? Similarly, a babu is supposed to work hard in powerless offices; a farmer is supposed to plough; a soldier should continue to soldier on. Our taxes pay their salary while they don’t pay as much tax.

Unrelated but taxes reminds me of Bombayites’ asking for better infrastructure because they pay maximum taxes. Wonder where they earn so much from to be able to pay so much in tax alone? Wasn’t East India Company the biggest tax payer to the King of England?