BADRI RAINA| Caravan Daily
Remember the scavengers
Among whom you lived,
Sharing their burden of human
Waste? Seventy years after
Your passing to a nationalist
Bullet, they enter our
Smart city sewer upto the
Gullet, then without fear,
They die from poisonous
Gas because our powers-that-be,
Busy as they are cleaning up
The country, cannot afford to
Buy them protective gear.
Remember the women from
Town and village home
You brought out as equals
To play their part in the
Celebration of freedom?
Today they are asked to stay
Indoors and hold down
Their dangerous presence,
Lest good Indian men turn
Beasts for no fault of their own.
And, dearest Bapu, do you
Remember the Muslims who
Gave their all for the good fight
Shoulder to shoulder with you,
In darkness and light, and
For whose right of ownership
You spared no strife, even
To the point of giving your life,
So that we could see and build
The future with two clear eyes
And not be grievously blind in one?
Well, their devotion today is
Rewarded with calumny and hate;
They are told their part in our
History was a wicked one, and that
They must leave the nation-state if
They will not obey majoritarian diktat.
Bapu, if you do read this, close
Your tender eyes in that beloved
Intensity of thought, and find us
A fabric again from which a just
And loving nation may be wrought.
