Political devtas

What’s common between God and politicians? Quite a lot! Like God, politicians too enjoy supremacy over both the rich and poor. In fact, going by the perception of the majority of our population, who are breaking their backs to make ends meet, politicians are just a few steps behind God (or probably they already are).
The only difference, which may cease over a period of time, is while the opulent class can afford to have conflicts with politicians; the poor seem to live at their sheer mercy.
I saw an evidence of this last week. An old man, who could barely walk, was standing in front of Rail Bhawan, the railway headquarters.
He was pleading with the receptionist to send him to the minister’s office. Which minister? He did not kn­ow.
His shaky voice was too difficult for the receptionist to understand, who, after two hours of polite talk, was on the edge of losing her patience. She asked the security guards to take the old man out of the building.
“I want to meet Sonia Gandhi. My son has thrown me out of the house. I know, she is the only one who can help me,” the old man pleaded. The guard told him that this was Mamata Banerjee’s office, not Sonia Gandhi’s. The old man then insisted on meeting Banerjee. His logic was that only a minister (be it Gandhi, Singh, Banerjee or Mukherjee) could bail him out.
This is what puts politicians at par with God. This is just one man among the hundreds who keep waiting at politicians’ doorsteps.
It is almost like people queuing up in front
of temples and shrines, waiting to catch a glimpse of God’s idol. Even though the chances of darshan are far less when it comes to our politicians, it
does not deter the aam aadmi from worshipping them. Jai Ho!