http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/letter-to-sonia-from-drunken-villager-yeh-karna-hai-or-what-would-lazy-people-like-me-do/articleshow/22241225.cms
Letter to Sonia from drunken villager: 'Yeh karna hai or what would lazy people like me do' By ET Bureau | 3 Sep, 2013, 10.03AM IST *By: Shibu Joseph *[image: For someone like me who struggles with one’s responsibilities of a bread winner, the Right to Food Bill is like a Rite of Passage.]For someone like me who struggles with one’s responsibilities of a bread winner, the Right to Food Bill is like a Rite of Passage. *A thank you letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi written by a villager from Kerala , who is locally famous (or infamous ) for his drunken ways, after Parliament passed the Right to Food Bill. ET managed to get a copy of this letter. Read on: * Dear Madamji, I take it as my right (among the many rights that you have deigned to bestow on people like me) and privilege to write and thank you for the epoch-making Right to Food Bill which Parliament just passed. For someone like me who struggles with one's responsibilities of a bread winner, the Right to Food Bill is like a Rite of Passage. Or manna from Heaven as my learned neighbour calls it. Being a faithful worshipper of Bacchus that occupies most of my waking hours, thanks to another of your largesse, namely NREGA, providing for my family so far meant saving the bottle after I have had my fill, to be sold to my 'bangarwalla' friend for Re 1 enough to get a kilo of rice (gratis your mukhya mantriji Oommen Chandy saar) to feed my family. With the Right to Food bill, you have taken that obligation off my head. I am writing this also to warn you against giving in to those so-called argumentative Indians, aka economists, who are out to tear down the Bill. (I know you won't, considering that you managed to pull off a Bill of this nature even as the country's economy appeared to be in a shambles). You know, I still can't get it why Kuriens of this world who fathered the White Revolution and Swaminathans who created the Green Revolution bothered to make my fellow villagers in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu slog when the only thing needed to have been done was a Rights Revolution — Right to Work, Right to Education, Right to Food, Right to Land, Right to Shelter... — that would have created an egalitarian society that Madamji, only you have the sagacity to envision. I gather, there are many crony capitalists who cannot digest your perennial love for us poor, looking for what they call 'sunset clause'in this legislation. What did they think? Are we the US Fed to withdraw stimulus when it deems fit? It's silly of them to not know that stimulus (read vote bank politics) never sets in India. The only withdrawal symptom India suffers is when shaky governments' partners have their mood swings. Period. Madamji, I want you to shun the ignoramus masquerading as intellectuals who cite the Chinese proverb that says, 'Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime'. Tell me Madamji, why should I learn to fish and go through so much stress like those corporatewallas when I can get a lifetime supply of fish from you? And talking of teaching to fish, wouldn't you agree that teaching villagers like me to fish would mean ensuring there is enough water in our fields to cultivate, drinking water in our wells to draw from, electricity for our pumps to work, doctors in our health centres, teachers in our shanty schools, gas in our kitchens? And mind you, I am told, there are 6,38,365 villages in our gigantic country. And doesn't teaching to fish also entail ensuring jobs for all and creating conditions so that people won't have to beg on the streets, mothers and pregnant ladies won't go malnourished? What happens once we learn to fish? Wouldn't we also become like the all-knowing middle and upper middle class who couldn't bother to step out of their comfort zone or TV studios when it's time for voting? The only vote they cast is the kind that appears online — the sexiest man, woman, the best dressed page 3 phenomenon and the like. But when it comes to voting, we the villagers won't mind trekking for miles. So it is in the interest of all that we remain permanently dependent on each other. And with another of a great piece of stringent legislation — the Land Bill — you and your heir apparent, have ensured that businessmen won't step into our villages and thus sparing us the need to work in factories and the troubles associated with it — strikes, lockouts, environmental degradation and what have you. Madamji, they call your attitude condescending, but we the village folks see it as motherly love, they call it doles and grants, we see it as our entitlement. They also allege that the Food Bill would kill villagers' motivation to think big and work hard little realising that all the drudgery of work (including theirs) is to fill one's stomach and those of one's dependants. If the Food Bill can do that, why go through the agony? These guys certainly don't get it, you see. Mother, sorry Madamji, I cannot but agree with you, "Ye karna hi hai", or else what could lazy bums like me do? My prayer these days is, 'Give us this day our daily Rights'. With politicians like you, who needs economists? -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
