Your cartoonist 'Manjul' deserves an Oscar for the Politickle, " ..And the Oscar goes to the man behind all the slumdogs and slums ...." (DNA,22/2). Yesterday, the Congress spokesman has claimed it ! Moreover, there is some poetic justice in the Oscars that Indian themes have won accolades – Gandhi of Sir Richard Attenborough and Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle. Both belong to Great Britain which colonised and impoverished India.
This is not to say our politicians are less responsible for the poverty and slums. Just yesterday a report states that BMC has submitted a list of 89 cases of illegal hutments promoted by officials, slumlords and politicians in 2008 to the state-appointed Committee for the Prevention of Slums. Mahatma Gandhi promoted khadi and village industries to provide work in our villages. However, after Independence, villages and agriculture were neglected and villagers came to towns and cities to seek work. This is the genesis of slums. People flock to cities as there is no work, no medical facility and no education. If the government provides these essentials, people would go back to villages. That is what our Past President Abdul Kalam has been advocating – providing urban facilities in rural areas.
February 24,2009.
****
