A Billion Minions!

A Billion minions

There is an uncanny silence. Even the animals have toned down. There is doom in the air and it seeps into every home, every heart, every eye. Where greetings have become a wish ‘Hope you and your family are safe!!!’ Work in all forms is mostly suspended and people are struggling to find help for their near and dear ones... or for others. Where can we get Oxygen cylinders or concentrators? Anyone, can you help please? Which hospital has a vacant bed? Please, please do let me know! There is no availability! No one is picking the numbers being shared!!! Hospitals have only a couple of hours of oxygen supply left!

Common people are rising, helping others as much as they can. Ordinary people taller than celebrated heroes. Doctors and nurses, god’s own agents. Relatives, friends and neighbours’ seeking out for help! It was expected, there is an active pandemic and governments could have prepared better and yet a billion minions in my lovely country are left to fend for themselves.

Meanwhile, elections are going on as if the very life of the nation depends on them. Religious gatherings are encouraged. Polling officers are contracting Covid and losing their lives, hundreds of people attending political rallies are at risk of spreading the virus and so are the religious gatherings responsible for the spread of the dreaded virus. Centre is blaming state for non-functioning in time by not keeping hospitals ready and oxygen supply adequate, state is blaming central government for not supporting them. Our own population was left unvaccinated while much was sent to support other nations. And among all this we minions are losing to our battle to Covid. Yet in many groups and despite everything being evident openly, we still find minions supporting one or the other political party/leader. In fact, the support is to such a degree that friends fight among themselves and break years of camaraderie based on one or the other political ideology. When will we minions learn that we don’t really matter to the powers that be? We are mere vote banks to be used and exploited by one party or the other and in truth, besides our votes we hold no importance for anyone. Why do we spend time fighting the battles for politicians? Whom are we seeing today even bothering about our plight in earnest? I am not saying their intentions are to harm us, but their policies and actions to handle the pandemic have been very poor at best.

We respect our leaders but stand largely disappointed today. Should we not hold them responsible and accountable for the havoc they have caused in our lives due to sheer negligence, inaction and wrong policies? We trusted all of them, leaders of our choice or otherwise and look where we stand today. We are audited, what if we as a nation take them to task and audit their performance? Do you think we can ever do it? Shouldn’t there be a mechanism whereby the leaders are held responsible and accountable if they endanger the lives of the very people they are supposed to protect/save? But we don’t even question them, even now we aim to help prove that one of them is better than the other. NO! NO! They have ALL failed us collectively! Time, we gather our senses and realize how we are being played against each other and rise together as a nation, as a human race. For at our root, we are the best people around and the time has come when we must stop supporting leaders based on community or free sops. It’s time to ask tough, strong questions, time for accountability. And they will listen for we might be minions but we are a Billion and united a Billion minions are hard to ignore! Jai Hind!