Your weekend edition invariably treats us with a picture of our erstwhile Chief Minister continuing to do his bit for the State. The latest showing him holding up a big fish. A pity I cannot afford to buy one of those, having to be satisfied with mackerel and sardine, consoling myself that although cheap and common, they are rich in Omega 3 fatty acid which is good for the heart.
Mr Parrikar’s excuse for spending his weekends in Goa is that offices in the Capital are shut for the weekend does not hold water. Does every Minister, not from Delhi, journey to his home state for the weekend ? It’s very clear the real reason for Mr Parrikar’s weekend visits is that he wants to make sure his inept successor does not let the BJP lose its grip on the State.
It would be interesting to know who pays all the expenses for the Defence Minister’s visits to Goa. Does he travel First Class on his flights, or steerage class like us lesser mortals? And, of course, he has to be ferried to and from the airports in air-conditioned comfort, to be greeted by sycophants hovering obsequiously around when he lands here, and never lacking for company.
In a country which has still a long way to go before we can claim to have more full stomachs and smiling faces, and no longer classed as a Third World country; at a time when farmers, because of unseasonal rains, are in dire straits, some contemplating suicide, it shows a characteristic lack of manly compassion that time and public money should be frittered away in so callous a fashion.
Accusing our former rulers of living it up on the sweat of the toiling masses, Gandhi wanted the British out of India, the sooner the better.
But, then, they existed some degree of accountability at the time. By contrast, those who have taken over the reins of power have been proved indisputably worse on all accounts, be it rampant corruption, squandering of taxpayer’s money on dubious public works, or just plain wholesale looting. Any dissenters?
