SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024
Anil Moyo
The pathetic sight of millions of migrants walking hundreds of miles coursing their ways back home, renders me depressed and dejected. My heart aches, mind melts with sincere sorrow and head hangs with shame as I see their plight on their never ending roads.
They did not flee the pandemic they deserted us purposely; not because their wages were not paid timely nor they were evicted over night by their landlords or slumlords from the shelters where they used to stay temporarily. They did it so on account of our bias attitude to look down upon them, calling them as migrants repeatedly and distancing away from them hatefully with the fear of catching the dreaded virus from them without any proof. When they realised that the builders lobby had made good fortune out of their blood, sweat and toil by paying them a paltry sum of money and a little extra and inspite of this they were made to understand that they are replaceable at any moment of time, their long cherished dream of making a small abode of their own in the nearby village or somewhere in the remote nook and corner of the town was totally shattered.
Politicians also took undue advantage of their helplessness by converting them into their safe vote bank to get elected again and again on their strength and that too by keeping the sword of eviction permanently hanging over their head; so long they vote for them they would be allowed to stay in their land.
This mere thought of distrust and disrespect, when crystallised in their mind, eventually gathered momentum and went viral among the cross section of their community along the length and breadth of the country and no sooner it happened; without giving a second thought to it, they started marching enmasse without realising, what is there in store for them in transit.
The gullible people always the soft targets, against whom the effluent class had levelled unjustified allegations that they were the real perpetrators of dreaded virus, conveniently forget that it's their own brethren who flew in from abroad carrying with them the imported virus to spread and multiply in our States.
Travelling through the passage of time, reminds me of a movie "Mother India" which I had seen in the year 1972. It was released in 1935. Legendary Nargis had essayed the role of a righteous woman in it. As I recollect the apparent agony on her face with her two young sons toiling in the field and try to compare with real agony on the faces of millions of "Mother Indias" crying on the roads and stretching their arms for help when their little ones say "Mama I am hungry and thirsty" my heart melts with sincere sorrow.
The authorities concerned should have taken a serious note of their hardship and pressed into service mobile kitchen vans to provide them with bare minimum onetime food and potable water. It is shameful and disheartening to note that the country which produces three times more food than its actual need has one third of its population literally starved and suffering from malnutrition. This is the real sad story of our country even after 73 years of its independence.
