I was prompted to write this poem after a mass conversion of 10000 Bahujans to Buddhism, led by Dr. Rajratna Ambedkar, the great-grandnephew of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar, and organised by Rajendra Pal Gautam, Delhi Cabinet Minister (himself a Buddhist); was targeted by BJP, Congress and casteist media channels as “anti-Hindu” and “spreading hate”. A police complaint was filed against Gautam and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Link to the news: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjc_GdLPUO3/?igshid=MjU0Y2ZlMmY%3D. Here goes the poem:

This is India

The world’s largest democracy

A country that prides itself

On its diversity and multiculturalism

However, scratch beneath the surface

And you will soon find out

That all of this is a farce

Designed in order to present a benign image

To the rest of the world

While the reality is as different

As chalk is, from cheese

Every single day

You will hear some horrific news or the other

Whether it be a caste atrocity

Or a rape

Or a lynching

Apart from these heinous crimes

There will be numerous other instances

Of inequality and bigotry

Whether big or small

Like a Muslim being denied a home

Or a Brahmin housewife beating her Dalit maid

Or reservation norms being violated in the IITs

And so on and on

The worst part

Is not what the government is doing

Or rather, not doing

To put an end to all of this

It is the media

The so-called fourth pillar of democracy

Apart from blindly making a sensation

Out of anything and everything

In order to boost its image

What has the media ever done?

Times Now, Republic, Zee News

India Today, CNN News 18, Aajtak

NDTV, Mirror Now, India TV

I am looking at all of you

Do you have an ounce of shame left?

Turning everything into a Hindu-Muslim issue

Giving scant coverage to caste

Recycling the same old trash again and again

And, worst of all

Shamelessly bootlicking the government

You have shown the true face

Of our supposedly secular nation

One that no one will be able to forget

Or rather, should be allowed to forget

This is the real India