height of vote-bank politics

Two otherwise unrelated incidents that occurred over the weekend have caught my attention and it is a rather disturbing conclusion that arises when i compare them. One incident pertains to the rescue of 'Prince', a 6 year old boy who fell into a deep, narrow pit while playing, and spent over 50 hours there till he was pulled out safely. The other incident relates to the israeli bombing of lebanon which claimed the life of Devendra Kumar Swain, an indian working in a glass factory there. Seemingly unrelated news, until you get into the details, political details that is.

Firstly, i must say that it is shameful that it took 50 hours for the combined forces of the army and the fireforce to rescue a child from a 50 odd foot deep well.

The disgusting fact however is the way the issue has been dealt with. The Haryana govt announces a relief of Rs 2 Lakhs to Prince, the Central govt tops it with another 2 lakhs and then the Haryana govt ices the cake with Rs 50k each to the men who went down under to help the child. A TV channel goes as far as offering to sponsor his entire education.

At the other end of the spectrum, the bereaving family of Devendra Kumar, for which he was the sole breadwinner, for who's wife it will from here on be a considerable struggle to bring up their 2 small kids; for such a family is announced by the Govt. of Orissa, a pittance of Rs 25000. I actually saw it on T.V when the CM of Orissa, Mr. Naveen Patnaik announced this.

Why?

All because Prince happens to be an OBC and further still, a christian. Poor Devendra Saini's family will have to be content with next to zilch probably because they belong to the 'general' category, i'm not sure on that. But what i'm sure is that the Haryana Govt. displayed outrightl cheapness with this incident. Consider this too. The Haryana CM spends one whole day at the site where Prince was trapped in the hole. Ofcourse he is a poor child, but by rescuing it, i think the govt has served its responsibility to its citizens. Whatever else transpired is a clear case of votebank politics and diabolical at that.

This is why no one will no nation will take india seriously, as T V R shenoy rightly pointed out for similar other reasons. Votes come first here. then comes everything else. what a pity!