The Ground Reality

The Ground Reality

It was a nice Sunday evening when I heard the voice of my beloved wife asking me to bring onions from the market. After finishing my main shopping list, I went to keep the goods into the car parked in the parking area in the service lane of the main road. My eyes came into contact with a street vendor who was just five metres away selling vegetables. I, along with my daughter, closed the car and went up to him to buy onions. My daughter saw the cart without the paddle and asked him how he rides his cart. He replied “I keep it in the society.” Out of sheer inquisitiveness she again asked him, “Do they charge you?” His answer was negative, “No. They have permitted me to keep it.” Having a curious nature she asked again “how much do you pay to the police?” He laughed and looked at my face. It seemed as if he was making fun of something, “Yeh to na hi Poocho Betia.” (Please do not ask me this).  He continued “Previously, when Congress Party was in power, the police used to only take Rs.2000 per month”. He further confessed that during the time when AAP ( Aam Admi Party ) was in power, his life was very smooth because he never paid any amount to any person for no one even dared to come up for collection due to fear of corruption. He showed his annoyance towards the AAP as they had ditched the poor after forty nine days of regime. But since then things have turned from bad to worst because besides making payments in cash he is now also giving free vegetables to the concerned officials which exceeds to any amount.

My daughter was shocked and inquired as to how much he saved. His answer was deplorable and indigestible by both of us. He said “I pay Rs.500 to DDA as rental charges and Rs.500 to MCD so that they do not take away my cart. The leftover amount is somewhat with which I run my household.” This was plight during the last regime of the Congress Party along with the change he felt during the Aam Admi Party as narrated by him. He even showed his hope towards the new Party coming to power i.e. Bhartiya Janta Party.

This conversation left a room for thought as to how the poor person are harassed and how the nepotism and self-centred key working bodies take away the hard earned money of those people who stand under the sun, work day and night to earn their bread and butter. But the fruit of their toil is eaten by someone else. What a shame for our country where personalities like Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sardar Patel and many more died to restore and protect the right of others. In the same country poor man is not only exploited but made to remain downtrodden. Is being poor a curse in our country, spite the constitution giving them guarantee to have a live with dignity.

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