When I talk about minorities in India, everybody from the majority community checks to see what I have said, but, today I am going to surprise everybody.
I have finally discovered the smallest minority in India, and many from the majority community are in that minority one..
No, not one mentioned in election speeches.
This my dear reader is you, the taxpayer.
Poor fellow. He doesn’t have processions. He doesn’t have slogans. Nobody waves flags for him. In fact, the only time anybody remembers him is on the last day for filing income tax returns.
The rest of the year he is treated like the family cow. Milk it every morning, pat it affectionately, and then forget to feed it.
Every year he hands over a generous slice of his salary believing it will build smoother roads, stronger bridges, cleaner footpaths and hospitals where the lift works before the patient dies waiting for it.
He dreams that when he grows old there will be pavements without potholes, buses that arrive on time and parks where senior citizens can walk without needing a physiotherapist afterwards.
Instead, at all given times, somewhere or other in our country an election season arrives.
It is magical.
Governments suddenly become Santa Claus.
Only one tiny problem.
Santa is using your credit card.
Money begins flying around with remarkable generosity. Somebody gets cash. Somebody gets a free appliance. Somebody gets another attractive promise. Every political party suddenly discovers that generosity is a wonderful quality, especially when somebody else is paying the bill.
Guess who that somebody is.
You.
You, the taxpayer has become the nation’s unwilling philanthropist.
You pay.
Others collect.
Politicians smile.
Everybody claps.
Except the fellow whose bank account is becoming thinner than a politician’s election manifesto after polling day.
What makes it even more amusing is that the taxpayer has become the voiceless minority because he voluntarily joined the silent majority.
He stopped asking awkward questions.
Instead he’s being kept busy by the same ones spending his money by inciting him to argue over religion, shout at television debates, forward emotional messages on WhatsApp and count temple domes while quietly ignoring the hole developing in his own pocket.
A citizen has every right to cherish his faith but not at the cost of becoming a voiceless minority in his own country
If your taxes are meant to build your future, then you should be asking whether they are doing exactly that.
The taxpayer deserves roads not religious rhetoric.
Hospitals instead of headlines.
Footpaths instead of photo opportunities.
Security instead of slogans.
The irony is delicious.
The man who funds the country is voiceless in deciding how his money is spent.
After all, if you are paying the orchestra, you should at least have the right to choose your tune..!
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
Enjoyable read. Thankyou
Wake up
We’ve been fooled for decades, and will continue to live in a fools paradise. We believe someone else will fight for us. When will we see the foolishness of being micro investors for a political system?
Well said!!
Aptly said.Better late than never.
Very well written, Dear Bob. I love your gift for writing. So interesting and enjoyable.
God continue to bless you in all that you undertake.
Guess everybody is waiting for somebody to speak up and do something. In the meantime nobody is willing to stand up and be counted.