Remember Demonetisation ?
They said -
Look at the poor ! How they suffer ! They are dying standing in queues. You snatched their livelihood !

While they gnashed their own teeth seeing their box beds, lockers, garbage & gunny bags of cold cash turn to cinder.

Remember Migrant Labour ?
They said -
Look at the poor ! How they suffer ! They will die on their trek back home. The lockdown is brutal. You snatched their livelihood !

While they cut off their electricity, stopped water tankers, hoping they’d leave taking the virus with them.

And during this crisis that has engulfed us.
We have heard -
Look at the poor ! How they suffer ! The system is broken.
With no ‘friends in the right places’ they are begging for beds, gasping for oxygen.

Pause for a moment to think -
What would our privileged & entitled do without the poor ?
What would happen to some of our political dynasties who have built fortunes on propagating poverty ?

How would they justify crime, greed, ambition without hiding behind the ‘virtuous’ poor,

their stories, their misery, on which international fame & lucre has been procured ?

So next time they pop that succulent Kabab they might just choke on the curse of those they exploit & when they gasp for air, clutching their throat they might remember oxygen is in poor supply

but hoarded by one of their own.

Karma, they say, never loses an address.
She’ll be with you - shortly.