Propaganda

You denounce them as corrupt
They excoriate you for being communal
You deplore all their activities
They fulminate against your prescripts

Look, all ye men of politics
I dare flak all your policies
That talk volumes of promises
Aimed at deceiving the masses

Least concerned am I to you for being corrupt
Uninterested in communalism, I am no less a patriot
Mark my words – I am no Hindu nor Muslim am I
Never pondered over such topics, a simple human am I

Corruption or Communalism does not bother me
You are the ones who forced me to see
These aspects of yours, these dirty games you play
Alas! Still you project yourselves as gods with feet of clay!

You keel-haul each other over my problems
Without knowing them well, all your programs fail
Give me food to eat, place to live and clothes to wear
They are all my problems, with me – can you share?

– Saswat Pattanayak, Peoples’ Poet