The bust of Vidyasagar was vandalised recently by goons in Kolkata, during Lok Sabha election 2019. Here’s a protest poem by Basudeb, exclusively for Different Truths.
I see in the sky the patches of cloud,
Rain infested looking blackish and fearfully gaudy,
Perhaps to message something to some body,
Nobody knows where the torn cloud moves,
Nature looks sombre with angry tears in her eyes.
The spirit of Indian Renaissance is Vidyasagar,
The great man is down and the banyan tree felled,
And we are luminous with our political greed.
Is this electoral benefit a necessity,
Sacrificing our irreplaceable past?
Who will gain out of it ?
Leaders or toiling mass or we ?
We forget our past and our national pride.
A nation breaks when its men forget their past.
The glory of our freedom fight is tarnished
Let us shame and dunce ourselves with pride
Let us curse our enemies by stopping our fall,
Still time we have to salvage our thoughts,
Still we can regain our former strengths,
Sacrificing our suicidal role for the discard
Of our feigned democratic madness.
And we stand again on our glorious past
And march forward to our former heritage,
Thus we can regain democracy with a new gauge.
Photo from the Internet
Irreplaceable heritage; past; pride-stirs sadness at what all is damaged; destroyed; replaced; removed in the name of “modern” “current” “now” “differences” “bull dozing” “bullying” “power” etc.
Thanks Basuda…for articulating sad truths we live with and say nothing, do nothing about.