What has Rahul Gandhi, the projected future Prime Minister of India has unleashed on the poor Dalits of Uttar Pradesh, granted his heart was in the right place and his intentions were noble but what about the sycophants,his followers who are now bent on making life miserable for the poor Dalits just to be in limelight and more importantly catch the eye of the scion of the Gandhi family.
The Congress leaders young and not so young are heading to the villages in UP taking along with them the usual retenues of hangerons and of media they would not move even an inch without letting the media in.
But they are ensuring that as their bumming out with the dalits is given aample of media coverage their materialistic comforts are also taken care of.
So what do they do, they take along new mattresses, with new bedsheets and pillows, afterall how can anyone including Rahulji expect them to even touch the dirty beds what to say of using them of the Dalits.they cannot and will never drink the polluted water afterall they have to take care of their health also so mineral water bottles are a must. Sharing food with dalit makes a good picture but why eat the regular food prepared by his family, take along top city caterers, one has to eat properly, how can one serve people on empty stomach.
The supporters, what will they do in a Godforsaken village so take along a movie projector,and going to the village on Gandhi Jayanti let them and the whole village watch Gandhi, the movie made by Attenborough.
SriPraksh Jaiswal,Minister of State for coal must be a happy man, his pictures of lying down comfortably on a new mattress and new pillow are splashed all over. He came to listen to the grievances of the villagers why should he suffer any hardship.
Azharuddin reportedly refused to be served by the Dalit Balram and the poor man was waived off and he was not allowed to come near the exalted MP.
There are also pictures of Rita Bahuguna the same one who was recently at logger heads with Mayawati squatting on the floor and eating the food with hands.
Why are they doing this? A four hour visit with all the comforts ensured, what are they trying to prove, that they are the saviours of the Dalits.They are out on a packaged tour,they are simply using the dalit for they own betterment.
They come and they go and they leave behind the leftovers,it may be food, or the beds used sparingly by the great men and surely hundreds of plastic mineral water bottles for the villagers
to get rid of.
But the main thing they leave behind is the feeling of discontent among the villagers. They are not village idiots, even they know they are being used and when they see the comforts enjoyed and taken for granted by these politicians the feeling of resentment rises.
And God Forbid if the so called Dalit Tourism continues this resentment would turn into hostility which may cost the Congress dear and which will surely beat the very purpose of bonding which Rahul Gandhi is aiming at.