People: A Poem

People dying in riots and pogroms,

People going behind the bars,

People firing slogans in the wind,

People watching people getting lynched-

I see people embracing people,

I see people stabbing people,

People being united on religion and creed,

People being divided on clothes and cuisines,

People are one for fire and water,

But people are divided on saffron and green-

Celebrating their own decadence in political euphoria,

I see people abusing people on social media.

Beware, if you are speaking for people,

Beware, if you are writing for people,

They are no more sober and sane,

They have been injected jingoism’s heroin

They have snorted hatred’s cocaine.

Challenging their Whatsapp-farward-knowledge,

Mocking their memes shared on Facebook,

Or flouting their tweets in the praise of some thugs,

Can be harmful- very-very harmful for you,

Abuses, threats, character-assassinations are quite common,

If you don’t agree with their point of view,

This is the new normal and so rampant it is,

Even educated and sensible ones have lost their courage,

And some of them have deliberately strangled it.

Some want to remain in the dark, and call it indifference,

Some even justify it in the name of tolerance,

But deep down I know they have lost their significance. Dead!

As a public of a Republic (No, don’t take it for any news channel.),

They are just a face in the crowd, a name in the voter list,

And in the register of municipality for the convenience of a death certificate.

~ Ravi

P.S.  – this is a poem about the sheer jingoism, hatred and ignorance prevalent in the society, and how people react on the point of views of other people. The politics of hatred has developed a species of chauvinists who are ready to cross any limit of civility for proving their ill-informed, propagandist ideas. And you can see this on the tweets and posts wars on social media. Photo is taken from the internet owing full credit to owner and creator.

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