Somnath Chatterjee - The Lotus among the comrades

Yesterday I'd written about the filth in Indian parliament and today I'm thrilled to see a Lotus blooming in that filth. Despite the relatively cleaner (lesser criminal credentials, lesser scams and corruption charges and almost not a single case of horse trading) background of the Left, there's no doubt that they have filled the Indian politics with the maximum filth with their hypocritical ideologies and total nonsense principles. Let me not remind everyone that they'd opposed the Quit India Movement and supported the Emergency. They had burnt effigies of Rabindranath Tagore, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and many other luminaries of Bengal renaissance in Bengal a few decades back stating that these personalities are representative of the Burjwa Class, the term plagiarized by the Left people from some French word referring to the rich people. They still hang pictures of a person like Stalin, who is no lesser evil than Hitler, in their party offices. There are zillion other filth that can be written about them. But amidst all the filth we do see a personality like Somnath Chatterjee who defies his party whips and decides to be a torch bearer of India's constitution. He is like a Pankaj, a lotus, that thrives in the filth, 'pank'. His decision to not step down from the post of speaker is an exemplary evidence of selflessness, nonpartisanism, and integrity in today's Indian politics of greed, opportunism and horse trading. The post of speaker is above any party. The role of the speaker is like a headmaster in a school. What he has done, even at the cost of being expelled from his party, is a rarity in today's politics. Everyone in Indian politics should take a lesson from him.

So at the end of the day, there's still hope that not everything is bad. There's still hope that the dawn will surely come.

This reminds me of one of my favorite Hindi songs written by Sahir.....

वो सुबह कभी तो आयेगी, वो सुबह कभी तो आयेगी
इन काली सदियों के सर से, जब रात का आंचल ढलकेगा
जब अम्बर झूम के नाचेगी, जब धरती नग़मे गाएगी
वो सुबह कभी तो आयेगी ...

जिस सुबह की खातिर जुग-जुग से,हम सब मर-मर के जीते हैं
जिस सुबह की अमृत की धुन में, हम ज़हर के प्याले पीते हैं
इन भूखी प्यासी रूहों पर, एक दिन तो करम फ़रमायेगी
वो सुबह कभी तो आयेगी ...

माना के अभी तेरे मेरे इन अरमानों की, कीमत कुछ नहीं
मिट्टी का भी है कुछ मोल मगर, इनसानों की कीमत कुछ भी नहीं
इनसानों की इज़्ज़त जब झूठे सिक्कों में ना तोली जायेगी
वो सुबह कभी तो आयेगी ...

दौलत के लिये अब औरत की, इस्मत को ना बेचा जायेगा
चाहत को ना कुचला जायेगा, गैरत को ना बेचा जायेगा
अपनी काली करतूतों पर, जब ये दुनिया शरमायेगी
वो सुबह कभी तो आयेगी ...

बीतेंगे कभी तो दिन आखिर, ये भूख और बेकारी के
टूटेंगे कभी तो बुत आखिर, दौलत की इजारेदारी की
अब एक अनोखी दुनिया की, बुनियाद उठाई जायेगी
वो सुबह कभी तो आयेगी ...

मजबूर बुढ़ापा जब सूनी, राहों में धूल न फेंकेगा
मासूम लड़कपन जब गंदी, गलियों में भीख ना माँगेगा
हक माँगने वालों को, जिस दिन सूली न दिखाई जायेगी
वो सुबह कभी तो आयेगी ...