Mr. P. Sainath, a Magsaysay award winner and rural reporter for the national daily, The Hindu, is a very capturing orator. Including humour and animation in his talk, he makes his words sound deep and meaningful. The fact that he spends 270 out of the 365 days of the year in villages to get hands on experience is clearly visible, as, he points out extremely trivial and minute points in his speech, which leave the listener speechless.
The point in his talk that I was influenced most about, was, the disparity between the rich and the poor. In our country the rich and the powerful are given more footage rather than the poor which are actually manifold times the number of the former. Actually it is the poor who need more attention and care so that they too get equal opportunities to develop. This is how equality can be achieved in the society. The scenario today is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Thus, instead of bridging the gap between the rich and the poor, the policies are widening the gap between them. One day, a situation will occur when this gap will become so apparent that it will not be possible to replenish it. Thus the poor man will perish, which we know will not be a healthy reflection of the country in the world’s eyes.
A very apt example given by Mr. P. Sainath is that at a time when farmers were committing suicides in Tamil Nadu, a new trend of the high and the mighty was theme weddings, which cost crores of rupees. The money was sent down the drain for mere 12 hours of entertainment. Instead had the money been used in another productive activity it would have been much appreciated.
The message sent across by the speech was that we are accountable for our own failures. If our government is not responsible enough it is time we took the control of the functioning of our nation in our own hands….
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