The Headlines Of 'Kumutham' Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

I laughed aloud at the Headlines
of Kumutham-journal, a Tamil weekly
in this sunny morn for the first time in life.
How prophetic the lines are!
“ Every caste has a party
and every lane has a rowdy”.
The right estimate of Indian Politics!

The hooligans give the instant verdict
of cruel death to innocent people
by chopping off their hands, legs and heads.
Girls sent to schools and colleges
are kidnapped, raped, killed and the bodies
are hurled into bushes or deep wells.
The plumbers, electricians, drivers and students
slit the throat of old ladies in Taliban style
and decamp with gold, silver and cash.
Children are kidnapped to demand hefty ransoms.
Those who do farming work in remote places
are killed and the valuables of the women are snatched.

When the cops have the nerve to catch the criminals
the leaders of some caste or religion cry hoarse
as their innocent kin are hunted down.
When the courts give death penalty after five years,
some leaders of regional and national parties
quote U.N.O’s strictures against death-sentence.
All these leaders wouldn’t speak a word
if their own wives and sons and daughters are killed.
All of them have black-cat security in this free land.

A criminal who repeats a deadly crime
should have any right to live?
A convict should contest in polls again?
Is there scarcity for fit people to get elected?
When the harmless people get butchered,
whom to protect, do we have governments?
If they have guts to maintain law and order,
they should continue to sit on the throne or else
run out of the Fort to sit in penance in caves.
The legal experts must make the punishment severe
to keep these scoundrels and wild animals in fear.