Election Manifesto
Politicians have become great retailers
Selling their wares with great fanfare
And aggressive ads and fervent election rallies.
A village voter is very happy and glad
To receive a bottle of liquor and a live chicken
Others are lucky to have received smart mobiles
And registrations for health insurance and
Guarantee cards for cheaper electricity and gas.
Politicians make promises galore
Provision of ration to the poor
Provision scooters to the girl students
Pension to old people
A pucca house to every household
Laptops to all the First Year Students.
The list is endless .
But the voter knows
Once the election won
The elected candidate
Would disappear for five years
From the wistful eyes of the electorate.
In the dance of democracy, let discernment prevail
Structured promises, not mere ships to sail
Beyond the rhetoric, let substance secure
A symphony of governance steadfast and sure.
Sagar Mal Gupta
Educated at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Hawaii, Sagar Mal Gupta earned
his Ph. D. in Linguistics from the University of Hawaii USA. He has fifty-six years of teaching
experience of English language and Literature in India and abroad. He has published four books
of poetry in English and his poems have been published in a number of national and
international journals of repute.
