Since governments must be

For the people,

Leaders, once they have been elected

By them, must ensure

That people are first protected

From their own opinions.

Remember that every one of two

Who vote for us is likely to be

An emotive dunce.

 

Thus, disregarding informed inputs

From the Fourth Estate,

And sundry busybody votaries

Of democracy,

The crowned numero uno had better

Trust his own ancient legacy.

It will not do to be swayed

By studies of this or that

Made by some knowledgeable cat

Whose so strenuous fact

Fails treacherously to agree

With our ordained contract

With power, pelf, and chicanery.

 

There are times of danger

To the nation, post successful election,

Which require that those who have

Voted us to the throne

Be, for the larger good, securely

Locked up in detention centres

Or houses of their own.

A town in traitorous turmoil

Cannot be at peace until its streets

Are emptied of residents on the boil.

 

Democracy may be for the people,

But they must first be for the nation;

And nation is quite different from

The town’s population.

 

Elected as we are on their behalf,

Our speech is their own;

So why need people to exert

To make their anguish known?

Their best medicine is that they hear

Our grand plans for them in the future.

The present is always dissatisfactory;

Thus people must learn to tarry

Till we are elected the next time again

To carry forward our promises

For every right-thinking child,

Woman, man.

 

Most of all, people must understand

That “development” is the true aim

And purpose of democracy—

Not freedom or dissent.

What value has bickering about

Earthly woes, when Chandrayan

Is hitting the firmament?

---