Election Scenery Poem by Khurshid Alam

Psephologists competing with their opinion polls
A prophecy they draw to the final hustings
Bouleversement for one wing; anti-incumbency for the other
They profess for the polls to be polled at the booths.

James W Lain’s Shivaji: the Hindu King in Islamic India
Or the burning Gujarat; or the Lucknow saree-stampede
Are the pawns of the Nationalists’ games in the fray.

The Rightists are not the less nationalist though
Men of foreign origin are to be kept at bay
For they aren’t ours, they advocate.
Xenophobic or panophobic they’re, it is hard to say
For strange to the imagination or the play
They granted the Diaspora a double privilege.
Of which the Constitution does not have precedence.
And many of the migrants are of yore, settled abroad
And well progressed in a more tolerant politique
And their acquired privilege is far above the parochialism
Back at home. They pride to associate with their neo-nationalities
Even many have expressed despotism and many are cynic
For the favour awarded, but all’s fair in the worlds’ largest democracy.

(This poem has been published in the magazine Meantime, Volume VI, Issue 02, Kerala (June 03,2004)) .