“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm

When Orwell published this allegorical satire in 1945, all he had thought of was to portray the events that precipitated the Russian Revolution in 1917. But not even in his wildest dreams he would have thought that this very quote would be apropos to the situation of India about 60 years after the book was written.

The ‘man’ here is a metaphor for the modern day politician. Politicians have learned to revel in corruption that is corroding this nation from inside, nepotism that is circumscribing the chances of better leaders to helm us towards a better tomorrow, pandering to the biases of people to garner minority vote-banks and various other ways of unconscionable malfeasance. They consider to impugn the jurisprudence as their birth-right, and often are safeguarded by impunity for the libertine acts they commit.

The ‘animals’ here are we, the mere mortals. Its we who do all the hard work. Its just for us that all the laws are made. If we try to do something for the betterment of our own society we are considered as iconoclasts, and at times threat to the nation also. We are expected to feed ourselves with a paltry amount of Rs. 12 where as the politicians are known to purchase just the ‘fodder’ for their beloved animals for around 37 crores.The CWG scam, Sand-mining scam, 2g spectrum scam and all the other scams to follow will go unnoticed but when we, the commoners, raise a voice against a brutal rape cases or murders we are ‘laathi-charged’.

This is happening because they are not scared of the repercussions of all these debauched activities. And the sole reason for their brazenness is OUR FEAR. We, all the 1.2 billion of us, are scared by this group of people. Who were supposed to shepherd us towards a better tomorrow are the ones who are impeding our growth. Because they know that our poverty, our communal clashes and our illiteracy is their strength. They know that if someday they eradicate all of these, they will loose out on the only leverage that facilitates them to get this unquestionable dominance over 1.2 billion people.

All said and done, there is one thing that they don’t realize yet. And that is the cataclysmic upheaval that is bound to happen if we, the animals are aggrieved anymore. And the ‘man’ should take a note of the fact that if such a situation arises the end wont be the same as that in case of ‘Animal Farm’.

So far we are made to live with the fact ‘All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others’. Well, not anymore.