It Just Doesn’t Matter- A Reflection on the Anniversary of Gandhi’s Dandi March
It just doesn’t matter
If a six year old girl is raped
Inhuman and brutal in a most horrendous deed
After all she is not my daughter
So why should I bother?
It just doesn’t matter
If that man on the street is about to die
One burden less to affect a sore eye
Besides, he is just a non entity
My help is more needed for some celebrity
It just doesn’t matter
If Rupa Mody waits in pain and in desperation
To encounter Azhar in a real apparition
He is her only son who disappeared one day
“But he is not mine” I glibly say
It just doesn’t matter
That ‘Citizens’ Nagar’ is by the side of a garbage dump
Where polluted water vomits from an only pump
After all they are folk who just need not be here
As for me, I belong to a very different sphere
It just doesn’t matter
If the Land Acquisition law favours power and might
And callously tramples on the common man’s right
‘Development’ after all is the name of the game
Why would I deny my claim to fame?
It just doesn’t matter
If the poor farmer has committed suicide
There is so much more in which one can take pride
That miserable guy’s yield was really bad
Is there reason then for me to feel sad?
Yes, it just doesn’t matter
It just doesn’t matter
As long as there is ‘ME’ ‘MYSELF’ and ‘MINE’ forever
(The Dandi March took place on 12th March 1930)
Fr Cedric Prakash sj is Director of “PRASHANT” – A Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace-Ahmedabad