Festival of democracy?

Here come elections along with summer

Hotting up villages,towns and cities,

Flags of political parties

Fluttering in the hot air,

Banners of parties

Festooning lamp-posts of streets,

Slogans reverberating

All over roads ,streets and lanes,

Pamphlets of parties

Streaming into house-holds

Contesting politicians

Inundating all areas,

Beseeching folks for votes,

Leaders of parties

From their political chariots

On roads and at street corners

Addressing mammoth crowds ,

Making Himalayan promises,

Touching skies, weaving rosy images

Of future for the country and states,

Free of poverty, unemployment,

Agrarian distress and terrorist-violence,

Wooing, persuading and tempting

The electorate for votes

To capture and retain power;

The tricolour weighed

Down by the shattered dream

Of Bapuji's Rama Rajyam

Flying low in the Indian Sky,

Mother Indian still bleeding

From her many wounds

Waiting to be healed

And looking forward

To smiling in all her glory;

Will the tricolour fly so high

In the world sky with Bapuji's

Rama Rajyam ushering in

After these elections?

Will Mother India healed

Of all her wounds hold her head high

With a radiant smile decking

Her glorious face after these elections?

Dr Venugopala Rao Kaki, Kakinada