Politicians exploit all people and situations …

Seemapuri was a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away, metaphorically speaking. Those who lived there were squatters who had come from Bangladesh back in 1971. Saheb, a barefoot ragpicker, and his family were one of them. Seemapuri had been a wilderness back then but that was not the case anymore. Mud structures with roofs of tin and tarpaulin, devoid of sewage, drainage or running water had been turned into a colony of ten thousand ragpickers. They had lived here for more than thirty years without an identity or permits but with ration cards such that the politicians could get their names on voters' lists. It also got them grain from ration shops considering food was more important for survival than identity. The politicians exploited the weakness of the refugees, playing to the gallery and giving them just enough to survive such that they got their work done, which was to add to their votebank. These people had left their beautiful land of green fields and rivers to set up a shack in faraway Seemapuri because here they got something to eat and feed their families, there was no work back home.