...there was no one left to speak for me.

To all those poor entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, traders, retired government servants, software 'engineers', middle management, upper-caste, educated, Hindus who have suddenly realised that the economy is fucked and the pandemic isn't going anywhere before it strips everyone of every paisa they have so painstakingly saved up for the 'rainy day', and are shouting themselves hoarse on social media and within the walls of their 'biradari' and friends' circle, here's something to think about:

When minorities were killed and innocent (as we all are, till proven guilty) men are hanged to soothe the national conscience (what an ironical use of the term), you did not speak up.

When small savers and financial illiterates were dying standing in line to get their hands on their own money, you did not speak up.

When migrants were undertaking the arduous journey home with absolutely no help from their democratic government, and dying en route, you did not speak up.

When uniformed troops (mostly from lower castes) were massacred due to 'intelligence failures' and other so-called human errors, you did not speak up.

When an entire state was locked down and cut off from the world as a democratically elected government emasculated them by reneging on earlier promises and then cutting the people into 3 parts, with no legal or legislative recourse, you did not speak up.

When a minority was specifically and purposely targetted in a barely concealed segregation under the excuse of creating a 'national population register', leading to a 'national citizen's register' and from there, a test of citizenship, to be applied selectively to Muslims, you did not speak up.

When intellectuals and academicians, some of them disabled and some octogenarians, were jailed without bail and on trumped-up charges, you did not speak up.

When students were lathi-charged and arrested, their bones and their careers broken, all for daring to protest openly and believe in democratic dissent, you did not speak up.

When exceptionally gifted and decorated artists returned their awards in protest of the suppression of freedom of expression, you did not speak up.

When the entire population was forced to connect all their identities and leave nothing for privacy, and then the database sold and leaked and allowed to be hacked, you did not speak up

When farmers from the South walked all the way to the nation's capital and literally ate rats to protest their condition, all in vain, you did not speak up.

When farmers from the North and West marched on to Delhi and insisted they be heard, but were water-cannoned, charged at by riot police, and called and nationals and secessionists, you did not speak up.

When the soldiers were lied to about OROP, and were denied even smaller benefits like rations or canteens in every unit, and doing away with unit quarter guards and 'fanfare' during Vijay Diwas, etc., you did not speak up.

When arbitrary (and patently false) figures like Rs.2 lakh Crore of relief were thrown about and direct money transfers, soft loans, stoppage of EMI (but not interest!) was promised, and never delivered (because there never was any intent to do so), you did not speak up.

When the RBI was forced to cough up its treasury as large 'dividends' and interest rates went into free fall, you did not speak up.

When the US$ rose sharply to a ridiculous Rs.74, and petrol, CNG, and diesel became dearer even as world oil prices crashed, you did not speak up.

When public institutions and assets that were built over decades of investments, not just in money (taxes), but in time and effort were put on the auctioneer's block, you did not speak up.

When false pride in your nation and religion, class and caste, language and customs, diets and costumes, was tom tommed, so that the poor and dispossessed forget their hunger and hardship, you did not speak up.

Indeed, not only did you not speak up and sided with the oppressor, in this case, the majoritarian regime, but also you actively mocked them and trivialised and laughed at their demands and their actions, at first believing then hoping that the fire does not reach you, and finally secretly praying that it doesn't.

And now, suddenly, if you 'upper' middle class, status-quoian, head-in-the-sand wallah, jobber, government employee, retired pensioner, privileged, and entitled assholes start feeling the heat, you think any of those whose homes have been burnt to the ground before the heat reached yours is going to lift a finger, leave alone a bucket of water to stop the fire from engulfing your life and livelihood?

Fat chance.