"Of course, we did! But, why are you mentioning this?" asked Amarnath, the party president.
"Are we running the government in tune with these principles?" asked Shyam Prasad.
"He is attacking the Prime Minister. We shouldn't allow this" yelled a supporter of the Prime Minister, in a loud and angry voice.
"Let him air his views" said Prime Minister Mahadev. "Mr. Shyam Prasad! You are one of the most senior leaders of the party. I am willing to listen to your views and correct my functioning, if necessary. Tell us what deficiencies you find in our government."
Kalidas, who was sitting next to Shyam Prasad, whispered in his ears, "This is a trap. He will encourage you to speak your mind, but use your words to take action against you, accusing you of acting against the party's interests. Don't fall into this."
"I am not concerned about what they will do to me" Shyam Prasad told Kalidas, in a whispering tone.
He then turned to the Prime Minister and said, "Don't you know what you have been doing? Your government is being run in contravention of the three principles propagated by us during the election campaign. Corruption in the government has increased many times over what it was when you took over. You have enacted laws that would affect the poor and the downtrodden people. You have let out repression on those who protest against the government and those who are critical of the government. You have taken several measures so as to benefit a couple of business houses, to the detriment of the vast majority of the people of our country. Because of your arbitrary actions, the economy of our country is in a precarious state."
"In which world are you living Mr. Shyam Prasad?" asked Amarnath, in an agitated tone. "The entire media has been saying that there was never a leader like Mr. Mahadev in any country of the world, during any time in history. All the opinion polls say that the Prime Minister has an approval rating exceeding 80%. We are going to win not only the next election, but also all the elections that will be held in the next hundred years. The newspapers describe Mr. Mahadev as the permanent Prime Minister of our country. Don't you read these papers?"
"You have imprisoned all critics of the government, branding them anti-national and created a situation that only the kind of media that sings the praise of the government could exist. You are living in a delusional world created by the pretentious praise of such media. You don't know what the reality is" shot back Shyam Prasad
"Mr. Shyam Prasad! I am pained to hear you speak the language of the enemies of our nation. I respect your views. But, since, no one in this committee agrees with you, I think we can talk of other things" said Mahadev, putting an end to the discussion.
The next day, there was an announcement from the People's Democratic Party that Shyam Prasad had been expelled from the party, because of his anti-party activities. There was also a raid on Shyam Prasad's house by the income tax authorities. But, nothing incriminating was recovered during the raid.
After getting expelled from the party, Shyam Prasad used the social media to voice his criticism about the government's policies and functioning. He was severely trolled by the supporters of the ruling party. Many libelous allegations were made against him.
During the next three years, the economy of the country kept deteriorating, going from bad to worse. But in the government's annual surveys, reports and budgets, a rosy picture of the economy was being projected.
It was time for the next election. The opinion polls carried by the media projected a huge win for the ruling party. They said that Mahadev's party would win an even more impressive victory than it did in the previous election.
The exit polls presented at the end of the polling day also confirmed the predictions of the opinion polls, by projecting that the Prime Minister's party would win about 80% of the seats in parliament.
However, when the votes were counted and the results announced, Mahadev's People's Democratic Party had ended up losing most of the seats it had contested. Mahadev himself was defeated in his constituency, losing his seat by a huge margin.
The new government that assumed office after the election, after making an assessment of the state of the country's economy and the government's finances, revealed that the country's economy was in a very bad shape and that the previous government had been giving out false and misleading information about the state of the country's economy.
chUzhAdhu seyyum arasu.
Verse 553
