In India, there are so many national issues based on cast, religion, economic, and language etc. But most of them are politically motivated and based upon vote-bank. An interesting incident happened recently in Uttar Pradesh where Maya Wati is holding the post of chief minister. The story also occurred in the native village of the chief minister. The name of her village is Badal Pur situated in district Gautam Budha Nagar, Noiada, UP. The chief minister got two cremation houses constructed at the cost of Rs. Fifty Lakhs. One is for upper- cast and the other for lower – cast, although the cremation house belongs to lower cast is more beautiful and expensive.
A labor died in the village. His village was far from there so his companions decided to cremate him in the village crematorium. They took his corpse and arrived at the crematorium which was meant for the lower cast as the deceased also belonged to the lower cast. But the in-charge of the house refused to cremate the dead body as he belonged to the other village and the crematorium is meant only for the use of that village. His near and dear felt bad; even then they requested him to help them. But he didn’t change his decision. They along with the dead body sat before the crematorium under protest. They were all hungry as they couldn’t take any thing before the cremation of the deceased according to their rituals. The matter went to the level of district officers but no body was ready to take any decision; because the case belonged to the chief minister’s village.
In the last, the ‘Sarpanch’ of the village interfered between them. He said, ‘It is true that the deceased doesn’t belong to the village but he had been living here for the last many years. So he could be cremated here. The in-charge had been convinced with the argument and allowed them to cremate the dead. The story was published in ‘Panjanaya’, a weekly news paper. India is a country of multiple problems as well as amalgamation of modern and old orthodox beliefs.