Democracy is a cot at the end of an incomprehensible speech.

On 6 September Rahul Gandhi, Vice President of the Indian National Congress, addressed a rally in Deoria, in Uttar Pradesh, hoping to revive fortunes of the Congress in the coming assembly elections in early 2017. Opinion polls are predicting a hung assembly but there is still a lot of time. The Congress has employed the ace election consultant, Prashant Kishor to run its campaign in India's largest state. Kishor is credited with crafting Modi's victory in the national elections in 2014 and creating the Grand Alliance that won the assembly elections in Bihar last year. Problem is that Modi's victory is now credited to his friend and President of the BJP, Amit Shah, and Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar is having to resort to draconian punishment to prevent 'goonda raj' from benefiting from prohibition, by smuggling alcohol from neighboring states. Rahul Gandhi's rally was called 'khaat sabha' because people were invited to sit on cots.  A 'khaat' is a cot made by weaving a rope, usually made of coir, on a wooden frame, on 4 legs. The cots used in the rally used multi-colored plastic ropes, which made them attractive to villagers, hundreds of whom made off with the cots on their heads. Journalists traced 6 families who brought home one cot each and related their stories. Politicians have taunted the embarrassment of the Congress, but that is not important. What is important is the shocking picture it provides about the rural population in UP, India's largest state. Rural population is about 70% of the total population of India so the country cannot progress unless we make them prosperous. UP is the second poorest state in India and it is no surprise that its fertility rate is the second highest in India. Of the 6 families in the report, only one is Muslim and this family has only one child while others have at least 3 children. The family of 85 year old Ram Nath has 34 members, including 5 sons, their wives and children. All 6 families seem to own their own residences, so they will not be paying any rent. Shakina Bano lives in a hut which does not even have a door. Kishan Rajbhar's family own a small plot of land on which they grow corn and vegetables. Kishan and his 2 siblings attend a private school. Balai Paswan seems almost well off by comparison with others, in that he owns a plot of land, a cow, a buffalo and a machine to cut grass for fodder. All of them said that they did not understand a word of what Rahul Gandhi said but everyone was very pleased with the cot. The Congress is trying to prevent people from running away with the cots but this is creating resentment. What is the point in sitting through a boring speech without understanding a word of what is being said if you cannot get a cot at the end. What does is say about our vaunted democracy?