Changing the rules without consent: the true aim of development?
Political gain or property grab, in the name of development?
Lock up the kids before they hurl stones in protest or anger.
Preventive detention: just a move in this game of development?
Jail the leaders, shutter the press: speech and sight are dangerous—
lead pellets rip through retinas and fan flames of ‘development’.
Markets are closed and, friends, I’ve heard, freedom is now an outlawed word;
do dreams deferred wilt or explode in the shame of development?
Healing old wounds takes time and care; tear gas obscures the things we share—
brothers and sisters, please beware of false claims of development.
You say, Hamraaz, you’re so naive; it’s more complex than you perceive!
But we won’t right wrongs by hanging them in warped frames of development.