This is the story of a state with a modern, clean and green capital city. It is bedecked with sprawling houses and gleaming towers. The (would be) ruler resides in a lavish residence atop a grassy knoll. The fairytale setting is one of detached superiority. It could well have been the power centre of a cohesive and thriving nation.

In reality, this symphony of serenity and prosperity is a meticulously crafted one. The shimmering exterior masks a deeply fractured and mauled interior. The facade conceals a dark and dank room ever-starved of sunlight. This is the murky abode of the people of this land: the forsaken ones.

As if the key to national amity and prosperity lies in foreign capitals, the designer-wear-clad rulers strut endlessly around the globe. They deliver heart-touching speeches championing the cause of the downtrodden. Back home, a patronised lot gushes at their hogging the limelight. Flattering analyses dutifully follow.

The state has an eerie ability to cultivate two poles-apart parallels. The burnished one, presented to the international community, flaunts itself as a beacon of progress and stability. It also projects itself as an able and loyal partner towards achieving geo-strategic ends.

The tarnished reality is borne by the forsaken ones. It is one of a dream gone awry; a land with decaying infrastructure, broken promises, more utopias and simmering discontent. For them, the flaunted ascendancy of the state’s image in alien lands is nothing more than an illusion intended to mask the woes of their forsaken lives.

Strong foreign relations are an extension of a vibrant and stable domestic entity. To showcase it as a substitute for it is a fallacy. Frenzied manoeuvring in foreign capitals, see the rulers cajoled incessantly. Back in their fiefdom, the forsaken ones endure a relentless cycle of political instability and excruciating impoverishment.

This multitude is controlled by an insidious and lethal concoction of autocratic legalism by way of self-serving legislation, manipulation of the constitution and judicial capture. For the forsaken ones, life’s reality stands in stark contrast to the regime’s ad nauseam pronouncements of prosperity and stability.

State-owned enterprises, otherwise engines of growth, have been ruthlessly run to the ground. The only remedy, the multitude is told, is to get rid of them. Aids and grants, courtesy of the regime’s patrons, are channelled into self-aggrandising projects. These self-glorifying edifices never alleviate the agonising miseries of the forsaken ones.

The fallout of an ever-stagnant economy has left millions of young people, an entire generation, with their aspirations crushed by a system of overwhelming disparity. In desperation, they are forced to leave their loved ones behind and go to foreign lands.

Masters at flippancy, this exodus too is extolled. The state has the temerity to cover up its failings by hailing them as ambassadors of national prosperity. This is because their remittances are the lifeline that consolidates the state’s power over the forsaken ones.