Good Governance: A Poetic Exploration

Good Governance

Sat in a pool of my own tears

no shame, no shame

Man rots in jail.

I choke today

That's what the girl wanted to do.

no shame, no shame

My pen faster than governance

no shame, no shame

The hills are mountains, plains the next minute

Sedition, Superpower, Sham

oh the words with S

8 years, 2 deaths

The woman and justice

no shame, no shame

A terrorist, fake news reporter, and colonialist walk into a bar.

Al Jazeera, The Wire, BBC

no shame, no shame

I sit, my hands bloodied red.

no shame, no shame

Good Governance — A Line-by-line Explanation

Trigger Warnings:

Mentions of terrorism, rape, suicide, and implications of depression

Introduction:

The poem "Good Governance" was written by Ananya Choudhary on January 2, 2026. Two days into the new year and eighteen years into her own life, she feels desolate, helpless, and unhelpful. In an attempt to pen down her feelings —anger, frustration, sadness— she wrote this poem. The poem is not written in an attempt to showcase any sense of superiority by being aware of these issues; rather, it comes from a place of insecurity and fear about not having done enough, despite being aware. The poem aims to bring to light the multiple injustices which are ongoing during the time of writing.

Title:

The Title "Good Governance" is written with a two-fold intent. The first and primary reason is out of satire, and secondly, in an attempt to be lost in the files of history as a piece of writing "in support of the government" and thus to go under the radar and not be charged with accusations of sedition, anti-nationalism, or, by stretch, terrorism. 

Structure:

The poem is in free verse with no rhyme scheme. This is unusual for the poet, as a majority of her writing usually follows some rhyme scheme. Both the lines of the poem and the verses vary in length. This format is specifically chosen in an attempt to showcase the instability in what is perceived to be a stable government. 

Throughout the poem, the words "no shame, no shame" are used. However, not once are they capitalised. This is to indicate a sense of shame that the poet is writing about these instances instead of acting upon any of them. 

Stanza 1:

"Sat in a pool of my own tears"

Prior to writing this poem, the poet was crying, and that was the starting point of inspiration for this poem. The tears come from the frustration of not having done enough to help the people in need. The poet feels like a failure, much like the government she so vocally criticizes. 

"no shame, no shame"

Crying is considered a shameful act, and this line signifies that the poet cries shamelessly. It also symbolises that the poet critiques without shame, without fear. It also reflects the lack of shame of the government for acts that are described in the forthcoming lines. 

"Man rots in jail."

The man in this line refers to many men. Whilst writing this poem, some of the men that come to the poet's mind include high-profile cases such as that of Syed Umar Khalid and Sonam Wangchuk.

Umar Khalid is a 38-year-old Indian student activist who, at the time of writing, is in Tihar jail. His case is yet to begin hearing in front of the Hon'ble court, and he is still being denied bail on several counts. He was arrested for alleged sedition, murder, promoting unlawful assembly, and rioting, among other charges, as per a report by Amnesty International.

Sonam Wangchuk is a 59-year-old Indian activist, engineer, educator, and innovator. Wangchuk, at the time of writing, has been detained in Jodhpur Central Jail under the National Security Act of 1980. The case is currently ongoing, and the author of this essay chooses to leave further details at the court's purview. 

"I choke today"

Literally speaking, this line refers to the air quality of Delhi and nearby regions where the poet lives. Metaphorically, this line means that the author feels suffocated by the circumstances in which she has to live.

"That's what the girl wanted to do."

This line refers to the Unnao rape case, wherein the victim was a 17-year-old girl who was set on fire by her alleged rapists while going to the district court for a hearing. The poet says that she (the poet) chokes, but to choke is what the girl would have wanted to do, implying that to kill oneself would be better than to be set on fire by one's own alleged rapists. 

"no shame, no shame"

Here, the poet refers to how the public tends to shame the victim for being a victim of rape. There is a tendency to consider the act of being raped more shameful than the act of raping itself.

Stanza 2:

"My pen faster than governance"

The poet tends to write once in several months, a habit unshared by the poetry community. This is to showcase how sparse her writings can be. Despite this sparseness, her pen, or frequency of writing, still seems to be faster than the rate of governance in her country. 

"no shame, no shame"

The repetition of the lines showcases no shame on the part of the poet in writing so sparingly and no shame on the part of the government in acting sparingly. 

"The hills are mountains, plains the next minute"

This refers to the current discussion on the definition of a "hill" in the Aravalli case. It refers to how quickly legal jargon and interpretation can change the definition of things we think of as fundamental and basic. 

"Sedition, Superpower, Sham"

The poet brings to light the 3 words that are most thrown around in the modern-day Indian political discourse. Each word symbolises a plethora of meanings. All three words have been capitalised to show the sheer impact that they have on Indian society. 

The word "sedition" aims to remind the reader of the numerous cases where intellectual luminaries have been charged with sedition. This one word aims to encompass the likes of Arundhati Roy, Kanhaiya Kumar, and Umar Khalid with historical figures such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi, who were at the receiving end of this same accusation. 

The word "superpower" refers to the constant debate and discourse around India becoming or stepping towards becoming a global superpower. The questions the poet wants the reader to think of include -

1. What is a superpower?

2. Is this power really necessary?

3. Does this superpower do good?

4. What deeds have we done to embody this title?

5. Do we truly want to be like the likes of other superpowers that we know of?

The word "sham" has been defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as "something that is not what it seems to be and is intended to deceive people, or someone who pretends to be something they are not." This writer would like to leave this word up to the interpretation of the reader. 

"oh the words with S"

The poet uses this line as a soliloquy—one of the words she refers to when she talks of the words that start with S. Other words that come to the poet's mind include safety, sacrifice, and sagacity. This line is the only line that has not been capitalised other than "no shame, no shame". This is a deliberate stylistic choice made by the poet as she fears her voice being heard by the wrong people.

Stanza 3:

"8 years, 2 deaths"

This timeline refers to the amount of time it took for the Nirbhaya case to achieve justice. From the time of the commitment of the act till the execution of the punishment, approximately 8 years went by. The two deaths being referred to by the poet are mentioned in the following lines.

"The woman and justice"

This refers to the death of the victim in the Nirbhaya case, two weeks after her brutal rape and assault. Despite the perpetrators having received their punishment, the poet says that justice is dead. This has two meanings. Firstly, that justice in general is dead, as can be seen in the previously mentioned cases. And secondly, the poet believes that due to the sheer amount of time taken to adjourn the Nirbhaya case, justice is dead. This is not the poet's literal belief; rather, it is an expression of extreme frustration and disappointment with the amount of time that it takes to deliver justice. 

"no shame, no shame"

Here, the words again symbolise the shaming of the victim in a rape case. These words also symbolise the poet shaming the sheer time taken to deliver justice. The poet also intends to shame the proponents and perpetrators of such grave violence.

Stanza 4:

"A terrorist, fake news reporter, and colonialist walk into a bar."

The satirical nature of the poem is yet again emphasised by this line. The joke format "A, B, and C walk into a bar" is stretched to cover journalism, as we see in the next line. 

"Al Jazeera, The Wire, BBC"

The poet calls Al Jazeera a terrorist, similar to the way the government calls all those with an Arabic name a terrorist. This is to reference the Umar Khalid case for a third time in the poem.

The poet refers to the Wire as a fake news reporter, much as the government tends to discredit and defund any channel or reporter who tries to stand up against fake news. 

The BBC is called a colonialist by the poet, showcasing the government's blind propaganda of changing the names of places instead of their socio-economic status. This especially comes from a place of grave anger for the poet, as in the poet's birth state, Maithili Thakur, the second youngest MLA in Indian political history, has proposed the change of her constituency's name from Alinagar to Sitanagar. 

"no shame, no shame"

The poet shames herself in this line for having made such a racist analogy in the previous line. She also shames the government for being her inspiration for such an analogy. 

Stanza 5:

"I sit, my hands bloodied red."

This is the start of the last and smallest stanza of the poem. This stanza is the shortest because the poet believes she has said all that there is to be said. The poet compares herself to Shakespeare's "Macbeth". The poet's hands are bloodied because she remains sat and unmoving, showcasing her lack of action. Her silence on such issues is what has led to her hands being bloodied. This action of sitting silently with bloodied hands also draws inspiration from Pastor Martin Niemöller's "First they came for the Jews". It is this eternal frustration and lack of action that has led to the poet's hands being bloodied with the blood of those whom she admired, looked up to, yet couldn't save. 

"no shame, no shame"

This is the last line of the poem. This time, the poet shames herself and not the government or anyone else. She shames only herself twice. This is to showcase that she lives with her hands bloody and her soul shamed. 

Summary:

"Good Governance" is one of many political or politics-adjacent poems written by the poet. The poet of "Good Governance" and the author of "Good Governance — a line-by-line explanation" are the same person. It is through the writing of this explanation that I have gained the courage to own up to my writing, my own actions or lack thereof.  

This piece of writing has been a literary attempt to depict what the poem means from a poet's point of view. A majority of the poets that I grew up reading are dead, and so I will never truly know what they intended to depict through their writings. Nonetheless, I hope my writings are not misconstrued, and hence, this explanation. 

Thank you for coming on this literary and poetic exploration with me.

Yours Truly

Ananya Choudhary

(Veridical Poetica)