Saturday, January 26, 2013

REPUBLIC NOTIONS- THE CITIZEN BETRAYED


The Constitution of India took a little over two years from independence to get enacted. The constitution gives a lot of rights to lot of people in the name of democracy and equality. Many of them involve robbing Peter to pay Paul, but it has been hammered in to the psyches of people & it has become fashionable to speak for the ‘have-nots’ in a manner as if the ‘haves’ are responsible. Today, after so many years of breathing the polluted air of an India created by the British, I have never felt more bloody minded. I choose to call the republic day functions as the annual ‘charade’. The political leaders mouth the same homilies year after year using a different combination of words and not an alphabet in it is from the heart. Even after so many years, we still do not have a national leader and it is unlikely that we will ever have. As someone said, whatever language one can speak in, at least half of this country cannot understand. When we cannot speak a common language, it is impossible to think of ourselves as one people. And even if I think of everyone as one nation, some political leader makes me unwelcome in order to steal his moment under the sun. Today, the country formed by the British is getting fragmented and divided on language, caste and religion. We have collectively lost our sense of humour and take offence at anything and everything. The political leaders drive wedges and widen this divide in the name of secularism. Education still remains a pipe dream and what is left is unaffordable and accessible to too few. Secularism has become an abused word and has taken on the meaning of appeasing a few to win their votes. Within seven decades a time has come when the young and the restless want to live in other countries and not come back. I do not blame them. This country has been made uninhabitable by politicians who have only personal agendas in which the people of India do not fit in, except to be exploited. The politician thinks he will stay on another five years if he gives some crumbs to the people. And these crumbs come from whole loaves stolen from people who bake the bread by the sweat of their brows. I hate to see the government taking away the bread I bake. After all, each one of us uses the infrastructure of this country in equal measure and I do not see why I should pay more than someone else. Why should I be made to feel guilty if I have more than someone else? This fractured nation will not find peace with itself as factions use hatred to keep up their egos in play. As discontent spreads, the first casualty is law and order. A corrupt administration has no hope of ever enforcing law and order. The courts are made helpless as litigants keep the courts tied up in property battles. And the fight between politicians and the Supreme Court is turning nasty and soon the politicians will quash the power of the Courts as their existences get threatened. In the name of social equality, the capable and the meritorious are being penalised. Atlas is shrugging. Something has got to give. It is a difficult nation to live in.

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