Pathetic is our situation: And worse are our actions!

Talking on the worldwide front, first Tunisia and now Egypt are facing what is probably the largest public outrage faced by a developing country in the last decade. Failed economies, corrupt ministers, crippled system, unemployment, crimes and frustration amongst the common man in these nations have led to a turmoil.


While many would agree that this outrage is further affecting the respective nations adversely, we cannot ignore the fact that this has been a result of the malpractices of the respective Governments.

The world has reached a state where the top level officials and the highest in the Government are involved in scams. Even though a group of whistle-blowers exposed what was the biggest diplomatic exposé – the superpower chose to let terrorism breed in Saudi Arabia and allow more 26/11s to happen.

______

In India, corruption now seems to be breeding at every level. More like an unsatisfied pest that just wants more. From the security guard at the passport office, who holds tremendous power – enough to make sure your documents are cleared (or not); to the cabinet ministers (and may be beyond).

______

Talking of the everyday citizen, our level of tolerance has vanished. Trust me, if tomorrow a bike touches your car in peak traffic, you would not hesitate in hurling the choicest of abuses at him, and may be furthering the debacle by making sure that the dent on your car resembles the one you will cause on the bikers head. Pathetic is the condition, in simple words.

You would prefer ignoring an accident, acting as if it never happened, than stopping and helping the ailing. The days are gone when we used to selflessly jump across the road and rush towards the stranger in need of help, irrespective of his caste, creed, colour, sex. Now we think thrice.

Such is the situation that we choose to shoot the person who mistakenly dropped the butter-chicken off our plate. We choose to stab that person who shouted at our arrogant kid who was refusing to move from the car parking. Did he not shout to make sure your kid was safe – and not playing where a car might have hit him? Pathetic is the condition.

______

A few swamis chose to join hands with an ex-cop and an RTI activist – and start an anti corruption drive – starting with a march at a number of places in India. Their statements made sure that the public feels cheated and participates.

Before the drive, one of the organizers chooses to go on air on a TV show and call the Prime Minister “nikamma”. Further making sure that the public starts hating the Govt.

In the same show, a veteran journalist very rightly asks him, “What after the march? What is the agenda? Do you have any call for action?” and the organizer seems flustered. Such is the campaign that we launch.

Very abruptly, we choose to go out on the street and conduct marches, vigils, protests and what not, but when it comes to joining the system (really) or expressing oneself as an independent individual (not a mob), we are no where to be found. We badmouth the Govt, but we don’t want to first think and then act. Similar has been the case in many riots India has had. We failed. Our protests failed. Our anti-corruption drives fail. Our initiatives fail. Why? Because the thought that must go behind it, the long term goal that we wish to fight for, the path that we need to take to achieve it – is something that we have not thought about. Because we failed to think before we acted.

All of us have revolutionaries hidden inside us. But the problem is, we do not realize that it took around 200 years for revolutionaries to overthrow a kingdom that was once the most powerful entity in the world. We do not realize that it takes time – it takes generations to propel the change.

What we have at hand right now is the power to skillfully and properly chalk out the path for the solution, build a base for change, enlighten our peers and try to generate the right kind of awareness. Many of us are so stubborn that we never wish to change our mindset. If we think that ABC is wrong then he is wrong. We do not wish to file an RTI and know the reality, and we certainly do not want to do a comprehensive research ourselves and then jump to the conclusion.

We are outraged – frustrated with our own lives. It takes seconds to launch us in a fight. But we are fragile, we break within seconds. This life is not enough to change the system, but it is surely enough to stir a revolution. It is in our hands to stir the right kind of revolution. We have the power of information at our disposal, but are we using it?

Is Democracy India’s Bane?

India, a country of 1.2 billion people, boasts to be the largest democratic set up in the world. Along with this, it also is a country allowing dozens of religions, hundreds of languages, thousands of castes and sects and millions of Gods. Thus, it is also today, the most chaotic and controversial democratic set up in the world! One can surely argue for the fact that Democracy has hampered rather than boosted India’s progress.

There are several reasons that prove ardent proponents against this belief wrong. In the backdrop of such a massive administration, India houses politicians and so called crony, corrupt and uneducated leaders of society. More than half the members of parliament in Lok Sabha face one or the other criminal charges. There is a huge list of scams and scandals by ministers and petty bureaucrats under almost every government regime and what happens in the end is nothing except discussions. This is one of the primary weaknesses of Indian polity. In the face of problems, the democratic set up allows culprits to exploit situations on the basis of religion, caste, language or in recent times coalition weightage.

In other developing countries, the Government policies do reach the lowest strata of the society with much transparency unlike India and thus countries like South Korea, South Africa are much highly ranked in termed of socio economic development and transparency. In India, we have interpretation of laws and policies so as to make rich richer and poor poorer. Multi layered governance and innumerable amendments or laws for people to protect themselves, lead to utter chaos even in the event of exposure of any illegal practise. India’s constitutional framework which guarantees impartial democratic rights to all, is perhaps the most complex and misinterpreted in the world.

Moreover, a very important point of difference between India and other countries is that in India, people have the power to vote out a government as quick as a swish of an eye. This periodic renewals of governments and polity through ballot box deters single minded focus on development and results in varied agenda and undue wastage of time in fixing and re fixing policies.

On the economic front, India has travelled from being a closed and protected socialistic economy to a liberalized economy overnight in 1991-92. This marked an era of democratization of businesses and economy. But, I guess the effects of such a gesture have stopped reaping benefits. Today, industrial output is pegged at an abysmal 1.6%, whereas price rise as much as 16.7%. Such a free scenario has led to a roller coaster ride for the market, commodities razing down the agricultural set up, a steady decline in agricultural output over the last 2 decades, massive migration and urbanisation leading to more and more unemployment and polarization of development initiatives. India still stores more than 50% of its unemployed population as unemployable. There is a huge disparity between income levels, standards of living and human resources development among different regions of the country. Whereas India’s very neighbour China and a small island nearby Singapore, both being non liberalized or democratized countries boast much better development, rate of growth and better income levels . This is when china moved from social/cultural revolution to economic initiatives in late 80s, almost the same time as India. Today, projects in India take years and years from planning to execution stage with budgets for them increasing several fold. The inclusion of indigenous fighter combat planes TEJAS is one such bare example of the hypocrisy of our democratic set up. Today, India instead of building on its brand image in meets like davos, has to defend its image as a non corrupt and idealistic country.

It is said that a country is marked by how it treats both its patriots and traitors. Today, in India, we struggle to convict a flagged telecom minister who has lost us 1.76 Lakh crore rupees, or a tainted chief minister in corruption, we have a terrorist whom we cannot punish, a state that we cannot treat normally or businesses whom we can direct honestly. India, shamefully is facing challenges and identity crises within its so called democratic set up.

Today, we overlook all our problems with a very simple and cowardly statement, “This is India”, but my friends one should remember that with great powers come greater responsibilities. We need a Hero, an Idea, a revolution to make things happen. We need an answer to this so called crony democratic society whose false veil is now lifted for the world to see us.