INDIAN SOCIETY IN PERIL AND PAIN
It is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in
which we find the Indian Society, today. The people who comprise our society
are virtually sitting on the brink of a disaster that can consume all of us,
irrespective of caste, colour, religion, gender, class, rural, urban, literate,
illiterate, rich, poor divide et al. The one reason which comes out clearly and
emphatically for this state of things is the absence of a National Character
and a very poor presence of individual character in its people. The 66 years of
Independence from the yoke of British Rule, has pushed us into a situation that
stares the country and its people with gloom and despair, should unusual
circumstances and happenings not prevent this catastrophe from seizing the
masses and metaphorically breaking their back. Of the tangible and intangible
possessions which fulfil a person, character is the ‘Jewel on the Crown’ and
takes the pride of place in the human personality. India’s democracy, which
came to its people rather too soon, without going through the grind and cycle
of anarchy, dictatorship and oligarchy, which thrust political equality without
the requisite social and economic equality on its people; is the major reason
for this reality. Our political class and its mediocre leadership did not make
things better by exploiting illiteracy, poverty, religion, social deprivation
of its backward classes, caste and an indifferent middle class; to take the
people further and further away from their inherent nature that is steeped in
principles and values. With the people who care about governance not
participating in the process of its formation and those who do not care, alone
participating in the process of government formation, meant mediocrity nay
worse, in the quality of our elected representatives. Historically, the middle
class which determines the values and thinking of any society, failed India by
remaining exclusive and thus completely alienating the rural masses which
comprise more than 60% of its population. Only when the middle class is willing
to empathise with and share the travails and torments of the villagers, in an
inclusive manner, thus begetting their trust and faith, will it enlarge its
identity and social space. While ‘Nirbhaya’ shook the social conscience of
Delhi and the metropolises, with human waves coming out on the roads and
streets in a show of solidarity with and in protest against the heinous act of
some barbaric men and government apathy in the matter of providing protection
to its women, the many indignities, molestations, abuses and rapes which
continue to happen in the villages, hamlets, settlements and townships do not
create a similar reaction or response. This is the fault line, which keeps the
masses away from the genuine social causes and issues, which the burgeoning
middle class takes upon itself, but yet is unable to create the ripples in the
hinterland and the interiors where the majority of India lives. It is a case of
them versus us and a turf war is created where none exists, actually. People posture
against people because of this indifference to what happens in the villages;
the urban middle class cocooned in their comfort zones, while the rural people
suffer. And it is this gap, which the political parties and the politicians
fill with their craft and manipulations, entirely to their advantage while assuaging
the problem, temporarily or not at all, but giving the requisite sound bites
and making tall and unfulfilled promises. This is the space in which the
political leaders, bureaucrats, village /tehsil / taluka / block administrative
set up and the government agencies that are meant to deliver and provide for
the masses are hand in glove, incompetent or else just not interested in
resolving the problem. Governance fails and the people are marginalised.
Religion, caste, sub caste, language, culture and emotions are used as best
these can in an expedient manner to divide people and opinion, which is to the
detriment of the community and the problem festers and becomes chronic.
Good governance today, is a dream, only because
those who vote to select their representatives both in the Lok and the Vidhan
Sabha, are swayed by considerations, which have little to do with calibre,
competence and sense of righteousness in their candidates. But, instead,
largely by a myopic and prejudiced outlook of all that, which they should not
be giving any weightage to, in exercising their franchise. We are getting the
type of political leaders and the government, which we deserve. There was a time,
in this very same country when men and women of character were its
representatives in the government and rectitude, probity, morality, ethics were
traits which were evident in their person, both in private and public life.
This period was unfortunately short lived.
The people, who should have understood and exercised
their suffrage to select candidates of substance, were either arm twisted by
the power of muscle or else cajoled by the lure of promises and money, among
other considerations as already mentioned earlier. Corporate funding of the
political parties, presence of unaccounted for money in the market, the earlier
practice of licence permit raj in business and now the authority to grant these
licenses being with the government, presence of mafia in most fields of
commercial activities in which demand and supply create shortages or are
essential to human life, corruption in government spending in which 85% of the
money gets siphoned off through implementation leakages etc are many of the
evils that we live with and suffer. While the poor and the under privileged,
who are uncertain of their next morsel, are easy prey to being inveigled by
sops given at the time of elections; it is the middle class and those waiting
on the sidelines to join it, who are deeply entrenched in the giving and
receiving of graft, which has definitively assailed their character and made it
pliable on matters of principles, values and righteous living.
This failing of our middle class is very palpably
evident in its attempt to evade income tax, avoid sales tax, pay facilitation
fee for getting legitimate work done, bribe to get illegitimate work done,
avoid punishment for willing transgressions by using money as a force
multiplier, offset failings and lack of merit by paying money to overcome the
reality etc and has instilled in these people a life without the virtue of
character. This is a huge human tragedy for a country, which calls itself as
the largest democracy in the world. It is the aggregate of the individual
character which throws up a National Character and we are exceedingly
challenged in this. Life without character is second nature to us, quite at
variance with our innate Conscience, which is our moral and ethical compass. An
Indian today is not willing to stand up against all that is wrong, unlawful, illegal,
morally reprehensible and ethically deplorable, but instead is secure in the
thought and feeling of being secure on the basis of money alone and not on the
strength of character, which should be its never exhausting source of dignity,
respect, security and power. One really wonders, in these days of the political
parties preparing themselves for the General Elections 2014, will it really
matter who forms the government in the Centre, because things are unlikely to
change at the fundamental level at which we operate and live. The change if it
does happen will probably be a short lived chimera, before we yet again get sucked
into the quagmire, we have so assiduously prepared for ourselves in the country
called INDIA.
Brig S D Dangwal
9410900051
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