History is a fitting testimony to the fact that “Freedom” if anything is Evanescent. And “eternal vigilance” is the price of ensuring that we do not loose this freedom. Freedom is not something we inherit in our bloodstream. Every generation has to fight for it and cherish it. The price is not as painful as the pain of regret.
We have been growing far too cynical about the State of Affairs in India. And nowhere else is this cynicism more profound than in the minds of the most treasured asset for any nation, its Youth. Common friends, lets stand up! This attitude of indifference and callousness will only further paralyze our democracy and its institutions.
The tigers (and its our national animal) have been declining in Numbers. Some species of Tigers in Some parts of the world have already turned extinct. I cannot live to see such a thing happening in India. Let us write about it, let us ask some embarrassing questions, let us invoke the weapon of Right to Information Act, let us unsettle the administration which has been observing all this with practical impunity, let us do whatever we can, let us do something. All this may sound rhetorical. I would not have cared two hoots to write this piece but for my conviction in the youth of this country.
With 240 million people still living Below the poverty line, India houses the second highest number of AIDS patients (second only to South Africa), we have the largest number of public servants but the lowest quantum of public service, we have the fastest growing population and as I complete this piece another 4000-5000 people would be added to the population, we have 15% of the world population but just 1.5% of the worlds income, the best contraceptive to control population is education and we still have 37% illiterate citizenry, we keep tackling fifty year old problems with five year plans, staffed by two year officials with one year appropriation, fondly hoping that the laws of economics will be suspended because we are Indians; we have still not understood how fundamental it is to invest in human resources.
Sixty years of parliamentary democracy has only tellingly typified that glib promises and lofty electioneering can convince the electorate more than merit and intellect. A striking example could be Nani Palkhivala loosing a parliamentary seat to a candidate not even close to the degree of vision, caliber, intellect and character Palkhivala possessed. The result was that our parliament was deprived of services of a nation builder.
That brings us to the fact that no other office in a democracy is as important as the office of a citizen. Montesquieu, the French political scientist, who gave us the theory of separation of powers, went to the extent of saying that, “the tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not as dangerous as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy. 60 years after independence and still much has not changed. Why do we still spit and smoke at public places? Why do we invariably lend up spoiling the seat every time we board a bus? Why do we derive sadistic pleasure in breaking traffic rules? Why, inspite of being let down a hundred times, we still elect the same ‘quality starved’ people to rule us? Why do we still encroach upon property which is not ours? Why do we still try to find ways and means to avoid any tax? The answer to these questions is but simple. Absence of Fidelity towards our nation. In more simplistic terms absence of fidelity towards our fellow citizens.
Nani Palkhivala in his book “We the People”, has inscribed the following dedication. . .
To my country men,
Who gave unto themselves the constitution but not the ability to keep it,
Who inherited a resplendent heritage, but not the wisdom to cherish it,
Who suffer and endure in patience without the perception of their potential.
Democracy as we know, is not synonymous with liberty. It is not necessary that in every democratic nation liberty and freedom should thrive as a sine qua non. It is not necessary. In fact the happiest periods which civilized man has seen have been under benign and enlightened rulers not elected on the basis of Adult Franchise. Gibbon said that the happiest period of European History was the Age of Antonines which stated with Emperor Nerva who came to power in 96 A.D. and ended with the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 AD. That was the age when Pax romana brooded over the earth. In that era, the crown was not inherited, but the king would adopt as his son, the wisest and the most dedicated man he would find in his Kingdom and nominate and train him as successor to the throne. Thus monarchy went by merit. Marcus Aurelius failed to nominate his successor and his son who came after him ended the age of happiness. It is doubted whether democratic India will ever know the happiness which people enjoyed under great rulers like Emperor Ashoka or King Janaka.
But despite its shortcomings democracy still continues to be the least unsatisfactory of all other forms of government. We would thus be advised to count our blessings in a democracy rather than be frustrated by its distressingly dark side. . . As someone said,
“Though outwardly a gloomy shroud,
The inside half of every cloud
Is bright and shining,
I therefore turn my clouds about
And always wear them inside out
To show the lining.”
Today, the country finds itself in state of moral vacuum. Bold surgery is needed to treat the diseased heart of a nation which was once great.
We have survived last 60 and there is no reason why we cannot duplicate and triplicate that figure. What makes India survive is the way we are brought up from our childhood. The moral force we get from spirituality, from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, from biblical injunctions and quaranic couplets. . . Things which keep us united amidst disunity are surprisingly our cricket, our films, our markets and our democratic plural ethos resonating in the constitution. What we need is stability without stagnation and growth without a loss of moral values.
Let No problem, no catastrophe be big to break the spirit of India. And let that Spirit be seen and be transformed into some kind of action. Lord Byron couldn’t have been more appropriate when he said,
“A Thousand years scarce serves to form a State,
An Hour may lay it in dust”
The tigers (and its our national animal) have been declining in Numbers. Some species of Tigers in Some parts of the world have already turned extinct. I cannot live to see such a thing happening in India. Let us write about it, let us ask some embarrassing questions, let us invoke the weapon of Right to Information Act, let us unsettle the administration which has been observing all this with practical impunity, let us do whatever we can, let us do something. All this may sound rhetorical. I would not have cared two hoots to write this piece but for my conviction in the youth of this country.
With 240 million people still living Below the poverty line, India houses the second highest number of AIDS patients (second only to South Africa), we have the largest number of public servants but the lowest quantum of public service, we have the fastest growing population and as I complete this piece another 4000-5000 people would be added to the population, we have 15% of the world population but just 1.5% of the worlds income, the best contraceptive to control population is education and we still have 37% illiterate citizenry, we keep tackling fifty year old problems with five year plans, staffed by two year officials with one year appropriation, fondly hoping that the laws of economics will be suspended because we are Indians; we have still not understood how fundamental it is to invest in human resources.
Sixty years of parliamentary democracy has only tellingly typified that glib promises and lofty electioneering can convince the electorate more than merit and intellect. A striking example could be Nani Palkhivala loosing a parliamentary seat to a candidate not even close to the degree of vision, caliber, intellect and character Palkhivala possessed. The result was that our parliament was deprived of services of a nation builder.
That brings us to the fact that no other office in a democracy is as important as the office of a citizen. Montesquieu, the French political scientist, who gave us the theory of separation of powers, went to the extent of saying that, “the tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not as dangerous as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy. 60 years after independence and still much has not changed. Why do we still spit and smoke at public places? Why do we invariably lend up spoiling the seat every time we board a bus? Why do we derive sadistic pleasure in breaking traffic rules? Why, inspite of being let down a hundred times, we still elect the same ‘quality starved’ people to rule us? Why do we still encroach upon property which is not ours? Why do we still try to find ways and means to avoid any tax? The answer to these questions is but simple. Absence of Fidelity towards our nation. In more simplistic terms absence of fidelity towards our fellow citizens.
Nani Palkhivala in his book “We the People”, has inscribed the following dedication. . .
To my country men,
Who gave unto themselves the constitution but not the ability to keep it,
Who inherited a resplendent heritage, but not the wisdom to cherish it,
Who suffer and endure in patience without the perception of their potential.
Democracy as we know, is not synonymous with liberty. It is not necessary that in every democratic nation liberty and freedom should thrive as a sine qua non. It is not necessary. In fact the happiest periods which civilized man has seen have been under benign and enlightened rulers not elected on the basis of Adult Franchise. Gibbon said that the happiest period of European History was the Age of Antonines which stated with Emperor Nerva who came to power in 96 A.D. and ended with the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 AD. That was the age when Pax romana brooded over the earth. In that era, the crown was not inherited, but the king would adopt as his son, the wisest and the most dedicated man he would find in his Kingdom and nominate and train him as successor to the throne. Thus monarchy went by merit. Marcus Aurelius failed to nominate his successor and his son who came after him ended the age of happiness. It is doubted whether democratic India will ever know the happiness which people enjoyed under great rulers like Emperor Ashoka or King Janaka.
But despite its shortcomings democracy still continues to be the least unsatisfactory of all other forms of government. We would thus be advised to count our blessings in a democracy rather than be frustrated by its distressingly dark side. . . As someone said,
“Though outwardly a gloomy shroud,
The inside half of every cloud
Is bright and shining,
I therefore turn my clouds about
And always wear them inside out
To show the lining.”
Today, the country finds itself in state of moral vacuum. Bold surgery is needed to treat the diseased heart of a nation which was once great.
We have survived last 60 and there is no reason why we cannot duplicate and triplicate that figure. What makes India survive is the way we are brought up from our childhood. The moral force we get from spirituality, from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, from biblical injunctions and quaranic couplets. . . Things which keep us united amidst disunity are surprisingly our cricket, our films, our markets and our democratic plural ethos resonating in the constitution. What we need is stability without stagnation and growth without a loss of moral values.
Let No problem, no catastrophe be big to break the spirit of India. And let that Spirit be seen and be transformed into some kind of action. Lord Byron couldn’t have been more appropriate when he said,
“A Thousand years scarce serves to form a State,
An Hour may lay it in dust”
