From the breach in the sky, does the white bird fly
Flying round and round, flitting from place to place
Can I see your countenance, would you show me your face?
I envy you, oh mighty bird..
How I wish I could be there with you, ensconced in the open space
Have no covetousness, no anger, no fear of my own race.
Who am I?
- Pranay Gupta
- I am not religious, but I don't mind calling myself spiritual. Religion, I believe, has, over the millennia, been used as a prop to perpetrate a lot of human suffering. Faith is what matters. I don't believe in the definition of God as a creator. According to me, my God resides within me. Some call it conscience, some call it the sub-conscious, some call it the soul. I don't mind calling it God. So by definition I am not an atheist or an agnostic, but by essence, I may as well be. My God does not reside in a temple, church, mosque or gurudwara. It is right here, within me.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
The Deplorable Democracy
Crisis stares the farmers in the face as the rains have come and have been scant and niggardly. Uttar Pradesh, among a few other states, has been declared dry. Of the 70 districts in the state, 51 have been declared drought-hit. You, the common voter, must be wondering how difficult it would be for the state government to allocate appropriate funds. This would be based on the presumption that the State Government is trying its best to assuage and address the problems of the farmers who have been deprived of rainfall during the sowing season of June-July. Well, take that – Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has made a supplementary budgetary allocation of Rs 656 core for erecting statues of elephants and memorials of Dalit leaders, including herself. While on the other hand, a puny Rs 6.5 crore has been sanctioned for the development of the severely drought-hit region of Bundelkhand. What is even more shocking is that the state government has allocated not even a single penny to tackle the drought situation in the state. It has rather sought Rs 250 crore for drought relief from the centrally-sponsored National Disaster Relief Fund.
It has been Mayawati’s obsession to erect statues of Dalit leaders like Kanshi Ram and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar including herself and also of Elephants (the party symbol) since she first became the Chief Minister back in 1995. Since then, she has floundered the state coffers by spending humongous amounts to the tune of Rs 5000 crore in her and her party’s “glorification”, the fact that it left development on the back-burner notwithstanding. It has been reported that Mayawati has also asked Rs 71 crore to be sanctioned so that her aerial sojourns are cozy and comfortable. She has allocated Rs 10 crore to buy a helicopter, although she already owns two helicopters and two aircrafts.
Such has become the state of this democracy of ours. We elect our leaders out of pure faith that they will act in our best interests and here they are, wantonly wrenching the neck of that very faith. It confounds me to the core of my heart, how can we elect such leaders who use their “moment of fame” to suck whatever they can out of the taxpayer’s money and spit right across the face of the very voter who has made it all possible for this personality. Strange but painfully true.
It has been Mayawati’s obsession to erect statues of Dalit leaders like Kanshi Ram and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar including herself and also of Elephants (the party symbol) since she first became the Chief Minister back in 1995. Since then, she has floundered the state coffers by spending humongous amounts to the tune of Rs 5000 crore in her and her party’s “glorification”, the fact that it left development on the back-burner notwithstanding. It has been reported that Mayawati has also asked Rs 71 crore to be sanctioned so that her aerial sojourns are cozy and comfortable. She has allocated Rs 10 crore to buy a helicopter, although she already owns two helicopters and two aircrafts.
Such has become the state of this democracy of ours. We elect our leaders out of pure faith that they will act in our best interests and here they are, wantonly wrenching the neck of that very faith. It confounds me to the core of my heart, how can we elect such leaders who use their “moment of fame” to suck whatever they can out of the taxpayer’s money and spit right across the face of the very voter who has made it all possible for this personality. Strange but painfully true.
A Deeper Truth
What is the difference between man and animal? A man is able to distinguish among circumstances on the basis of his inherent ability to dissociate right from wrong. An animal is not endowed with this acumen. A dog, for instance, if tamed by a human being, would do anything for his “master” because, firstly, the fidelity is ingrained and inveterate, and secondly, the dog knows that he will be given “food” thereafter, if he obeys. The biggest democratic exercise in the world, the parliamentary elections in India, offer a similar picture in which an illiterate and impecunious voter is analogous to the dog in the observation made above. Confused? Let me explain.
We talk about reform in the political system – about how the “young” Indian is finally waking up and adhering to his call of duty by participating in the universal adult franchise, that is, by voting. Yes, it is indeed a special feeling to see the youth of the country breaking free from the shackles of lethargy and finally showing some concern for the social issues at hand. But we conveniently forget about the millions of voters living in abject poverty, who vote not because they feel a “sense of duty” towards someone, who do not really give a thought to the “social issues” around them. Those voters are driven by their “master”, the demagogue, who preaches religion, promises development and deludes the naïve voter into believing that “change” awaits him – a chimera, in all probability. Try placing yourself in their position, try envisaging a scenario where all that concerns you is where the next meal will be procured from. Ergo, you do not have any concern for what happens around the world, how “developed” a facade India has to show to the “powers that be”, and consequently you would vote for the one you feel related to. And who would that be? Why not someone who promises to safeguard your religious rights, who promises freebies like rice and pulses and talks about development of your own village? Evidently, the choice would not be a difficult one.
It is not hard to guess that the untenable state of the illiterate is a boon for the politicians who have soiled the very image of “politics” in India. They use religion as a weapon to stay in power and expropriate, during their fling with power, whatever wealth they can for themselves and their kin, which is evident from the brimming coffers of each and every politician stashed away in “safe” havens far away from public scrutiny.
We cannot blame the naif voter for his inability to see through the spurious covenants of the political leaders for he is not literate, he cannot discern right from wrong. And he forms a preponderance of the total number of voters involved in a general election. So if the political system needs to be refurbished, its only at the grass-roots level that we can begin.
The focus here needs to be on basic education, because from it stems the hunger for awareness of one’s own rights. Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill promises a lot. If correctly implemented, it would make it mandatory for the government to provide elementary schooling (till class VIII) for all children between six and fourteen years of age. It also seeks to address the mental and physical trauma of the child by making it illegal to detain or expel a student in a class till class VIII. We do not yet know of the efficacy of the bill that was passed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday (4th August) as the lacunae are still under the process of being addressed. But we can only hope that reforms such as these work out well because a lot depends on them – the future of every indigent child who cannot afford for his education, and in turn, the future of the nation.
We talk about reform in the political system – about how the “young” Indian is finally waking up and adhering to his call of duty by participating in the universal adult franchise, that is, by voting. Yes, it is indeed a special feeling to see the youth of the country breaking free from the shackles of lethargy and finally showing some concern for the social issues at hand. But we conveniently forget about the millions of voters living in abject poverty, who vote not because they feel a “sense of duty” towards someone, who do not really give a thought to the “social issues” around them. Those voters are driven by their “master”, the demagogue, who preaches religion, promises development and deludes the naïve voter into believing that “change” awaits him – a chimera, in all probability. Try placing yourself in their position, try envisaging a scenario where all that concerns you is where the next meal will be procured from. Ergo, you do not have any concern for what happens around the world, how “developed” a facade India has to show to the “powers that be”, and consequently you would vote for the one you feel related to. And who would that be? Why not someone who promises to safeguard your religious rights, who promises freebies like rice and pulses and talks about development of your own village? Evidently, the choice would not be a difficult one.
It is not hard to guess that the untenable state of the illiterate is a boon for the politicians who have soiled the very image of “politics” in India. They use religion as a weapon to stay in power and expropriate, during their fling with power, whatever wealth they can for themselves and their kin, which is evident from the brimming coffers of each and every politician stashed away in “safe” havens far away from public scrutiny.
We cannot blame the naif voter for his inability to see through the spurious covenants of the political leaders for he is not literate, he cannot discern right from wrong. And he forms a preponderance of the total number of voters involved in a general election. So if the political system needs to be refurbished, its only at the grass-roots level that we can begin.
The focus here needs to be on basic education, because from it stems the hunger for awareness of one’s own rights. Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill promises a lot. If correctly implemented, it would make it mandatory for the government to provide elementary schooling (till class VIII) for all children between six and fourteen years of age. It also seeks to address the mental and physical trauma of the child by making it illegal to detain or expel a student in a class till class VIII. We do not yet know of the efficacy of the bill that was passed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday (4th August) as the lacunae are still under the process of being addressed. But we can only hope that reforms such as these work out well because a lot depends on them – the future of every indigent child who cannot afford for his education, and in turn, the future of the nation.
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