Idea of India!

 

'Self-rule' & 'liberty' are things that my generation has not had to struggle to earn - we were the fortunate ones, we were born free. Our forefathers paid the price for the freedom that we enjoy so dearly all the time (also abuse, on occasions). So in that sense, it is rather hard for someone like me who was born in the monsoon of 1984 to imagine, how alluring the scent of the 15th August must have been to those who toiled their life for it, in the fateful year of 1947. It would have taken a nerve of steel to deliver that iconic and historic 'Tryst with destiny' speech in the marvellous assembly setting.

They do not create such men any more!

Think of it, Bapu lodged himself far away in Kolkata; doing what he liked best - helping and building communities, dousing the fire of hate off, away from the glitters and the lustre of the New Delhi, the capital of a nation that had just become a sovereign. Such saintly demeanour, one can not but stop in awe of the great Mahatma. India is a deeply spiritual land, home of rituals, traditions and customs; most of which predate the modern identity of the nation by a few centuries if not millennia. The sense of community, the idea of belonging comes to us Indian in 'plurals'. Amalgamation, in my view, describes us the best. We're the ultimate culmination; like multiple rivers, streams and tributaries meet the ocean to become one, all citizens when they pronounce their Indianness, other identities that they also hold; of caste, creed, colour, culture, cuisine, custom, language and others fade into the background, (or should I say, "should fade into the background")

If winning freedom from the British demanded every drop of blood of our forefathers, sustaining and securing its 'free' state expects every drop of sweat of us Indians. Keeping a continent size country, which is home to 1.3 billion people is not an easy chore. There is a constant struggle, often complex and multidimensional between forces that unite and also the influences that seek to divide us. We are in a category of our own. Within the overarching Indian identity that all of us wear with pride, other sub-antecedents compete with one another sometimes in a moderately violent and uncompromising selfish way too. In the last 73 years, India has seen caste divide what religion united (I will vote for the candidate of my caste) and also religion uniting what caste divided (We have to make Hindus win), she has also endured religion divide what nationhood united (Go to Pakistan). It is humanly impossible to sum the idea of India in a way other than to say that there are 1.3 billion Indians and there are 1.3 billion ideas of India. (I am taking the liberty of assuming that everyone begets just one Idea of India, which we know is not true, entirely)

Given the circumstances, how do we conclude and more importantly how do we converge everything Indian in a capsule, is a question that has remained at the core of all nationalistic and political debates that have occurred in the country over the course of the last 73 years? Someone like me (with limited intelligence and scant erudition) thinks -"Is such a thing even possible"?

To me, ‘The Idea of India’ is neither static nor a singular one, it has never been and it never will be. India is about knitting a variety of Ideas by the combined thread of constitutionality, plurality, equality, civility and unity in diversity. We’re a land of peaceful co-existence, of harmonising difference and worshipping morality and fundamentals of natural justice, not just social but also economic and that of ethnicity. For India to exist, it will have to remain together!

"We're a constitutional parliamentary representative democracy amidst federal structure (centre and the state), with liberal signature"; at least that is how the idea of India was conceived originally by our founding fathers and mothers.  And that right there is one expression that sums it all up. It has the depth the width and the length to accommodate everyone, every notion, every idea, every imagination, every fact and even has generous room for fiction. Our constitution is the supreme binding force, which most eloquently outlines the set of principles that we all shall uphold in our conduct. The creators of the constitution kept the provision for the document to remain current by giving the legislators the powers to add, delete and modify laws. 

'Rule of law' was established, peace-loving and law-abiding citizens of this great nation, allowed the book of the constitution to shape our lives and thus a contour of the modern Indian identity was forged.

In the last 73 years, India conceded multi-party, multi ideological political parties to be formed and operate freely and fairly, as should be the case in a liberal civil society. Evolution is not always a happy process, it is effectively about becoming 'something else'; when species get lucky, they develop into a form that gives them the ability to cope up and adapt to the changing circumstances better and to survive first and then thrive. There are also times when evolution goes wrong which results in the extinction of the species. The idea of nationhood is deeply connected with the system of governance and in a multi-party democracy, politics is equated with governance in an umbilical bond. A highly competitive political system, opens the stage for lateral entries, leading to a wider stage of participation but it also inadvertently reduces mainstream constructive, and citizen-led narrative to a number game; in which getting to 2/3rd majority becomes more important that journey that a party or an individual takes to get there. The number and only the number matters - this mindless, rush creates grounds for all kinds of practices to creep in the electoral process. Morality is forgotten and is often considered a hindrance in the path of blatant and audacious ambition. Citizens unknowingly start craving for a bloody fight; gladiatorial contest comes up for display, every time elections are announced.

In the transition of power from colonial rule to democratic self-governance, in the last 73 years, we have had a peaceful run. When I say that I discount the passionate political jostling, poor policymaking and missteps that might have been taken by various leaders, to further the cause of their 'idea of India'. The first dastardly attack was launched on the state by the daughter of the 1st PM of the country and the freedom fighter who spent nearly 4K days in jail in the struggle for independence, when she declared emergency, rolled back fundamental rights and jailed every voice of opposition. The nation was young then it had not forgotten the freedom struggle, it got back together, brought her to her knees and the atrocity ended in 2 years.

The 2nd and perhaps, even more, potent blow to the founding principles of India is underway now. This time we are living in an undeclared emergency. This version of the attack is intelligent, sophisticated, aided ably by legal and commercial resources and it wears the mask of the mandate of the people but is every bit as brut as all authoritarian regimes have been in the human history. In 6 yrs of BJP-RSS rule under PM Modi India has witnessed, a departure from its rich traditions. The large heart of the republic seems to have shrunk itself so that it could be hidden and locked inside the bud of the lotus flower, the political symbol of India's right-wing. In the last 6 years, we have seen dissent being punished, jailed and even killed. Individual liberties have been crushed under the feet of the strong deep state. Almighty PM rules on whims, he showed his dictatorial streak for the first time when he invalidated 84% of currency notes in circulation. Economic destruction that followed still has not passed us. India is undergoing the rise of majoritarianism, values of constitutional morality have been forgotten. Parliament, the temple of democracy, is used as a notice board, the tradition of debate on legislation is no longer in vogue. The PM steamrolls every piece of legislation by force of brute majority in the lower house and the upper house, institutions like CBI and ED are unleased to make those opposing to fall in line. Election after election we have seen opposition leaders and their aids raided by the central agencies, and if that does not work out, a perfect deployment of horse-trading wins the day for the ruling party. Goa, Haryana, MP and Karnataka are fine examples. Weeks before the 74th independence day, the ruling party was hell-bent to bring the Rajasthan assembly down too; but it survived against all odds.

Nehruvian consensus does not have the approval of the ruling dispensation. How article 370 was abrogated and then the manner in which an entire state was converted in an open jail is no secret, a year has passed but still, all the political leaders of the valley have not been released. Those who have come out have had to trade their right to speak about the abrogation on a bond for freedom. The supreme court refused to hear the petition of habeas corpus, as a result, it is pending for over a year; citizens are under curfew without (high speed) internet for nearly a year in the world's most militarised zone and all of this in Bapu's land under a functional democracy.

A wise man once said that 'we have very strict rules but it gets compensated by the fact that none of us is required to follow them all, at all times' - such is the state of our constitution at the moment. If you look closely you'll find democracy is in suspension. Civil rights in recession and the state freedom of speech can be assessed by the fact that a lawyer was found guilty of contempt of the court because he tweeted criticising the CJI; the fact that the lawyer is a harsh critique of the PM and also a political opponent should tell you the rest of the story. The ethnocultural diversity that India recognised and celebrated as a strength has been lost too. We're no longer a land of equal citizenship, for the first time in its history, the parliament signed off on a bill that takes 'religious' identity of a person before granting citizenship, into account- CAA. No prizes for guessing that the Hindu right-wing party in power excluded, Muslims and accepted everyone else, in that piece of legislation. Dissent is being criminalised, poor Dr Kaleef is in jail for 6 months and a day before the 15th of Aug, his stay has been extended by 3 more months, for making a speech criticising strong man CM of the ruling party.

Founding fathers of the nation envisioned an India on the ideals of shared patriotism, but that notion is being challenged by the communal supremacists, who believe India is the place for Hindus and everyone else and especially Muslims are 2nd class citizens. Communal majority under the gab of poplar sovereignty is asserting its right-wing ideology upon the soul of this nation, that was built for all people, on the principles of 'equality before the law'.

Time has come for India to unite again to fight to retain its freedom from - majoritarianism, despotic rule. To re-establish, a humane liberal state one which values civil liberty and liberal constitutionalism. India needs to find its provincialism from the darkness of cultural and religious nationalism, that surrounds it. Constitutional morality is required to be established again, dissent needs to find its respectable space again in the public discourse. Media needs to be freed from clutches of the fascist forces. Indian people have to come together to protect the diversity of the state.

We need to resurrect the India of love, the India of hope and the India of equality again.

My idea of India recognises her identity from antiquity to eternity but not at the cost of freedom of its citizens.

Jai Hind .. Jai Bharat.

Sab Changa Si!

 

Do we mindlessly pursue idea/habit/decision/comment which has a large following? The simple answer to that question is a straightforward NO, we pick things which make sense to us or which serve a purpose that we hold dear. A concept can not be deemed right or wrong basis who or how many second it. Every choice must be weighed against every piece of wisdom known, before qualifying it legit. When democracy is reduced to a tug-of-war it becomes 'mobocracy', in which numbers alone count for everything! Let’s take a moment to acknowledge the grave challenges this great nation of ours faces today from suffocating economy to soaring unemployment and food inflation, growing social injustice, a crime against women the most heinous of all 'rape' is on the rise - yet what do we hear the current political dispensation talk about, often if not always? ‘Hindu Vs Muslim, India Vs Pakistan’, they have managed to wickedly destroy our collective intelligence. Don't we live in times when media houses shamelessly shout ‘मंदी को नहीं मोदी को देखो"? What are we doing to ourselves?

Given the feeble global standing of academic structures of our great motherland in the world, a government that should work towards improving the state of education is today too busy destroying whatever is left of the leading learning institutions. It has gone ahead and astronomically increased not just tuition fees but also tariffs of other ancillary services like hostels, canteen, etc. What would such a disastrous move cost us in the long term? Economically weak but deserving students won’t get the education that could have successfully lifted them from the rut of poverty and when you see it in knowledge that India is a poor country where more than 250 million people are forced to survive below the poverty line defined to give rulers (It was done by Congress) a face-saver; so it will not be wrong to deduce that current government is for ignorance and poverty. Education is not BJP’s top priority why else would a democratic country not get to see or know where its head of state went to get educated, his academic achievements are as fictitious as his slogans “सबका साथ सबका विकास और सबका विश्वास' whereas what he seems to be doing is 'सबका विनाश'. We have got a minister who was a graduate in her affidavit in 2014, 2019 faced up she regressed to being the 12th pass, 'क्यूँकि स्नातक भी कभी बारहवीं पास थी'. No less than the HRD minister could not defend the questions that got raised on his Ph.D. - So we, the people, or as Telegraph puts it, we the Idiots, should not expect his lordship government to work for the betterment of education.  

Socialist, sovereign & secular republic is how our founding fathers chose to define us; this idea was not only apt but also progressive, liberal and thoughtful at the same time. India is required to be a welfare state because the majority of its citizens struggle to make ends meet even after 72 years of self-rule. Things like decent education, timely and able medical care are still seen as a luxury in our country, even among those who live in high rise buildings, drive German motorcars and use the best of the computing resources available on the planet today. It is rather unfortunate that our government is working actively and decidedly against each of those founding values, it is particularly opposed to the plurality of our republic. It is hell-bent on destroying it bit after bit before we get to the war BJP has wedged against secularism. Let’s take a moment to appreciate the hypocrisy that they champion, in some detail.

Dynasty in politics : 

Since 1999, the Congress has had 36 dynastic MPs elected to the Lok Sabha, with the BJP not far behind with 31. In 1999, the beginning of the 13th Lok Sabha, 8% of Congress members of parliament were either descended from or married to former MPs, only slightly ahead of the 6% among the BJP.

The most similar density of dynastic politicians was in 2009 when the Congress and BJP had 11% and 12% dynasts elected, respectively.



Read more on : https://scroll.in/article/918234/is-the-bjp-less-dynastic-than-the-congress-not-so-lok-sabha-data-shows

Corruption & Criminal Record:

Across parties, of the 521 Lok Sabha members of parliament (MPs), 106 (20%) are charged with serious offenses such as murder, inciting communal disharmony, kidnapping and crimes against women.

As many as 55% of these are from the BJP (92), compared with 2% from the Congress (7), 3% from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) (6), 17% from the Shiv Sena (15) and 7% from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) (7), an analysis by National Election Watch (NEW), a campaign run by the advocacy group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), shows.

Read more on : https://www.indiaspend.com/55-of-lok-sabha-mps-facing-criminal-charges-are-from-bjp/

Transparency : 

The essential problem with electoral bonds is that it removes transparency and accountability in political funding. Voters have the right to know which fat cats fund their political parties and if such funding has an influence on policies framed by governments formed by these parties. 80%+ of these donations have been received by the BJP, this very tool has made them the richest political party! Let’s not forget that they misled the nation by stating that these bonds were anonymous, recent findings have revealed that they can be easily tracked following the Bond number and details of the buyer!  

Read more at:

//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/72187122.cms?from=mdr&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Gandhi Vs Godse : 

It is not a secret that the brand Gandhi is powerful and relevant, embracing him at international gatherings gives one a certain kind of immediate acceptance and respect; therefore the 56’ chested man leaves no opportunity to go by without making the most of it. But when it comes to actions, he favors those who worship his killers with ticket, ensures their victory and even places them in high offices.  

Terrorism & National Security :

Modi supporters often invoke “देश बचेगा तब तो अर्थव्यवस्था काम आएगी” to shield the supreme leader from the criticism that has been coming his way for his abysmal performance on the economy. He makes moving speeches to drill a fear deep among ordinary Indians from Pakistan and from Muslims at large, to the enticed public he then presents himself as the only savior. You’d often hear his followers saying “ If not Modi then who? “. The fact is that there has been a rise in not just the number of incidents of infiltration but also fatalities under his incompetent and careless watch. When it comes to security and terror; Modi has failed not only on the administrative ground but has also lost miserably on the moral standards by letting Pragya Singh Thakur who is a prime accused in the Malegaon terror attack became an MP on BJP ticket. He did not stop there, he even elevated her to a parliamentary committee. Only when nationwide protest grew strong, his party reacted superficially, to give people the false perception of his being serious, she was stripped of that committee but she continues to be a BJP MP.   

Frugality & Hard Work : 

In the last 8 months alone our man has addressed 142 political rallies if you add all the foreign trips just the traveling time and other speeches at GOI events- you’ll see that our man is practically working for furthering the BJP political agenda 85%+ of his time in office. He is either busy in some state election or a foreign trip. His attendance in the Parliament is lowest among all PMs that India has had! I will say nothing about frugality because we know that he has spent more exorbitantly than any other Indian PM on his PR. Practically all of the media houses have been bought over by advertisements. 

Hinduism and Beef: 

His silent approval has been motivating those who see it legitimate to kill provocative by mere suspicion of beef and his Bhakts carry out these punitive Lynching in the name of the Hindu religion as they consider the cow to be Holy if not a Goddess herself than nothing less than a deity. Even on the question of Cow BJP is inconsistent, in the NE and in Goa where people enjoy their steak, our man is ok, allowing Beef to be served hot on a platter everywhere else his men kill for it, while he chooses to conveniently look the other way.

These facts point to the conclusion that BJP under Modi  is as hypocritical as one can get and all that they care about is fooling voters into casting in their favour.

Let’s come back to the Tug-of-war that we spoke about in the first part of this article. The country has witnessed how they bulldozed CAB through both houses of the parliament. CAB is a prelude to the sinister NRC that will be pushed upon us, as a result of which if a Ram is not able to produce documents he will still retain his citizenship but on the other hand same failure will render Rahim stateless. This is not only unconstitutional, discriminatory but also immoral and is incumbent upon every Indian to fight against it in tooth and nails. This disaster in the making will render Muslims the largest minority sidelined, reduced and disenfranchised: All Indians must oppose it.

There I say on my twitter handle 

@LKstates

#1 Discrimination against ’one’ is discrimination against all!

#2 Diversity that all of us have been proudly giving away as a way of introduction of our motherland comes from various minorities that inhabit this country,with #CAB coming into effect we will be stripped of this advantage as #BJP moves its brute majority to alienate the largest minority.

#3 Dear India, 

When you graciously hand brute majority to fascist forces this is how they cast assault on the character of the constitution, fundamentals of this nation & tenets of social fabric of India. Secularism is not an idea to be tempered with, it is central to our identity!

#4 #CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019 the most ghastly form of an onslaught that #BJP is forcing upon the composite nature of our society & nation at large! All but #Muslims is most bizarre, undemocratic, and plain evil of all things that #Modi has unleashed on our nation. Egregious & sad!

#5 A majority that doesn’t protect the rights of its minorities crumbles under the weight of its own doing! History is littered with examples that suggest that collective oppression & exclusionary actions lead to less than ideal results. India must in one voice reject #CAB & #BJP

#6 Illiterate of the 21st century is not someone who can’t read and write, we have moved past that, current day knowledge disability is not knowing to reject discrimination, it is to consider fundamentals of natural justice unnecessary! Know someone with that ailment? Do help them!

#7 Dear #Modi, 

Do you know how bad your #CitizenshipAmendmentBill2019 decision is? Well, let me break it to you, even #ArnabGoswami from your PR rig @republic finds it repulsive, retrograde & regressive. He termed it worst form of majority appeasement - drop it, and say sorry!

#8 If you’re a student of political history (like me)you’d know every political movement that gets vehement support of students of the day becomes successful. Don’t take my word for it, read abt #JP movement or how students made a difference in civil rights movement! #CAB must go!

#9 If a billion people were to come out on the streets, all at once, demanding #CAB to be thrown out of the window with its creators would it happen? Yes it will. The administration doesn’t have the wherewithal all to use force against a gathering of a billion, they cannot! So get together!