I wrote this small essay on the occasion of the 71st Republic Day of India, four days ago. I gave it the alternate title of:
How We Often Lose Our Independence Even After 15th Aug 1947?
On the 12th of Dec 2019, Indian Parliament enacted into law the Citizen (Amendment) Act (CAA) (the amendment being to the Citizen Act, 1955). The National Register of Citizens (NRC) was mandated in 2003 by an amendment to the Citizen Act, 1955. It was implemented for the State of Assam from the year 2013-14.
Most people cannot understand the Act and/or why the protests have been going on from even before the Act was enacted. Friends on both sides are passionate about their stands. Very few people are conscious that the same people are opposing it who mooted the idea in the first place. So I thought this small essay would help people understand where we are:
Nine years ago, on our 62nd Republic Day I wrote this essay: ‘How Proud Should We Be Of Indian Republic Day At 62?‘. It is worth reading it. There has been no progress in nine years in the real indices which tell us about where we stand as a country in the rest of the world.
And the reason we are in this mess is because time and again we fall prey to politics. We consider politics more important than any of the Human Growth or Human Development indices.
During the previous regime (‘People in Power‘, haha) we lived through a period of such hopelessness that many Indians dreamt of and openly talked about not democracy (and democratic solutions to problems) but about a benign dictator who would set things right and take us out of the mess.
And then suddenly we rejoiced in having elected a near dictator. Imagine that!
And in the second term we suspected, with some justification, that this person wasn’t so much interested in providing us with a secure, just, liberal, prosperous and equitable way of life as Indians as to rectify the historic wrongs done to one community or the other in India or by our neighbours. The issue is ostensibly insignificant. The numbers involved are minuscule. But, if you read the quoted essay you would find that firstly such minuscule numbers can actually cause adequate swings when the average winning candidate represents just 12 percent or less of we, the people of India; and secondly, there is a particular vote bank that is perpetuated by this seemingly insignificant move.
Now, do you think that people at large and students in particular are the intelligent electorate who didn’t elect this benign autocrat and his party? Far from it. These are the same people who have sought petty advantages to themselves even in so called democratic process (read the essay; we hardly ever have issue based elections. Our main launch-boards are invariably vituperative politics and what can we gain ourselves).
So, such people are the easy prey to the other parties who are afraid they would get decimated if this steam-rolling of vote-bank interests by the ruling party is allowed to continue. So we have “spontaneous” protests that “secularism” is in danger; “something that the Indians hold sacred.” Old wine in new bottles! Incidentally, none of the so called “secularist” parties ever practiced secularism.
So, we have a grand Clash of Vote-Bank Interests simply because We, the People of India, would rather toe the line of one party or the other, and one ideology or the other than of India and Indian interests.
I wrote another essay five years ago, on 07 Feb 2015: ‘Is Communal Disharmony A Challenge To India’s March To Greatness?‘ I predicted that it was bound to happen for various reasons; one of these being: “In this scenario, Congress, that had been so far in India’s independent history triumphantly proclaiming that there is no alternative (TINA) to Congress, seems to be realising that it is headed for oblivion. There is only one hope and that is if BJP falls prey to communal machinations, riots and violence. This actually increases the probability of such engineered communal disharmony.” I was proved right within five years.
So, the scene is as dismal nine years after the first essay as it was then. Who is to be blamed? We, the People of India are to be blamed. We are ready to be divided so that they can rule. We continue to have vested interests or our own parochial interests rather than of the Republic of India.
Lets never back our horse against theirs in an idiotic race. Lets demand of our elected representatives to deliver on promises rather than taking us into dark alleys and lanes that we never wanted to visit.
Happy Republic Day!
