Mera Bharat Mahaan

Just finished with the 59^th Independence Day celebrations…

Another year passed, another set of hopes and wishes either faded away into oblivion or were given the shape of reality. The difference lies only in one’s perception. 

Every year this fantastic country and her wonderful country people lavish praises on the nation. She is praised for her culture, for her heritage, for her secular status, for her traditions, for her technological advancements and for  things ad infinitum.

From “badon ki izzat” to “choton se pyar”, we seem to have mastered all emotions. As they say on every Independence Day, integrity and conscience are trademarks of the Indians.

Let us have another look at this grand country called India.

She is one of those exceptionally divine countries who never differentiates on the basis of merit, even if that means “lathi-charging” the most talented, meritorious and intelligent children who will define her future  just because they happen to oppose certain policies of the government which are certainly not in compliance with the progress of the country.  Students from All India Institute of Medical Sciences., the best medical institute in India, Indian Institutes of Technology and various other institutes of merit are flogged mercilessly, subjected to tear gas and water cannon torture, manhandled and warned. Resident doctors are subjected to salary cuts for opposing the vile reservation policies at a time when illiterate, uncouth and criminally hyper active politicians from different political parties unanimously pass resolutions to increase their basic pay and emoluments! At that time their differences cease to exist for as they say, “it’s in the interest of the nation.”

One’s words fail to express the greatness of this “secular” country. If the only organisation representing the majority of the people of India, i.e., the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, utters even a word, it’s supposed to be communal and is supposed to be firing anti-secular and communal sentiments in India. It’s proclaimed a violent organisation when it harmlessly although not correctly protests against the screenings of certain films. All political parties actively denounce it and the one which supports it is out rightly termed to be acting against the interests of the nation. At the same time, hundreds of organisations supporting the minority, in particular Muslims, like SIMI which incidentally was formed to inculcate the values of Islam in Muslim youths but actually goes on planting bombs in places when it is not indulging in other communal riots, can freely voice all statements whether or not they are communal, denounce VHP for being racist, can commit crimes and when convicted allege that the nation is against the minorities.  In short, they can do the heck they please and yet the political parties which give a clean chit to such organisations even though their participation in bomb blasts has been confirmed by the Intelligence are of course, “secular”.  

The supreme nature of the country already established, what else can I say except that she is one of those majestic countries where we seldom take responsibility for our actions as exemplified recently when we conveniently shifted the blame of our foodstuffs containing pesticides to MNCs which aren’t Indian.

It matters little obviously that all our foodstuffs ranging from the pure milk containing the not-so-pure water adulterated with sewage which is supplied to our houses as our staple drinking water, the “shuddh arhar ki dal” containing the poisonous metanil yellow, the pure and very desi  coriander powder adulterated with powdered horse dung, to the red chilli powder with brick powder(ever wondered why packaged chilli powder was redder than the most luscious lips on earth while the same chillies when grounded at home was orangish and not-so-fine? Now you know why) forms the staple diet of her people. If we can digest all such things, how come trifling things like some grams of pesticides are going to do us harm?

She is the same royal country where the government makes new policies for tax generation every year and not one for salary increment. Forget the increment; we are so progressive that trivial thoughts like paying basic salaries regularly to her workforce especially when the entire household depends on that measly pay, never seem to cross the minds of our lawmakers. 

Last year, 7 new taxes were introduced, all things became extremely expensive, even food products seem to be beyond the reach of common man, prices skyrocketed, petrol went beyond our reach, LPG became a much sought after jewel, education became tremendously dear but …BUT..Salaries remained the same. For a country whose progress only depends on her workforce and middle class, existence for them has become a burden.

Ha…that’s the only thought flashing across my mind at the moment. The greatest country on earth which survives mostly on the products grown in Indian soil, where the prime occupation is agriculture, where we boast in the global scenario that we can grow everything here and not import even one food product, there, tomatoes costed Rs. 100 a kg for some time last year. Even now it’s extremely dear but compared to that unbelievable scenario of their cost sky rocketing to 100 a kg, it is a shade better. People stopped consuming vegetables, not to mention fruits. Vegetables became a source of maximum jokes in laughter shows where they sarcastically but rightly accredited the measure of a person’s honesty by the amount of vegetables he consumed. Ironically an honest person was supposed to give up vegetables altogether!

For a country relying heavily on agriculture, her farmers are the minimum beneficiaries, often finding their lives throttled by conniving money lenders and very often going in for mass suicides. 

If such instances weren’t enough to shout out loud the innate greatness of the country, we have the latest episodes of the haj subsidy cuts.

For a country where politics is synonymous to crime, where educated youth refrain from participating in the highest echelons of power simply because they have no faith left in the lawmakers of the land, there, free emoluments for certain sections have become the order of the day. The Uttar Pradesh Government had been bestowing special packages, subsidies and grants to those Muslims who have been undertaking Hajj pilgrimage since the past ages. The high court intervened due to a public petition filed against such a practice. It argued that since the country is supposed to be secular and we have laws which are equal for all sects without discrimination on grounds of religion then why such packages were granted only to Muslims. Hindus also regularly undertake journeys to their places of pilgrimage, be it teerth or vaishno Devi tours, and they comprise the major sect of the country, then why weren’t they the beneficiaries of such grants. Hindus are at a major disadvantage in their supposedly “own” land. So the high court intervened and proclaimed that either facilities will be provided to all or Muslims will have to forego their benefits since the constitution does not provide for such a thing.

No brownie points for guessing what happened next, all our lovable Muslim bhais were on TV shouting themselves hoarse that the basic rights of the Muslims are at risk because interestingly, justice has been meted out.

And no further gifts for guessing the reaction of our guardians of law, our ministers. The most responsible and just chief minister of the country, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav immediately announced that a resolution will be passed in lok sabha and another amendment will be made in the rule book. One could argue that they can only pass the resolution, it may not be passed. Trust me, it sure would.  

Living in a country where the chief minister deliberately leads the state to a state of rottenness and despite having amassed crores of rupees from various sources of corruption, still doesn’t blink twice on swindling the poor cattle of their food, the very bland fodder, one is no longer surprised at anything, however bizarre.

The divinity of Mother India is only intensified by such wondrous laws where a Scheduled caste, however, economically secure, will receive a scholarship for belonging to scheduled caste. She is so progressive that we have a full fledged judiciary, theoretically independent from legislative and executive, to impart justice to people and at the same time, so regressive that not one of her law abiding people have any faith in her system. The judiciary is popularly believed to be an instrument of torture where court cases take years to finish so much so that even when the verdict is out, no one is interested, the applicant is either dead or too old to rejoice, his whole life wasted in running from pillar to post and his hard earned money having disappeared down the deep abysses of lawyers’ pockets.

Celebrities here can get drunk and mow down a person or two or can go poaching in the jungles to kill animals who incidentally are more valuable than them.

Indian teachers, respected worldwide for their skill, knowledge and expertise, are paid least with no perks. So often, even students forget that had they not been there, we wouldn’t be the nation that we are, acknowledged for our education and skills.

Speaking of education, for a country which places education above anything else, which values and respects education and literacy, where parents are ready to cut down on their other expenditure, even food, to leave no stone unturned in ensuring that their wards get the best education, there, education today has become such a costly affair that only the preparation for entrance exams takes a toll on the parent’s paying capacity and even then the lovely reservation policies ensure that the child’s future is obscure..

Today the darkest spot in the country’s profile is the reservation menace not just in educational institutions but also jobs and other sectors like land allotment. The problem is not just with reserving seats for such people in institutions but the problem like DDT gets magnified at every subsequent stage. Promotion in government jobs also take into reservation. So a beneficiary gets repeated reservation benefits. Take the case of a scheduled caste student who qualifies Civil service exam and becomes an IAS officer. He is now economically and socially secure but then he gets promoted over his senior upper caste colleagues because he happens to belong to that distinguished race. His son who was born in the comfortable, economically and socially secure confines of an IAS officer’s home and does not lack in any facility whether it is his paying capacity or it is having tdiscrimination and has the best of things at his beck and call, also manages to secure seats in colleges based on his ticket to success, his trump card. And lo behold!!! Like geometric progression the menace continues. Is there any reason to justify this disgusting offence?

Compare this to an upper caste Hindu who because of the existing reservation menace was born into a humble family, for whom admission is an entirely nerve wrecking menace. His father despite having been in a job for ages wasn’t assured a promotion and saw his colleagues promoted over him for holding that wonderful surname, had trouble making both ends meet, had to cut down on his expenses to ensure educational expenditure for his child. The child may not be the brightest of the lot but certainly a lot better than the 40% scheduled caste student born into an IAS family, is denied admission into a institute of his choice and hence had to secure a seat in a private college thus ensuring more expenditure, more mental turmoil and a positively bleak future. His child goes through a similar rigmarole.

Who is to blame for this severe discrimination? Ha! And yet, the politicians especially those belonging to those conniving parties like congress, SP and BSP cry themselves hoarse that these upper castes have been “torturing” the “poor” scheduled castes. 

And yet, the “poor” and “backward” SCs, STs and OBCs who apparently have been suppressed for ages by the “snobbish upper castes”, are given reservations and cumulative benefits. Hence the existing 30% wasn’t enough, they had to compound it with another 27% for OBCs and no provision for exclusion of the creamy layer although our meritorious students brave it out in the sun, going on fasts and hunger strikes.

Interestingly, the British, maligned for being cruel and tyrannical were soft enough to give in to the fasts and hunger strikes organized by a sole man, Mahatma Gandhi, but our very own sons of soil, our reputed leaders who incidentally are Indians themselves have no love for their own countrymen and their children. 

How can someone be so selfish, so avaricious that one goes on crippling the future of a country, which incidentally is his own? Have things become so bad that a country reputed for patriotism does not blink twice in pushing her down into the abysses of darkness.  Caste system, not so prevalent in the past ages is tormenting us every single day. It’s ironic that even after 70 years of independence we haven’t been able to obliterate casteism, instead have only strengthened its roots in the Indian scenario. 
 

Politics consists of nothing else except only incendiary tactics aimed at merely consolidating vote banks without attaching any importance to value based contribution to country.

With each passing year we tend to become more jingoistic about our adjective-defining country but the question stands whether the interior is as attractive as the shining wrapping?

So while Tata goes shopping to acquire a place for itself in the global market, while Sachin smashes every single record in a game devised by the British, while Sania, Jeev and Saina climb higher than their counterparts, while Indra Nooyi takes on the world as the CEO of Pepsi, while infosys climbs higher on NASDAQ year after year, while Indian IT industry threatens world’s biggest players, while economy blooms and GDP crosses our humble expectations, the core of India stagnates, deteriorates and weakens.

Let’s see whether our progress pyramid, weakest at base and strongest at top, overthrows the humble mathematical and physical principle that such a pyramid is cataclysmic..

And yet paradoxically! Indians are adjudged to be the happiest in a survey!

As they say, love her or hate her, you can’t ignore her.