We are a nation fated to live on the brink. Our sages of yore were not far wrong when they defined this period as Kalyug. Brutality of all description stalks this land ranging from the killing of fellow citizens to the relentless assault on the citizenry by an increasingly corrupt authority. India is a far cry from being a civilised society. And, what a complete waste for an energetic and lively new generation to have to live and battle with an ageing, old fashioned, exhausted authority that is bereft of ideas and determined not to initiate change knowing well that change will kill their corrupted edifice, their selfish vested interest and strangle hold on this cursed nation.
The breakdown is such that it compels decent people to play the game chalked out on the board, the game called Corruption ? you scratch my back and I will scratch yours. Only that is encouraged and endorsed. If someone decides to play another board game called Civilised ? honesty, integrity, and other such values ? you will get shot in the back, stalled in your tracks and abused.
This small minority that rules our lives, that lives off us and the nations exchequer, that grows grossly fat and obese sucking on us like an army of parasites are the band that need to be punished severely. Cleanse the authority first and the people will follow because it is easier to be clean than dirty. The citizenry across this land ? the majority ? want to live decent, dignified lives but the authority does not allow or permit it. For example, they force people to bribe them to do their jobs. Clean efficiency and decency would destroy the livelihood of a rapacious bureaucracy and would expose the reality which is horrific.
What good are laws, rules, regulations when those who administer them are so steeped in the mire that they cannot be protectors of truth and order, administrators of law and justice. There is not a single citizen of India who trusts the authority. This is one belief that binds the Indian regardless of caste or creed. And, that same authority is not ashamed of itself or its national reputation. To work, to live, to support a family, to survive ? there is no option but to indulge in irregularities. Come summer and there is no power through the day which means that you cannot work as computers do not work, phones do not work, and the brain curdles. Small wonder that this country can never compete with the world, the most backward in the world.
We are great at pouring out the platitudes but are totally incompetent when we have to deliver the goods. Those who manage to run their enterprises have to steal power or/and pay off the inspectors. It is the same game ? you scratch my back and I will scratch yours. And the most despicable thing is that our leaders are fully aware of this ultimate truth about Bharat. They do nothing to clobber it on its head and turn into pulp. They encourage it to grow like a cancer. They forget that when the boil bursts and puss flows, it will choke them and destroy. The Gods will play their card.
The world has written us off. Even our neighbours do not take us seriously. They see the planet has opened up and are following the international pace while we wallow in isolated self righteousness. We have been tom tomming the fact that India has finally become a great friend of the US, but what kind of one-sided relationship is this one?
Madame Rocca arrived in Delhi to advocate restraint, orchestrated with a brutal terrorist attack. What would have been the US reaction had this attack happened in Texas? Would they have exercised restraint? What is the definition of restraint in the American vocabulary? Have they as a nation ever set the example of restraint? How can we as world citizens forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Cuba, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan to mention a few? The example they have set is one of supreme arrogance whether in their foreign policy or in their consular divisions!
Back to the realities of India. It is time we woke up and protested the treatment being meted out. People are led by example and the illustrated example we have to follow is one steeped in corruption, malfunctioning and ineptitude. The disease has overwhelmed Bharat, and set us back in time. As a start, to initiate a clean-up, all CBI and other inquiries need to be registered against those who administer us. Once all the enforcement agencies are washed and scrubbed clean, set down sensible and simple rules that can be understood and followed. Then clean the polity. It is time the leadership of India cleans up their administration first and then sets the standards for the public, instead of this constant hounding of private citizens who do not fall into their scheme.
To function legitimately in this country is not possible. To function marginally is a huge task. To generate wealth is seen to be wrong. To be successful is an invitation for insidious attacks. Entrepreneurs are treated with contempt. New ideas are discouraged by redundant regulations that the world has discarded but are conserved by us! The authority spends its time putting stokes in all and every wheel. There is no joy whatsoever in doing anything. Spirits are dampened with every move. New ideas have no premium. Small wonder India is a write off.