As the mercury rises, the power supply and water begin to disappear…they become a mirage even in the Capital of India, in the core area, in circa 2005. The only uninterrupted supply of both these ?commodities? go to those who misrule India, the political establishment and their administrators. If these ?tribes? were put through the same horrors as the citizen, maybe, correctives would be put in place.
As the privileged who preside over and on top of the heap, they merely indulge in lip-service, with no remedial action on the ground. Switch-off the power for five hours at work and three hours at night at all residences, starting with the PM and his ministers, the CM and her ministers, as well as all members of Parliament and bureaucrats. Disallow the use of generators, do this through the month of June and let?s see what happens. Believe you me, things will change and change rapidly.
We should declare ?parasite? as the national symbol because that is what this great and ancient nation has been reduced to through the last few decades. People grab what they can lay their hands on. Traditional, gracious norms and ethics have been diluted and are unrecognisable. Without a complete purge to cleanse the environment we live in, life will get more and more difficult for the average human. With an assaulted natural space, a mutilated man-made environment laced with rampant corruption and extortion, rape and robbery, India is being insulted.
This remains virtually the only country in the world where redundant and archaic rules destroy entrepreneurship. Gov-ernments talk nineteen to the dozen about the need to generate employment, but not one has made entrepreneurship easy by making the norms clean and simple. Bribes continue unabated, particularly when the demand is legitimate! Commerce and making legitimate money is considered wrong by both the political and administrative authority, but creating undeclared wealth is encouraged because there rests the potential of large undeclared bribes. Honest people are hounded in this great nation. We need to legitimise the legitimate!
? In the last several decades, India has been reduced to being a ?parasite? ? Political leaders and the bureaucracy have run amuck in the country |
Even the definition of ?encroachment? differs from area to area. If the government encroaches and breaks all the rules of the game, it is legitimate. If the citizen and taxpayer?those who allow the government to survive and breathe?build a temporary canopy for their car, they are hauled over the coals and mere passing of money legitimises the illegitimate! This is the standard and accepted norm. We all know it well. Why not then legitimise the illegitimate? Why not declare this new ?value system? of corruption as the methodology within which Indians have to operate and function. There is a word for it?anarchy.
Maybe we are anarchic as a kaum, a people. Maybe the norms of those who invaded our soil and ruled us, all manner of other cultures, did not fit our culture, whatever it was. We fell in line and followed the leader, the ruler. Today, we too have fallen in line and are conscientiously following our leaders as they generate and endorse anarchy, in all its manifestations.
Our rulers today function, or malfunction, within the framework of colonial laws that were established to ruthlessly rule and exploit the natives. That form of exploitation has in-creased since Independence. Looked at dispassionately, it is farcical to say the least. And, under this fragmented, torn umbrella we talk of being a power of consequence. Small wonder that the world treats us much like a struggling banana republic, except when it is looking for signatures to endorse something or the other!
Through nearly 60 years, we have corroded our ethics and our ethos. We have allowed our leaders and their minions, the bureaucracy, to run amuck. Our people suffer patiently as they are relentlessly exploited. Will Indians ever revolt? Will they demand dignity? They did it once, under the extraordinary leadership of Gandhiji, but the interlude was brief. They were exploited again and let down in free India.
When some of us were growing up, we were told it was imperative to pay taxes on time. Today, young people have to learn to pay bribes for everything legitimate they need in their lives! This government has banned smoking scenes in the movies! Why don?t they ban corruption and extortion by government servants?