Are we Republic

More than 60 years on, the question uppermost in the minds of all those who have a streak of love for their country is “has the constitution failed us? Or have we failed the constitution? Have we failed the republic or has the republic failed us? “

The answer is simple. Blame not anything else, blame ourselves for we have not risen to the lofty ideals our founding fathers, with their collective wisdom, had incorporated into our constitution. 

Its accumulative failure of all the politicians, the bureaucrats, the traders, the professionals and the people from different walks of life that has led to the mess that we see all around us. It is not that we have not achieved anything, but we could have reached greater heights, had we tapped our human resources and natural wealth in best possible manner. The reason why we floundered and dithered is the thing to think of. It is the quality of human material that corrupts itself at the cost of common good. Let us not blame the institutions and the statutes that reinforced the foundations of our democracy. Who is to be blamed if the state assembly becomes a replica of a street scene in Lucknow? Who is to be blamed if MPs rough up to a minister only to tear off a bill he is going to present. In many states hardcore criminals and history sheeters have become MLAs and ministers. Politics has become sound investment where one can make quick bucks and make the government machinery dance according to the tune of the wily vote catcher. Scams have become mushrooming, but there are few politicians who have ever been convicted. Sheshans, Gills, and Vhittals may come and go but politics has yet to become a respectable profession. Can we ever find Subhash, Patel, Prasad, Shashtri or Roy among the existing genre of politicians???? What a fall, my countrymen!!! : (

Source: Google Images

It is not politics that alone has become muddy pool stagnant enough to be breeding ground of mosquitoes that suck the blood of innocent millions who eternally survive on deferred hopes!

Corruption and black money still rule the roost despite the central vigilance commission and the CBI. Many sharks are still at large while the small fishes are trapped to die a slow agonizing death.

Justice? It eludes the poor who cannot afford the rigmarole of litigation and those who dare to knock at the door are killed by the cruel delay of justice. Our over crowed jails and hundreds upon thousands of under trial languishing behind the bars are symptoms of a sick society.

“Mysterious are the ways of justice in India. That is why it has been said that the law court is not a cathedral but a casino where so much depends on the throw of dice.”

Among all this, is the ‘unempowered’ segment: women, still treated as second class citizens, right from cradle to grave! Female infanticide is still rampant in certain parts of the country. Dowry is still a curse that neither the most stringent law nor the education has been able to banish. Dowry deaths and rape still stalk women right into the new century. The plight of widows is all the more miserable. 

We are passing through the best and the worst times. While some of our achievements as in space research, information technology, and like have earned us worldwide recognition, there are yawning gaps in our socio-economic achievements that make us laughing stock in the eyes of the world.

Change is all that is needed. In the mind set, thinking, working, ruling … in short everything.

~Vitasta Ganjoo