Today’s India – A myth that doesn’t need busting

Shams Kabir

Shams Kabir

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In today’s India, pregnant women, doctors, professors, journalists, students and other such notables otherwise deemed harmless and an essential part of the freethinking process of a nation and a celebration of society and life – they are in jail.

Davinder Singh, caught escorting terrorists is out on bail because a normally trigger happy on FIRs Delhi Police did not file a chargesheet on time.

On the economic front there is not much to reiterate other than the fact that we are an utter failure. We are a run down Maruti 800 while patriots and Bhakts alike think we are a powerhouse F1 racecar driven by a chaiwala whom they perceive as no less than a Lewis Hamilton.

India judiciaryOur judiciary is the joke of the world if you follow foreign law journals. Nearly every week, before the lockdown, you’d find a lambasting of this judgement or the other.

And why would you not – the frequency of laughable judgements by the Supreme Court far outnumber those that could be looked up to. As such you don’t need to go that far. You can take a look at Gogoi the MP and get a fix on where our Supreme Court is headed.

Our Parliament is a mockery. Most laws are passed as ordinances and without much discussion. There is rampant buying of legislators and horsetrading is the name of the game.

The quality of discussion, about issues that matter to the nation, by our legislators, both inside and outside of the house is not worthy of being called that. And how can it be? The qualifications of our entirely politically scienced Lewis Hamilton and that of the other cabinet ministers are fictional.

India MediaOur media cannot be called that. It is a propaganda machine. The lesser said about it the better.

And that very great overwhelming sentiment that is put out – India today has much more respect in the world. Yeah! You can say that again. There is a healthy respect for the extent of a mess of living that a nation can make. For that itself we are respected.

We have the worst HDI amongst neighbour states. Missteps like demonetisation are lessons on what a nation must not do.

Our losing Covid battle will be the same. An example of what not to do. Take any index and we would be at the bottom. That of press freedom. On others like slavery we top.

On the happiness index we rate some 60 points below Pakistan. And that is our general outlook as a nation.

child poor

And the people. How can we leave them out of it. After all we are the most populous nation in the world.

50% of children below the age of 5 are stunted. Only 17% possess literacy enough to be able to make sense of a paragraph.

You would assume these people, in such a sad place in life, would be devoted to self- improvement. But then they are the most illiterate, racist, classist, communal and casteist people in the world. Even god cannot help them.

A democratic state is based on a singular contract between the people and state. That is the very existence of the nation. That contract is embodied in the constitution.

India constitution Today the constitution of India lies compromised. It is not respected by a healthy proportion of the population. RSS, the ideological mentor of the incumbent and biggest political party in India, has serious ideological differences with the mien of the constitution.

Secularism, a value interpreted as part of the basic inalienable structure of the constitution, is something they do not believe in. The interpretation of the constitution is in the hands of the spineless judiciary. So all we have now is a depredation and perversion of the constitution.

And a people that live by no social contract are not a people at all. They are not a society.

Also Read: Desecration ⁠— How we Treat The Dead?

Indians should take time to reflect where we have come as a people and as a nation. It is time we were truthful about ourselves. No problem can be solved if no problem is perceived.

 

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Shams Kabir

Shams Kabir

Shams Kabir is former Head - Planning and Presentation of News Corp

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