In the spring of 1827 the poet Mirza Ghalib wrote these timeless lines: “Said I one night to the pristine seer/Who knew the secrets of whirling Time/Sir, you will perceive/That goodness and faith/Fidelity and love/ Have all departed from this sorry land/ Father and son are at each other’s throat/Brother fights brother/Despite these ominous signs/ Why has doomsday not come?/Why does not the Last Trumpet sound?/Who holds the reins of the Final Catastrophe?” Ghalib’s poem was composed against the backdrop of the decline of the Mughal empire but these words still ring true in our ears. Freedom came to India on 15 August 1947. Between the hymn and flag presentation came three speeches: Nehru, the star of the day, gave a speech rich in emotion and rhetoric,” At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance”.
There were celebrations and then the beginning of violence, chaos and fratricidal wars, the foretaste of what was yet to come.
Corruption today is increasing rather than decreasing. As far as our political class is concerned their assets keep multiplying and politics becomes a vehicle for self-aggrandisement. The lower judiciary is in a mess and there’s mounting judicial corruption but luckily there are still judges that pass orders that serve the less privileged ones. There are sections within the media who have lost their moral compass though mercifully there are also those who celebrate the media’s important role as a robust and genuine watchdog. Sincere and well-motivated NGOs, who rub the government on the wrong side, are being hounded while the largest NGO, the RSS, is favored with goodies. Rationalists are being murdered in broad daylight. The alacrity with which the police arrested Kanhaiya Kumar with concocted sedition charges is in cruel contrast to the inaction against lumpen lawyers who enjoyed political patronage.
I believe that God who is the master of our destiny will bring back freedom and communal harmony and restore India’s former glory and splendor one day.
Faced with Gauri Lankesh’s cold-blooded murder for her strident opposition to Hindutva forces the civil society rose as one voice to condemn the murder of democracy, climate of hate and intolerance promoted by this current government, aided by some television channels and freelance goondas. It is chilling. This is an attempt to silence all of us who believe in democracy and decency.
Amidst dark clouds I see hope for our country, when all desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of this country, come together to work for it.
But I have one great fear in my heart. One day when we turn to loving, there will be those who find it is better to hate and they are those who are celebrating Gauri’s death.
Cry my beloved country, cry.
(Dr. Francisco Colaço is a senior most consulting physician, pioneer of Echocardiography in Goa, column writer, singer/songwriter/music aficionado, Mando exponent, past president of the state IMA, social activist, popular orator and toastmaster, family man, with deep faith in God.)
