Rationalist Soma Rao was educating the audience on the relevance of Article 51A (h) of our Constitution which requires us to develop scientific temper, humanism, spirit of enquiry and reform. Literate educated people with open minds, knowledge and capable of rational discussion and foresight like Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Ambedkar to mention a few obtained for us our freedom and gave us one of the best Constitutions in the world. Compare them to today’s people who seem to be literate but generally uneducated. And he proved it with concrete examples and physical demonstration using volunteers from the audience. Hypocrisy and myths Indians blindly follow, superstitions, religious worships of harmful customs and traditions have made us mental slaves! Milk is non-vegetarian, used to make ghee/oil used in vegetarian cooking. Egg is similarly an animal product and not vegetarian. We execute mission Mars and its scientist’s harbor some superstitious beliefs like most of us do. Pregnant women fear eclipses. We do not worship magicians, but Godmen who make us incredulous with some tricks, some of which he duplicated or exposed on video.
Science is not a know all, but questions and seeks the truth. It says this is the truth at this moment today. The spirit of questioning everything may discover new facets, modify or prove today’s truth wrong. How did we get to the stage where the National President of the Indian Medical Association K.K. Aggarwal reportedly says that the history of psychiatry begins with Lord Krishna and reportedly advises the Vedic way of anger management, which is to store negative thoughts in the throat and after some time think hard with a cool mind. To a stage where the welfare of cattle is more important than that of human beings! With the State policing by beef detection kits, ultra nationalism and wild lynching spree by Gau rakshas our priorities have surely gone haywire.
We tried out a new level of train service with the Tejas Express between Goa and Mumbai. Aircraft like services and modern equipment like Wi Fi, tea and coffee vending machines, on board infotainment facilities and so on. By the time the inaugural run was over, it is reported that the compartments were a mess! Many of the LCD screens were vandalised, expensive headphones stolen, floors littered and toilets/bathrooms a mess! The passengers were middle and upper classes who should have known better? What happened to Tejas Express is not the exception but the norm! Ask the airlines staff how generally most Indian passengers behave and their civic sense, not to mention VIP arrogance! We see people in public places throw empty packets of chips, beer bottles and garbage from expensive cars zooming by, not to mention spitting and other dirty habits. If literate and well to do people behave like this even today, can we call them educated? What can we expect from the poor and deprived who do not have any facilities or wherewithal at their disposal?
Everyone is aware of how many ghastly accidents take place daily and the many advertisements, write-ups and discussions on this subject in the media. Pedestrians have no priority and actually should cross only at zebra crossings or be booked for jaywalking. Speak to the traffic cops manning the traffic lights and they show me a list of defaulting numbers they have noted. They tell me their superiors take up for the influential drivers and so they have decided to do nothing as it only lands them in trouble! There is no fear of the law that will swiftly penalise them and be a deterrent. Chief Minister Parrikar admits police do not invoke fear. Our democratic system catapults a lot of literate but uneducated people into positions of power by similar majority electorate and that is the reason for the prevailing present scenario. We are religiously tampering with our hard earned freedom and humanism under the guise of black money and cow and are fanatically going far away from what is laid down in our Constitution!
Modern media with fake/paid news and unchecked facts together with social media, like for example Facebook have algorithms which try to help by giving the viewer unwanted information based on previous/ present online activity. This can create a bonding by giving access to people who easily exchange and confirm each other’s biases or misinformation! There is also access offered on the side as temptation to explore unrelated sites for curiosity and being led astray. Education should include scientific temper, civic sense, humanism, awareness/ resistance to being manipulated by dogmatism, respect for all life and deference towards old age, handicapped, women and children with no discrimination against any religion or gender thus breeding good citizenship. The India of today with increasing aspirations, culture of “chanakya” and polarized fear is far from compassionate.
Justice holds the scales in its hand and a slight pressure can make the heavier lighter and vice versa. There must be justice where all are equal before the law. It is only then we can all bond together and emerge as a powerful respected nation in world polity. This Independence Day should have government introspecting about “democratic dividend”, where we are heading and course correcting itself. This applies equally to the Opposition and even ourselves. Cow is mother, Bharat Mata is mother? Bharat includes all Indians with equal status and no exceptions. Jai Hind!
