There is a saying “Rules are meant to be obeyed by fools and for the guidance of wise men”. This is obvious when we are on the road and neither vehicles nor pedestrians follow any traffic rules. Also if you employ common sense or follow the rules when boarding a ferry when both people and vehicles are embarking and disembarking simultaneously, you will be left back at the jetty! One would hope that our Parliamentarians set a good example especially at the start of their tenure when taking an oath to serve our country. And what do we see with the PM quietly watching? Breaking of rules and decorum even whilst taking the oath! A Sadvi will want to state her guru’s name along with hers. Others will shout Jai Sri Ram, Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Van De Mataram. Neither did they do it with reverence, but to taunt others who retaliated with Allahhu Akbar, etc.
Being in the brute majority showing some magnamity and humility would raise their stature like Virat Kohli stopping crowd jeering of a rival player bringing praise world over! The trouble with the saying is who/what decides who are wise?
A 24-year-old Muslim man is mercilessly beaten for hours forcing him to repeatedly shout “Jai Sri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman” then taken to the police station and locked up without any first aid! He succumbed to the injuries inflicted when taken to a Jamshedpur hospital in Jharkhand. Two policemen were suspended and a SIT formed to look into the death but only after the matter went viral in the media shocking the nation!
There have been phenomenal increases in open beatings and lynching ever since extremist ideology seems to have overtaken India and Gaurakshas came on the scene with a Union Minister garlanding culprits booked and thereafter released. This happens again and again even during Modi government 2.0. Another example a BJP MLA is arrested for assaulting a civic official with a cricket bat, is welcomed and garlanded, sweets distributed, gunshots fired when released on bail. Such arrogance and obsession with slogans exemplifies the recent swearing-in ceremony quoted above?
Fear is the key, and since courts are slow, civic authorities protected and not accountable for their acts of negligence and other failures harming citizens with impunity, some citizens encourage such lawlessness! The country has overwhelmingly put its faith in the PM who has responded with promising “Sab Ka Vishwas”. Violence, honour killings, new caste systems, religious discrimination, reservations, mob justice, VIPs uncivilised behaviour taints New India! Suspending police, condemning but covertly backing culprits has gone too far. The Supreme Court had asked for a specific law on lynching ignored by the law makers. Now unless the PM or Home Minister beside rhetoric, stop looking the other way when their minions appease people in their constituents against Constitutional law, ensure swift follow up action, also bring in overdue police and administrative reforms, dangerous undemocratic consequences are inevitable.
There is also a saying that “Life happens when we are at risk”. With nuclear armed nations and strong decisive persons leading in USA, China, Russia, North Korea, most other nations, our PM making statements like our nuclear weapons are not for use as Diwali crackers, added with global warming and pollution, the whole world is critically at risk! Democracies with its checks and balances are becoming redundant. This risk of nuclear war happening will be all life destroying, not to mention looming climate change and fresh water famine!
Has our election any meaning if we elect a particular MLA from a certain party because of its manifesto and principles and that MLA jumps ship to another party with a contrary manifesto and philosophy? Do basic humanity, honesty, decency and integrity have to bow before power, projecting at any cost great GDP, $5 trillion economy forecast and arrogant rulers?
The BJP talent at showbiz was exhibited by a new Finance minister carrying a “bahikhata” replacing the “colonial briefcase”, a new type of futuristic budget speech where citizens are kept guessing about the estimates of revenues and expenditures, many schemes and assumptions and nation to make sacrifices in national interest. An expert committee proposed to study where from and how the funding will be done!
The vision of Gandhi Nehru is sought to be replaced by and large with vision of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. In his Parliamentary speech the PM vehemently attacked the vanquished Congress, in particular the Gandhis castigating Indira for the Emergency and Congress for all of India’s ills. The Congress futilely hit back with the Gujarat riots, Babri Masjid, lynchings, polarisation, if Congress cannot see beyond Gandhis, BJP cannot see beyond Modi who does not dialogue only monologue and Indira did hold subsequent elections, was voted out and apologised for imposing the emergency as something wrong but we rarely hear any apology from this government for anything and so on! Modi did, however, end his speech in a conciliatory tone gesturing to include everyone and he said “tu tu main main after election should be forgotten. For me, what is satisfying is to serve 1.30 crore Indians and work to make a positive difference in their lives”.
Here’s hoping that they serve all, not rule and New India brings in that ‘achhe din” which was promised to all by the Modi government-1.0
(The author is a retired naval officer, freelance writer resident in Porvorim)
