If we go back in history, we might find that the colonial take-overs in India were facilitated by collaborators and defectors from amongst our own countrymen in pursuit of their own vested interests. Sounds familiar? Today’s zamindars and nouveau aristocracy are the favoured corporates pushing their interests through biased policies and oppressive laws of the ruling elite. Could one dub it a form of economic colonialism? The land, our human and democratic rights exist only in name.
It’s been such a long time that we seem to be suffering from the Stockholm syndrome – unable to comprehend or understand common decency and humanity. Tricks, sleaze, criminality, IT cell manipulations, subversion of laws are par for the course and the winning combination of larger-than-life leaders.
As for me, I am slowly making my peace with the fact that things are going to become much worse before they get better. We must each do whatever we can according to our convictions and abilities. But if we are to make any dent, then as a people we need to examine our own values and imperatives. We need to understand that the road to liberation is much like those of our Goa – uneven, treacherous and pitted with potholes. It takes skill, character, integrity, a sense of purpose and discipline to negotiate the way. Even still, having cultivated all these to the best of our ability, we are more often than not victims of someone else’s carelessness, lack of integrity and character or just plain treachery. That’s life!
It’s been so long since I have seen people in high places speak of human values, equality and unity, whose actions resonate with the qualities of humanity and decency, that I just can’t stop following Rahul Gandhi and his progress on his Bharat Jodo Yatra. I just can’t get enough of a leader who shows the courage of his convictions, who communicates instead of pontificates, who has the toughness to withstand continuous ridicule, manufactured lies and defamation, who is facing a deep crisis with literally no objective resources or institutions of justice to have recourse to. Who keeps getting knocked down time and again, but yet keeps finding the strength to get back in the ring. His win would be the win of the people, I am convinced. But I am aware that the realities of life quite often do not match up with our hopes and dreams.
It was the seduction of a good orator and desire for a winner, who would be our short cut to prosperity, that got our nation into such a perilous position. I will now opt for good values and a belief in our democratic ethos. For substance over style. Because the grey in my hair and the many knocks we receive on our journey in life have taught me that there are no shortcuts. And that the leaders we support embody our own beliefs and character.
