Monday, August 15, 2011

Freedom we got …….independence we have to earn……


I would not want to repeat the cynical rhetoric about how bad things are, how corrupt the government machinery is and how miserably have our leaders failed us, because I don’t believe  all this  to be the complete Truth.  We have stumbled because citizens have sought freedom from responsibility and leaders have confused self governance with independence. Here, I just want to verbalize a few anomalies and misconceptions in our thoughts and goals that in my opinion, have deviated our rudders from our destination.
1. We are a republic and have chosen democracy to be our mode of governance. The spine of every democracy are representatives that we elect to represent us in governing the nation. Our chief problem is we have not been able to find 600 odd suitable men from the nation of 1200 million people who are committed to make this nation a better place; we have always been short of true leaders who have burning desire to guide the nation on the path of progress. Who should be blamed?  naturally,  we the people who, at the time of elections do not see the merit  and character of candidate but focus on either how useful he can be in getting our jobs done or the cast and religion that he or she belongs to. This approach has reduced the value of citizen to just a ballot paper, who can be used and thrown like a tissue paper. Besides, this approach has created pseudo leaders who truly are mob bosses who are just experts in forming nexus and cartels.
2. Our governmental decisions have been made with an attempt to create equality where as equality is never attainable without compromising individual freedom. Every human is free to aspire, dream and achieve his purpose of life. The attempt should be to create uniformity and to build a level playing field that ensures dispersion of benefits of prosperity to a wider cross section of the society without creating barriers for individual freedom and entrepreneurship.
3. We have somehow developed this habit of looking externally for everything that is wrong. Our education system and upbringing is tailored to pamper us into this misbelief, that it is always someone’s fault. Take corruption, it is burning issue, these days. Does corruption rain from sky? No it grows in and around us; this weed is able to survive because we intentionally or unintentionally feed it.  Authorities become corrupt because we are willing to grease their palms to get our jobs done in quick and Hassel free way. No one is asking you bribe at the gun point. They take because you are willing to pay under the leitmotif that without it your job will not be done. I can with pride tell you from my personal experience that in my whole life I have not  bribed even one  rupee to anyone and even  with my Non VIP  status  no one has ever stopped any of my job.
4. Somehow, looking at the world around us, it seems, the word freedom for an individual has come to mean a permit to do whatever one wants.  People have misused their freedom by sitting on the railway tracks and blocking high ways  for  getting  what they  think , they should have got. We have forgotten that besides being the executor of our aspirations, we are also responsible for common good of a collective unit that we call nation.
 Ironically, famous assertion of Rousseau that “man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains” seems more appropriate, as another Independence Day dawns.  In a civic democratic society an individual is never free because he always carries the crusade of responsibility.

So, on the whole, you and I, my dear, are problem and you and I are solution…..

9 comments:

  1. good to hear that you have not bribe yet :)
    good post :)

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  2. true we gotta learn this independence we got !!

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  3. @manank , thanks for the compliments and I know few more real people who have not bribed....

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  4. @jyoti...Thanks for visiting ,reading and encouragement...

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  5. very deep and profound thoughts..
    It reminds me of a quote...
    "India is suffering more from violence of bad people than silence of good people! ",
    its not that in 1200 million people,we can't find good leaders...but those who deserve are silent,not willing to be put up!

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    1. Silence of good people is indeed damaging. .because those who know and still don't oppose are asserting....we are paying for our own cowardies....

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  6. A very good post, and very apt too!

    For any positive thing to happen, we should have pride – pride in our motherland, respect for our motherland and for each other.

    Only then our positive traits will get an opportunity to assert itself or at least come to the forefront a good number of times. And that collectively will make a positive difference. Our collective lackadaisical attitude is a bane.

    The proverbial ‘Shikhandi’ – be it in the form of caste, language, region, biradari, religion – has brought us to this state. True. But it is us that have let this happen … and we refuse to make amends – together.

    We have hundreds of millions of people that live in this land and are sustained here – for generations, yet have no attachment to it. They would destroy this country – in the name of some caste or religion or race (!), and have no qualms about doing so.

    Great to know you have never greased palms. I too don’t recollect having done it and perhaps there are others too. Yet greed has increased to such great proportions, that even the Western Ghats would be flattened in no time – for its timber. While the ‘evil’ North Indians, Aryans, etc will be squarely blamed for it; it is the great and awesome sons-of-the-soil that is actually doing the job.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Roshmi for encouragement....and what we witnessed last Saturday in Mumbai testifies to point we are trying to make ...petty self interest and shoddy socialism based on politics of promises will take us where only time will tell.... A couplet from katil shiffai who is a famous poet from pakistan comes to my mind...
      ek ek pathar jod ke maine jo deewar banai hai
      jhanku iske peeche to ruswai hi ruswai hai
      bahar sehan mein pedon par kuch jalte bujhte jugnu the
      hairat hai phir ghar ke andar kisne aag lagayi hai .."
      which in english means
      "brick by brick I have built a wall
      but when look behind it I see nothing but bad name
      there were fire flies twinkling at the trees outside
      but I am surprised, who from within has set the house on fire ....

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  7. Lovely couplet. Thanks for sharing.

    What happened in Mumbai is beyond words. Irrational rhetoric coupled with rootless-ness resulting out of mindless brainwashing – has given rise to artificial narratives of victimhood and poisonous thoughts; it is far more destructive than even the fiercest of weapons.

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Your viewpoint will definitely give it wider perspective

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