Letters to the Editor on Rediff
Continuing on the Anniyan-Patriotism thread, I see that this writer Ramesh Jagannathan has some valid points. What do you ppl think?
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I have been follwing the news of the recent cloudburst in Mumbai. As one of the saddened Indians living in US, I pray for the Mumbaikars for the speedy recovery of the city to normalcy.
I generally hate giving ideas to the government or for that matter giving advise to someone in distress by sitting in a comfortable location.
So, without any reference to any of the tragedies in India (like Gujarat earthquake, tsunami tragedy, or the recent cloud bursts), I feel it is utmost priority of the governing authority to take care of the people that they govern. I have often seen hearing, 'don't think what country has done for you; think what you have done to the country'. But, it becomes totally nonsensical for the people who cannot even save their life to think about doing anything good to the country.
We are confusing country with the incapable people who sit at the prestigious seat and represent the country.
If the government proves incapable of handling unforeseen situations, how can it think that the poor people can handle such situations?
The government cautions its citizens not to take laws in their own hands in cases of violence and says justice would be taken by the government on the people who meted the crime (say, the people who are involved in burglary, smuggling, crime against women, etc.). When it can give such assurance to its citizens that it would handle such law and order situations (ofcourse, it is just the assurance, and I did not say it is executing on it 100%), why it expects its fellow citizens to get into the bravery act whenever disaster hits our country. Why not it take care of its citizens by itself? Why our Constitution is so imbalanced? Can our government handle only menial situations and cannot handle mamooth disasters like this?
We can be a developed country only when:
# our government appreciates value of each and every loss of life.
# any of these natural disasters pass by us with less-to-nil human loss (I am not going to worry about financial loss as this is anyway indirectly related to other losses.
# we realize the harsh reality - that we are still a developing country.
It is very hard to make our huge set of today's politicians to realize the importance of any of the factors I pointed out above. I feel the learned people in our government should consider revolutionary ideas in bringing our country to the level that others would respect. Some of my random thoughts:
# Instill fear to the people in governance that they are the servant to the people and not the boss to the people.
# They should_not live in lavish bungalows. If you are a servant to the people, you are a middle-class person. You should be living in a menial house, and you should be travelling in a bus, or at most a two-wheeler on your own. Basically, my intention here is have them realize what a common man is going through. That would tell the government what each and every citizen is going through in his/her day-to-day life. If this standard-of-living is not likeable to any person, he is not qualified to be a person who can serve the people.
# With the help of British rule, in spite of different tactics it had adopted to rule the country, let us not forget the amount of infrastructures they have left us with. But still Mahatma, Nehru and the likes fought against them to make us a independent country. But today, I would not say that our country is independent just because all the heads in decision-making are Indians. As long as the decision-making people are not worried about the last citizen in the country, these people don't have any rights to sit at the top and our country needs to get independent from those people still. That is our utmost independence. So, we should start thinking about another Quit India Movement (including me) against these greeds at the top.
Only when India is represented by selfless Indians, the sayings like "don't think what country has done for you..." make sense. Until then, any such deeds by a fellow citizen is like us doing a favor to these greedy politicians.
When I say politician, I never mean to defame all the people at the top. There are ofcourse a few people who are selfless and tries to bring India to the top against all odds. But, these kind of people are very few and often their hands are getting tied because of coalition forces.
We need a Mahatma in this modern era who can persevere through all the hardships. Today's typical Indians' anger/memory is shortlived and the politicians take advantages of these facts. To win this battle, we need a Gandhi, a Nehru, a Netaji, overall - a freedom struggle of modern era against these ruthless, careless politicians of India. Until then, IMO, I feel - British era would have been better than the current Indian political scene..
