Mother India

Corruption

There is a cancer that grips most nations, as well as our mother India. Corruption. Though we drove out the Brits, one of the reasons why we drove them out is because they looted our nation.

Periyaar, being a wise man said that Independence is a dark day. He went on to say, that we are merely replacing white skinned looters with dark ones. 70 years on, that’s the truth.

Right in my state in Tamilnadu, while we struggle to make a living, the deputy CM, Udhayanidhi Stalin, flies to Thailand in a private jet, celebrates diwali with his family, and comes back. Over here he puts a scene that he will destroy sandhana dharma (a draconian Talibanistic Hinduism), while he shamelessly celebrates a religious function being in an atheistic party.

In the center, Jai Shah’s wealth jumps. Nitin Gadkari’s sons company shares soar because he seems to run an ethanol company, and Gadkari passed a law that Indian fuels should have ethanol blend.

Now imagine, what did Udhaya, Jai, and Gadkari do to deserve an opuluent lifestyle? What gave them the right to control the lives of millions of people, live a lifestyle where electricity never flickers in their homes, they drive on roads without potholes, get excellent health, they no need to worry about the tution fees of their kids, while we struggle?

Think

I was happy to see the protests in Bangladesh and Nepal. It put the power of people before the few elite. The people thought them who is really the master. In India, even though the GenZ works more than 10 hours a day, are of slaves of the capitalists, they can’t afford insurance, and family, they are keeping quiet. It’s a mystery for me why they do so, but calm an steady is a blessing. Plus sudden disruption does cost.

The GenZ might not create a physical storm, but don’t let the storm in your mind, that could extinguish the flames of people who loot, and create inequality in our nation, die out. Keep feeding the storm with facts.

Think about the opulence of elite, think why you can’t live like them? Never stop thinking.

Talk

What’s the use og thought if you keep it with yourself? So talk. Though we call ourselves democratic, India is not a democracy. If you talk, as I do in this blog, you will face trouble. If you question, you will face trouble. But then what choice do we have?

We all cannot migrate to Scandinavian countries where corruption is low. This is our land and we must clean it up. Else you must be happy to accept the elite, the lords, you must be happy enough that your child, grandchild, and generations following them will be servant of theirs. If that’s okay, be happy. It’s your choice.

If you are happy to see your mother gripped in forever disease, which cannot be cured, then think who you are?

Act

Protests are good, but they are dangerous, if something really drastic should be done, then yes thats one of the ways to achieve it. I am not against protest. But then imagine the cost, you go out, just because someone looted our nation, at the end of the day your family could be crying over your dead body. Worst the police could pick you up and make you live the life of a cripple. They could make you walk in and out og courts forever. If that’s okay, I salute you. I don’t have the bravery and resources to do it, but if you are a brave, all my heart goes to you.

There is a better way. You goto a polling booth, how many symbols / candidates you see? Just two? Many right? About how many of them you know? Only two? Why? Or worst, you just vote for one among that two, so that you can feel satisfied that the person whom you voted for has won. But at what cost? You have given a poison injection to your mother India.

When there is an election, and you are going to vote, why don’t you do research about say five to ten candidate, not just the top two? Why don’t you tell people around you, what you like about those candidates, what you don’t.

You could form groups, where members of the group can meet the not so known candidates, you can discuss about those candidates on tiktok (ah free speech! banned in non democratic countries!), insta, youtube, facebook or whatever. People will become more aware of them. Votes will spread. This will put pressure on the duopoly, duopoly is a cancer to democracy.

T.N.Seshan once said, ‘today’s election is like this, you have to choose between one who shoots you, or one who strangles you.’ or something like that. But there are so many candidates on the voters list, isn’t the duty of every citizen to know about at-least 5 of them? Then come to a conclusion on whom to vote? Out o f the 5 you researched, maybe, 3 of them, the part they are representing has been involved in corruption, may be 2 of them have no black marks on them. Isn’t it wise to give chance to those who are clean?

Conclusion

I am not sure if elections are rigged, I am not sure even if India is democratic, there seems to be a huge gap between the elite and us, there seems no ladder for us to climb and reach up to them. If we don’t stop them now, think, will we be lucky enough again to get another Gandhi? Bagat Singh? Or Netaji? Think.